Stopped for lunch and there was Nancy well almost

The other day I was between gardens and thinking lunch so I took a drive by the river in Cambridge till I found somewhere I could stop, and there before me was the start of a story I tell. 

What story, well Nancy the Waterman of course.

dont hurt the trees

.

I was in this churchyard close to Cambridge and started noticing little white looking labels, toddled to have a look as you do and see this, each label is on a tree with a tree preservation order on it and how have they fitted the labels. With staples

when worlds collide

Worked in a garden in east Cambridge yesterday , cut the lawns as usual and there I find these two Bee Orchids, its not the first time I have seen them in this lawn but it is the first time I have shared them.

Took me back to my days at Milton Country Park which has come up a few times this week one way or another. We are our past and present, are we our future as well, now theres a thought........

pastoral views within reach

If I havnt mentioned it before I have moved a few miles further east of Cambridge to Burwell a lovely large fenland village that nestles on the chalky clay on one side and right onto the peat fen on the other well almost.

Been looking around as you do and came across this lovely pastoral scene just a few miles away in the village of Reach, its a national trust piece of land that used to be used for turf growing, or thats what the notice board says, have to say I prefer it now.

just got back from a herculean story

Cant remember the next line from the song I am thinking of, must be getting forgetful, twas by ELO though.

Greek Myths at a school in Cambridge this morning, me and two others. My input concerned some of the labours of Hercules, this to 8 and 9 year olds.

One of the best moments was when I was telling the 5th labour, the Stables of Augeias, and I asked the children what they thought the stables would be full of.

Up in the air goes a girls arm so I asked her what she thought the stables would be full of, "Dung" she says. Well it was Cambridge I have to say I was wondering what I would hear.

there has to be a first time for everything

Well there does of course in this case my first tax return as a self employed personage.

Blimey I registered as self employed in late March and they want me to do a return for the little bit until the 5 th April 2010 for my 2009/10 return.

Never had to do one but the lovely folk at the Cambridge office helped me through it, so a wieght of the mind indeed. Lord knows how I will get on with 2010/11 but it might be easier I suppose if its all as self employed rather than this where it was mostly employed and a little bit of self employed.

So that was half of today what about the rest, gardening of course the bread and butter of my earnings. Two today and its good to see things changing expecially after that bit of rain, he does go on about rain dont he, Yes, by the way did you notice the bit today on the news about wheat prices going up a lot last week and of course bread will follow, why, crop failures and poor yields because of the dry weather. See you can see the world in your garden. Lots of wildlife too, loads of bumblebees today on my lavender still; Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pratorum, Bombus lucorum, Bombus pasqurum and good old Apis mellifera of course the honey bee.

Hows little brother doing, well really, moving on nicely really, another picture below.
















Then there next doors cat, my cat Herbert and this one dont get on or do they, cannot work it out, they posture they squabble and that one next door tries to nip in and scoff Herberts food, he got a surprise tonight. Herbert was in there when he popped his head in, he left quickly shall we say.

Its all go well almost

Blimey I think we had at least what ten minutes rain this evening, got to write that down.

Been an odd day really I had to open my wallet and buy some more kit for work should be able to do a few more jobs now in peoples gardens.

Then there is little brother, Robin the wanderer, he is now in Scotland ready to start his 1000 mile cycle ride tomorrow morning. Been hard to get the local press to pick this up but there are a couple of Marie Curie ladies in Scotland who have been pushing hard, got him some warm showers some nights and evening meals. We will see how it goes. Robin had his picture taken today, thats it at the top, with a local patron of Marie Curie in Scotland Dame Barbara Kelly. So there is no backing out now for him especially as the sponsorship money is slowly going up. Have you sponsored him yet????

Such is life

So I dont know about anyone else but we could use some rain desperately, I am not on about short heavy storms, nice long gentle rain to soak in to the ground for hours on end.

If we dont get some soom I think the garden centres will be doing a good trade in the Autumn as folk try and replant whats died and that is a lot from what I have seen while working in folks gardens for a living.

Went to a day centre for the elderly earlier this week speaking to them about their recollections of Cambridge, very interesting information gathered and some interesting themes touched on. Cambridge Storytellers are aiming to put a performance together about what we get that we can use later in the year.

Been recording wildlife species again as I go round doing my gardens, good selection of bumblebees still going strong and then its interesting to see what common birds turn up, the reason being a lot of people dont bother to record those and record centres need information about the common birds as well as the more rare ones. Same goes for butterflies and amphibians of course.