A Quiet Sunday.

This morning I was supposed to go and see Westbury’s best kept secret which is The Chinese Garden at Beggars Knoll. It is a private garden on the way to the White Horse, but they open it to the public about one day a year in aid of charity. However, when I got up this morning it was raining and windy, so I sent them an email and said I wouldn’t be going. That was disappointing, but hopefully there will be other opportunities to visit it. Instead, I watched the overnight events at the Olympics and the Closing Ceremony. I was really pleased to see that Kellie Harrington of Ireland won a gold medal in the women’s boxing. I had never heard of Kellie before the Olympics but followed her progress all the way to the final. The whole of Ireland got up early to cheer Kellie on. There will be some mighty celebrations when she gets home to Dublin. I think that was one of my highlights from Tokyo. It was also great to see Sky Brown aged 13 get a medal in the skateboarding. When I heard that they had added sports like skateboarding, surfing, BMX , and climbing to the Olympics I was a bit dubious, but I can see the thinking now. It is to encourage youngsters to take up sport. This is what they are interested in. I bet sales of skateboards have increased tenfold in the last week after Sky’s success.

Caterpillar on nasturtium.

This afternoon the weather improved, the sun came out and I had a potter about in the garden. I found another very lethargic bumble bee which was a bit upsetting. I gave it some sugar water to try and revive it. I had to go indoors to answer the phone and when I came out again there was no sign of it. I googled ‘Lifespan of a bumble bee’ and it said that they only live for an average of 28 days. I always worry that there is some disease of bees going around. I found lots of caterpillars eating the leaves on my nasturtiums. A few years ago, I would have been annoyed about that, but now I am pleased because I read a lot about butterflies being in decline. 

Happy Single Party?

I was also pleased to see my dahlias are beginning to flower. I saw a yellow one which I looked up and it might be a variety called Happy Single Party. After that I sat in the kitchen listening to a CD that I found in a charity shop last week. It is called The Wide World Over by The Chieftains. What an enjoyable album it is. The Chieftains are joined by lots of guests such as Sinead O’Connor, Sting, Ricky Scaggs, Joni Mitchell, Diane Krall, Art Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello. My favourite tracks are Shenandoah with Van Morrison, Guadalupe with Linda Ronstadt & Los Lobos, and Redemption Songs with Ziggy Marley. I don’t know what I will do this evening, but I have two cans of cider in the fridge which I’m going to drink in a minute. See you later.