A couple of these lovely flowers are growing in small pots with our lettuces and carrots; probably from next-door’s birdseed.
A1 is reading The Cook by Ajay Chowdhury. A2 is reading Holly by Stephen King. Killer cannibal pensioners in a time of covid. What’s not to like?
It’s raining.
Category: Garden
Second Spring
The warm weather has filled our garden with a second showing of poppies, cornflowers, magnolias, rhododendrons and millions of passion flowers but the cool and rainy days (25.5 mm yesterday) have returned.
A1 is reading Holly by Stephen King. This is SK’s COVID novel, featuring his well-drawn private eye heroine Holly Gibney. Full of ire about Trump, COVID conspiracy theories and medical pseudoscience — “She didn’t die of COVID, she died of stupidity” — it’s an enthralling look at how the US citizenry reacted to the pandemic.
A2 is reading Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan (thx A1).
Hollyhocks
A nice warm sunshiny day today but everyone in the family was slightly ill so no Sunday meal and quiz gathering.
A1 is reading The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod. A2 is reading The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson which was OK, nothing special.
Critter of the Day: Hoverfly
At last, a hoverfly on its own.
We had meat loaf and garden veg for our family dinner and scored a miserable 9 on the GSQ.
Admin2 is reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel; a backstory, a barmaid, a banker, a boat.
Excess of Passion
Just a few of the hundreds of passion flowers that are growing all over our wall.
Admin1 is reading The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, a highly convoluted and (self-acknowledgedly) Dickensian tale of lost inheritance, mysterious (and fake) cartomancy, decades-long lawsuits and a family at war with — and in love with — itself. The complexity and narrative unreliability increases for the first two-thirds of the book, but the hard work pays off handsomely in the final third. A difficult read in places (the included family tree is helpful), but very much worth it. Thanks Admin2!
Pop-up Poppies
Since the replacement of our back garden hedging with a fence, a number of these plants have shot up in the disturbed soil. They appear to be Papaver somniferum, otherwise known as opium poppies.
Today was our second ever sunniest day for the solar panels (13.430kWh), and the recent run of good weather means it’s on the 7-day sequence records.
Admin2 is reading Wilful Behaviour by Donna Leon.
Cornflower
The wings of the bee are pointing to 6:30 on the cornflower clock.
Admin1 is reading The Shadow Murders by Jussi Adler Olsen. Admin2 is reading The Anonymous Venetian by Donna Leon.
Adam and Eve
Yesterday the lovely Dave came round and cleared up a bit of our garden including this invasive, poisonous and highly suggestive Arum maculatum (aka snakeshead, adder’s root, arum, wild arum, arum lily, lords-and-ladies, devils and angels, cows and bulls, cuckoo-pint, soldiers diddies, priest’s pintle, Adam and Eve, bobbins, naked girls, naked boys, starch-root, wake robin, friar’s cowl, sonsie-give-us-your-hand, jack in the pulpit and cheese and toast). Today the lovely Dave and family came for tea of roast beef, air-fried pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing balls, broccoli, carrots and peas with parkin for afters. We scored 11 (rounded up) on the GSQ. Our other visitor today was a stupid pigeon which hopped into our house and started eating the cat food, then hid in a corner and took ages to chase outside again.
First Poppy
A marker of the changing seasons.
Admin1 is rereading Lamentation by CJ Sansom. Admin2 is reading Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan. Malabar House, like Slough House, the Peculiar Crimes Unit and Department Q is a holding pen where misfit investigators are shuffled out of sight; and investigation takes a back seat — there is so much (interesting) Indian history, geography, theology, politics and sociology on show that the plot just fits in the gaps between disquisitions.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
The garden after an April that was cooler and wetter than the last couple of Aprils and had absolutely average sunshine. Bluebells up, tulips down, magnolias still going, poppies in abeyance, foxgloves nonexistent and the cool black tulips hidden behind all the other stuff. Admin2 mowed the lawn but it sprung back up again. It’s now No-mow May so go, go grass!
Admin1 is rereading Dissolution by CJ Sansom. Admin2 is rereading The Extremes by Christopher Priest; tldr: VRSF.
Apple Blossom Time
Our new Weather Records page details the hottest, coldest, wettest, windiest etc days as recorded by the current weather station. Today was a bit wet as can be seen from the raindrops on the flowers but it didn’t hit any highs or lows.
Admin1 is rereading Body Breaker by MW Craven. Admin2 is rereading The Separation by Christopher Priest.
Cherry Blossom Time
But the pigeons are eating the blossoms instead of waiting to eat the cherries.
Admin1 is reading The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. Admin2 is reading Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor.
Flower of the Day: Forget-me-not
OK, so remember it.
Admin2 is reading A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon, which was rubbish.
Flowers of the Day: Magnolias
Welcome springtime. Tonight the clocks go forward.
Admins 1 and 2 have swapped books. Admin1 is now reading Death on Demand and Admin2 is reading Death Ship, both by Jim Kelly.
Raindrops on (Prim)roses
Admin1 has been reading Standing by the Wall by Mick Herron and Admin2 has been reading The Twyford Code by Janice Hallet; the cover art makes it look like a cosy crime caper in the mould of Richard Osman but it is a tricky misdirectional slow reveal in the manner of a Girl Book, though no girls were involved, presented as a screed of transcripted audio files. We are now reading other things so we need another photo.
Meanwhile we had our traditional Sunday dinner with the delightful inclusion of Frankie and scored a sad 9 on the GSQ.
Plum Blossom Time
Suddenly there are buds all over the little plum tree. Let’s hope there are plums this year.
It is also Booktally Day. So far we have read 2597 books in 10 years, 288 in the last year.
We had tuna pasta bake for Sunday tea (thx Admin1) and scored 11 on the GSQ.
Admin1 is reading Nightrise and Admin2 is reading Death’s Door, both by Jim Kelly.
Autumnal colours
All the colours of the autumn leaves, the rainbow and Diwali. Oh and a person of colour for PM.
Admin1 is rereading Soul Music by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Causing a Fence
We have been meaning to get our half-dead overgrown hedge which brings down the tone of the area removed for ages, even though it is a godsend to wildlife, but we just don’t have the time, tools, skills, energy or chops to look after it. So when a man came to our door offering to change it for a fence we were receptive. Asked him to leave his business card and later found a leaflet from a well-regarded company in the letterbox so told him to go ahead, having also been assured he had a chipper and digger. They were a different company with no machinery except a chainsaw. They ended up hauling away seven tons of trees by hand and we ended up paying three times the estimate. So it goes. Still we do have a fence.
Solitary Passion
Of all the hundreds of flowers that have bloomed on our passiflora (which lives in a small pot and has grown all over the patio, tangled up with the honeysuckles, beans and grapes) this year, only one has developed into a fruit.
September was slightly colder, wetter and sunnier than last year.
Admin1 is reading The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Admin2 is reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Both were disappointingly juvenile.
Yet More Sunny Days
Admin2 has been enjoying this weather. Admin1 less so.
Admin1 is reading Invitation to a Dynamite Party by Peter Lovesey, a short book which seemed rather too full of … words.
Admin2 is reading Selling Hitler by Robert Harris but abandoned it halfway through because…Nazis.
Plum
One of the very few fruits on our tree.
Admin1 is rereading Sympathy for the Devil by William Shaw. Admin2 is rereading State of Wonder by Anne Patchett; an exciting adventure in Amazonia.
Lavender’s Blue, Lavender’s Green
We missed last week’s family meal so this week we had 2 quizzes to do. We scored 10 on this week’s and a mere 7 on last week’s, even with generous marking, so our running average is now below 10. That bee is definitely cleverer than us.
Admin1 is reading Dead Rich by GW Shaw and Admin2 is reading The Chelsea Murders by Lionel Davidson.
Passion
Some of the many passion flowers blooming on our wall.
Admin1 is reading The Botanist by MW Craven. Admin2 is reading Dead Rich by GW Shaw; more Russian bad actors, this time on a boat.
Flower of the Day: Foxglove
We had 44.1 mm of rain last night, as much as we might get in a month, but today was all sunshine, fluffy clouds and happy buzzing bees.
Admin2 started reading The Killing Song by Lesley McEvoy but didn’t enjoy it and is now rereading Joe Country by Mick Herron.
Critter of the Day: Speckled Wood
A butterfly sitting on the grass of No Mow May.
Admin1 is rereading Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Admin2 is reading Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North.