Saturday 6 June 2020

March in June

No, I am not organising a protest march - March the month I mean - today is not a June day it is a March day.   It is blowing a gale, it is raining and it is cold.   I for one will be quite pleased when it is time to draw the curtains after tea (early of course) and settle down to watch 'This Farming Life' at 7pm on BBC Four.   I know I said last week that usually when I cleaned out my wardrobe and changed to my summer tops and trousers - putting my winter clothes away until October - it usually turned cold for a day or two - but this is ridiculous.

My bungalow faces North to South, the sitting room and kitchen have the South-facing windows, so in the intervals between showers when the sun comes out this does warm the place up a bit but my computer is in a North-facing window overlooking the back garden so I don't get any benefit from the sun at all.   But what I can see is that in that bit of garden where there is still nothing planted the Mares Tail weed is coming back just as strong and healthy as last year in spite of three applications of the specialised weed killer.
It suggests you wait until the weed is at least twenty centimetres high before you attack it and this year it will get a good beating with a stick before the killer is administered to see if it does make any difference.   Then, after a month, when the top growth has died back my gardener and I intend to plant it up with shrubs and let it take its chance.   Bits of the weed have already crept under the path to the other bits of garden so I  shall go round there with my scissors and cut the fronds off at ground level.   These things are sent to try us and in these awful days of Covid and the terrible Black Riots - I really shouldn't be bothering my head with such trivialities.

On the bright side the roads are still almost empty up here, the air seems to be clearer, there are only a few aeroplanes going over now and again (we are close to an RAF station), the birds seem to be singing especially loudly this year, there are so many things to be pleased about for now that we really should be concentrating on those things
rather than on things that we can do little or nothing about.   I shall try doing this to dispel the cloud which seems to be hanging over my head a little today.

 

20 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...

June is often a disappointing month weatherwise. I have lit the fire. Not particularly unusual. My mother kept the Rayburn going all year. One year we did harvest in our winter coats and the combine was towed round the fields by a fourtrack, wet as well as cold. But then that was July and August. You never know what to expect for weather in the UK and never put away your winter clothes.

JayCee said...

The TT races always take place in early June and most years we have so much rain and wind many races are often postponed or cancelled. This week we are having typical TT weather.

Derek Faulkner said...

Well if we are going to get a Second Spike of this Corvid-19, before we've even come fully out of this lock down, it'll no doubt be thanks to those idiots packed in to various city centers around the UK today and ignoring all the warnings that they have been given.

Sue said...

It's not exactly flaming June is it?

Terra said...

I am fighting skirmishes with weeds too, they are very determined and do not look nice. Are you having fun deciding what shrubs to plant in their place? Something for the birds? Be warm today, June will warm up for you I hope. Here in California it reached 90 degrees on my patio (very hot) the past couple days, but the house stayed nice inside (78 degrees, no air conditioning, just good insulation and an attic fan). I do love reading your blog and as you can see, read most every post.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I thought you might have been visiting the town of March in Cambridgeshire. Incidentally there's an organised walk known as the March March march, which takes place every year. It goes from March to Cambridge and is totally flat and vary boring - almost as dispiriting as trying to get rid of Mares' Tail I'd imagine.

gmv said...

I am weeding since April and if I don't return to the areas previously weeded they return. So I make some progress and then go back over the other areas. I'm certainly happy we don't have mares tails here.

And I agree with your outlook that there are worse things going on in the world than weeds, and that we should concentrate on the beauty that still is out there.

thelma said...

With a thick pair of gloves I pulled up nettles, they come away so easily it was almost a joy to do it. But the plan to plant shrubs is a good one, I planted a patch with potatoes last year, but did not dig them up and so they have reappeared this year but no weeds.

Heather said...

June seems either to come in with a heatwave or frost, but this year seems more ridiculous than ever. I think we all feel as if we have a cloud hanging over us and can only count what blessings we have and try to think positive. I keep telling myself that nothing lasts for ever, but it does feel like it sometimes. Chin up, everyone!

Virginia said...

My mother only had to put up our enormous, heavy, canvas sun umbrella for the rain to start, it was a sure-fire drought-breaker - it sounds like your wardrobe change-over is likewise! Unfortunately there is much we can do little about in today's sad world, and must be frustrating for Mare's nest to be trying to join that category! Keep well Pat, keep safe and warm.

Gail, northern California said...

I live in s very small town in northern California, USA. Last night should have been the usual graduation ceremony for the senior class at the local high school but the pandemic forced closure of all schools and their social activities. This graduating class lost out on all of the year-end fun things. Turns out some very wise and determined parents got together with school officials and created a ceremony of sorts on the football field. Each student came to the podium for their diploma. After the ceremony, pickup trucks owned by their family or borrowed from the local car dealership had been decorated and were standing by to carry each student on a wonderful parade through town. Lining the sidewalks, so many people came out of their homes to pay tribute, whooping and hollering, waving and giving the thumbs' up...including me! I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I hope that brought a smile for you too, Weave.

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Looking forward to hearing about beating up plants

Cro Magnon said...

Have you tried shouting at the Marestail? I believe it works with Mice. The skies are quiet here too, just the air force boys and an occasional private plane. It would be nice if it stayed that way.

Librarian said...

For many people over here, life seems to have gone back to almost normal. The roads are as busy as ever, and it feels uncomfortably crowded in town, I am going to keep working from home for at least this entire month, unless my clients require personal presence.
Our weather is similar; it has been a wet and chilly weekend so far. The rain was very welcome!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thank you for the advice Cro - if my gardener will wear it I will get him to do that too - anything to get rid of the stuff - trouble is it is quite pretty!

Thanks everyone for contributing

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! said...

It's cold. It's dull. It's been raining and although that's good some of it was too heavy for little plants - and hail was exciting but not exactly welcome. I've got the heating on and soup for lunch. June!

wisps of words said...

What think you, about all our staying home, and social distancing, and places of business closed for so long?

With all the Protests going on, now?

Were people silly, to follow Rules, for months?

Whose fault will the spike, in Wuhan Virus cases, be?





The Weaver of Grass said...

Wisps -questions to which most of us would like to know the answers.

Thanks for calling in.

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