Having been away this week, I didn’t want to cheat and post pictures taken at a different time so, in the limited time I had, I thought I would show how the garden plants have blossomed over the last few weeks. Hanging baskets are really nice if you can fill and nurture them properly – thanks to Ann for all her hard work on making this happen!

And the two around the door give a country cottage-style effect. You can also just see the squirrel on the lower right – it grows around a frame so I cannot claim any topiary excellence other than cutting around said frame!

The garden has lots of lovely plants at the moment but one of the most colourful, and my personal favourite is the Crocosmia Venus with its bright orange flowers.

Finally (for it is a short entry this week), those of you who follow the blog regularly may remember that previously I showed the large machine coming onto the farm field to spray the grass to facilitate ploughing. The field was green before I went on holiday – see the difference!

Normal service will be resumed next week.

I used to have two (cooking) apple trees in the garden but one had to come down to make way for a new drain and also because it had decided it might like to invade the conservatory via the roof!

Normally the remaining one only produces a crop every other year, however there are (very early, it has to be said) signs that this year could be an exception and maybe even a bumper crop.

I have had a couple of visits from the electricity board this year proposing to do some tidy up work around the various cables and boxes that pass across my land. One of the more interesting items is the switch on a pole at the far end of the paddock – pulling this down switches off the rest of the village down the hill – I have been tempted haha!! The switch is due to be replaced sometime this year.

Summer’s warmth is finally beginning to break through and for some of us that means an excuse to do even less than normal and just lie around outside, although why Spooner prefers gravel to grass is anyone’s guess.

The beast of a machine below is being used to spray the field next to the house to discourage (yes, you read that correctly) grass from growing prior to the field being ploughed up. The results of this will become clear over the coming weeks.

Going down towards the bottom of the lane, we can see that not all footpaths are regularly used. This one which links our lane to the next one down and then on to another village is rarely visited, except by the occasional dog walker.

The House Martins, without a doubt, are a huge part of the summer experience living in this house for all sorts of reasons. It is impossible to sit or walk in the garden without watching them zip around going back and forth to their nests to feed their young.

One of the unfortunate side effects of having these fascinating birds sharing your space is, err , poo. It’s everywhere and the gazebo fabric roof will need a good dry clean at the end of the summer! Witness the door step by the rear patio door!

It is also all over the flat roof and some finds its way onto the solar panels which need to be hosed down every now and then – not easy from upstairs! This view of the mess on the flat roof is tempered by the object in the middle top of the picture. This poor little one has fallen out the nest before he/she was ready. Very sad!

A rather strange sight appeared on the horizon earlier in the week – has the farmer started drilling for oil or fracking maybe?

It is. of course, a post smasher – well that’s my term anyway. A new gate is being put in at the top of the field and this machine is used to hammer the posts into the ground.

Finally, after the sadness of the little bird above, here is a good news story. This lovely blue dragonfly  had been enjoying the sunshine outside. He managed to fly into the conservatory and then couldn’t find his way out but I managed to carefully capture him in a glass and release him back out into the great outdoors without damaging this fragile creature.

We have reached the halfway point and we’re still going strong!  This week we’ll begin with sewage!

Because there is no mains sewage in the lane (and most of the rest of the village), we have a septic tank in the garden which a nice man comes and empties once a year. Given the size of the lorry and the driveway entrance, it requires some driving skill to get close enough to the main drain entrance.

And here is the nice man with his extendable hose heading for the tank. It takes about 20 minutes to empty it (about 1000 gallons of “sludge”).

On to more pleasant subjects – as anyone who has been following this blog knows by now, I like a good sunset! This time I have a slightly different take as I thought that this particular cloud looked quite spectacular as the sun started its final descent.

I have tried to incorporate all the life in the lane at some point during the year and realise that the pigeons haven’t had much of a look in, apart from my favourite sunset “kissing” picture earlier in the year. They are the most consistent visitors throughout the year and so here is one gentleman surveying the paddock in the sun.

The night light is always intriguing at this time of year and here are a couple of pictures of the sheep next door who have returned prior to the field (apparently) being ploughed up in the autumn. This is about 90 minutes before sunset on a lovely (but sadly rare this year) summer’s evening.

A couple having a little pose for the camera there! And later as the sun was setting, the field provides silhouettes along the hillside.