A bit of gardening. Seasonal things seen in the sky. Some environmental concerns.

Yesterday afternoon, I reminded Phil of his plan to cut the grass. This plan has been around for a few days. The ground had dried up nicely, so the grass was no longer at all wet and would not clog up the lawn mower. Earlier in the week, whenever he had got around to thinking of getting the mower out he had looked outside and seen the next-door neighbours sitting out in garden chairs. 

Ours is a shared garden. Well, on the deeds to the two houses there is a clear demarcation line, indicating which bit of garden belongs to which house. If we or they decided to be territorial we could put up a fence but this would be very much a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.  We all benefit from having a bigger space rather than a long narrow strip in their case and a long triangle in ours - we also have a patch of garden at the side of the house to “compensate” for the smaller area at the back. Our grandchildren and their dogs run around the whole open area. Altogether a much better arrangement!

It does, however, occasionally cause problems if Phil decides to cut the grass, which is really just grass and does not merit the name of lawn. It’s a bit anti-social to disturb your neighbours’ relaxation. It is usually Phil who cuts the grass. Yes, I too could push the mower around but I tend to be the tidier-upper. And the neighbours will occasionally say that we should “let” them do it but they never actively volunteer. So Phil does it. That’s just how it is.

Anyway, yesterday I reminded Phil of his plan. It had been a fine, sunny and warm day but in the late afternoon the cloud was moving in and I remembered the weathermen saying that rain was likely today, Sunday. So the grass needed cutting before it got too wet and would need to dry out again. 

And, lo and behold, at some point in the early evening when I was cajoled into going and admiring his handiwork, the first rain was beginning to fall. It got heavier later but today has so far been dry but dull. We needed the rain. My tubs of plants were getting dry. Indeed, one pot containing something in the daisy family was beginning to droop to such an extent that I had had to get my watering can out. The plants do seem to be reviving. 

On Friday afternoon we walked round the village in the sunshine and saw the first of this year’s swallows. According to this article swallows and other migratory birds are running late this year. Bad weather in the south of Spain delayed them and although we have had dry weather in recent weeks they have been slowed down by strong winds. The people in the know are concerned that they will not have time to produce more than one brood of chicks. Numbers will go down. Climate change is taking its toll. 

Also on Friday, returning from our stroll, we saw the first of this year’s hang-gliders. He, or possibly she, can just  be made out in my photos. My granddaughter’s phone has a much more powerful zoom on its camera and would have produced a closer picture. So it goes. I like the idea of hang-gliding, floating around up there, looking down at the land below and recognising landmarks. However, the reality of it scares the wits out of me and I really have no desire to be up there in such a flimsy means of transport and one that seems very uncontrollable and unpredictable. 

Getting back to climate change problems, this article tells of the declining moth population, surprisingly more so in British woods that in surrounding farmlands or in cities. Now, I can’t remember when we last had a moth in our house. It once was a fairly frequent occurrence, much to my consternation as I really cannot abide things flapping around indoors. Our eldest granddaughter still gets them in her house, in nearby Mossley, which is unfortunate as she is even worse than I am with indoor flappers. I learnt not to panic when my children were small but she still goes into an overdrive hissy fit and needs her housemate to remove the offending insect. (Spiders cause even more havoc!)

As regards the moths, it may be that she has a particular kind of tree growing near her house. When I was small and we we moved into a new house, I remember my father planting poplar trees at the bottom of the garden. A nice poplar hedge … which was a nice habitat for poplar hawk moths, large, ugly beasts whose caterpillars look curled up poplar leaves. They used to visit our house! Maybe that is one of the reasons I dislike moths indoors!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!