Too long stumm: discuss

Sorry to have been so long silent.  We’ve had one or two little excitements hereabouts lately, but survive to tell the tale - or better still, to keep it to ourselves.  The garden has been feeding us quite nicely with spuds, runner and French beans and the occasional tomato, and nourishing the senses with lots of flowers.  True, the roses are between flushes for the most part, but the Compassion climber has flowered pretty much continuously.  The rudbeckias have done wonderfully, and continue to do so.  We’ve started more dwarf French beans, and the runners look like they’ll feed us again once or twice.

Annie was here for a little stay last week.  The weather conspired against us, but we managed a visit to Standen, where the William Morris theme is enhanced at the moment by a little exhibition.  We also managed to have lunch outdoors one day at the Crown, which was pleasant, but our planned trip to the Farmers’ Market was thwarted by my lack of research: it wasn’t on at the Pantiles last Saturday, but in the shopping mall.  We discovered this only on returning home: given our visceral loathing of enclosed shopping arcades, we settled for what was in the fridge.  And the poor weather gave us the opportunity to sit and read quietly together and enjoy the great pleasure of companionable silence.

As for matters political, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself, for fear of boring you with views of which many are all too familiar.  I shall be less restrained on social media in a year’s time: be warned!