Thursday 24 April 2014

It is a beautiful, sunny, warm day with just enough damp in the air to make things grow - and grow they are - almost as you look at them.   Things have shot up in the garden and the daffodils, which usually last quite a long time, are fading quickly this year.

The stone wall opposite is looking good.   The waller is not there this morning and the wall looks very neat, so I am wondering if that is as high as he intends it to go.   If so there is a large pile of stones on our side of the wall, which will really inhibit us mowing the grass verge, so we shall see.  Also I don't think the wall is high enough to discourage sheep - they do seem to be fatally attracted to stone walls they can jump on - unless the farmer intends to put a wire fence on the field side.  If nobody collects the stones then I shall be tempted to make another rockery!
It is very sad to hear that Mark Shand, the conservationist, has died after a fall.    He did such a lot for elephants; folk like him are sadly missed.   He was the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, who is married of course to Prince Charles.   It did strike me this morning, as I read the report in The Times, how apt Prince Charles's  'Carpe Diem' was to the situation.   A sudden death like that in the midst of important conservation work, brings such things close to home.

I may well add more to this later in the day, but now, as I sit here in my red spotted satin pyjamas, I had better go and have a shower and get dressed - somebody might come for eggs!

15 comments:

ArtPropelled said...

Well at least your pyjamas sound pretty. Invariably I'm caught out wearing my tattiest pyjamas covered in sawdust. So often I wake up and look at my latest project and before I know what I'm doing the wood chips are flying and I forget I'm still in jammies.

Dartford Warbler said...

I hope that you don`t get caught out in your PJs and that the dry stone waller completes his job. A shame if the sheep see that half finished wall as a climbing frame instead of a barrier!

A foggy, damp morning here but now the warmth is creeping back and everything is growing and greening-up well.

Willow said...

I think it would make someones day , or at least make a good conversation for later in their day ~ if you answered the door delivering eggs in you satin pajamas !

I will have to read up on the sad news , I wasn't aware.

The Broad said...

Your description of the arrival of Spring make me happy to contemplate returning home on the 1st of May! About being caught in pajamas?.. I got caught last night when I thought I would just nip down the hall and get rid of some rubbish in the trash room. On my way back one of the nurses aids yelled "caught you in your pjs" fortunately most of the residents are hard of hearing and my pajamas are boringly respectable!

angryparsnip said...

I read the sad news this morning too.
Such a loss.
There was a cartoon series on PBS called Jakers ! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, The flock of sheep are a side character and the one sheep who talks (voice by Mel Brooks) is always getting the sheep to do daft things... So I image your neighbors sheep to be just like these !

cheers, parsnip

Gerry Snape said...

oh you do encourage me Pat...de rigeur for bloggers...jammies and post ...then "get dascent"....Belfast saying!!

John Going Gently said...

Go on pat
Let's have a photo of this pjs

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

I think you jammies would be the perfect costume for selling eggs. And I love the stone wall. And your header - such a pretty scene.

Cro Magnon said...

I enlarged the photo of the wall, and I must say it doesn't look very professional. It looks as if he's simply stacked the stones one-above-the-other. In which case it wouldn't surprise me at all if he's left all that stone on your side.

Gwil W said...

The grim reaper certainly moves in mysterious ways. Firstly Prince of Wales's brother-in-law murdered by a revolving door at a top New York hotel at 2:30am, and then an anonymous young man in broad daylight in Italy attacked by a cross erected to celebrate Pope John-Paul II's forthcoming sainthood.

Gwil W said...

Oh, there's a picture somewhere on the internet today of some "drunken elephants". A google search might show them. Maybe they are drowning their sorrows?

Heather said...

I would love to call for some eggs and find you in your jim-jams - they sound far more glamorous than mine!
Cold and wet here today but yesterday was glorious. Hope those stones are cleared from the field and used to add more height to the wall.
Very sad about Mark Shand and a dreadful shock for his family and friends.

MorningAJ said...

What a great wall. I miss watching the builders when I was a youngster. There were dry stone walls all around our village.

thelma said...

Well it is a sad loss to both his family and the initiative he started for the Indian elephants but hopefully there are others who carry on the campaign.....

The Weaver of Grass said...

Wish you could come and have a good look at the wall, Cro. I have just been out chatting to him as he repairs another piece of wall. Close up it is a thing of beauty. Every stone laid just so; all sharp corners knocked off so that the stones fit snugly; every small space filled with small stones and every layer alternated. I spoke to him at length about it and he says it will stand for years. He is 73 years old and only works at it three days a week now, but has walled all his working life.

And no photograph John - I am not a pretty sight, satin spots or not.