The weather has been as unpredictable as ever. Two weeks ago it was -15 deg C at Holbeach, only about 12 miles away, and this weekend, we were looking at +15 or 16 degrees C - a swing of 30 degrees! It's gone from unseasonally cold to well above average for the month.
The garden, which was covered in freezing snow two weeks ago, is now a picture of blooming spring bulbs, with the Dutch iris and crocus in full bloom last weekend and a surprising number of bees visiting the crocus flowers which were wide open. I was pleased to see that. This summer, I have planned to plant a wider range of nectar-bearing plants to attract bees and other insects, so we seem to have got off to a good start.
The warm weather also co-incided with an announcement that we are now officially in a drought. Soil is immensely dry and we now have less rainfall per head than Morocco (they may be drier, but we have more people).
On Saturday, it was the Thorney Society annual dinner and dance. We sat on a table with Janet and Andrew, Pauline and Chris, Jane and Alan Crossland and Jane and Ian Scott. The Bedford Hall was pretty full when we got there and I had to queue at the bar for what seemed like ages to get a drink. By the time I'd got it, everyone had sat down and left me a space between Pauline and Janet. It was quite a nice meal and a good chance to catch up with janet, who I haven't seen for some time.
We had said we'd go to the Ireby Folk Festival with them, but I'd booked to go to the Isle of man for the start of TT week with Tom. Janet and Andrew have offered to take Margaret up and invited her to stay at their cottage. That will be nice for her. We just need to get Gravel and Holly settled in kennels. Margaret is going to try a new place, which is run by Edward and Vicky Gee's daughter in law. It looks good on the website and we'll try the two dogs in there for a nice and see how they get on.
We didn't stay too late at the dance; Margaret was not in the mood for dancing - she said she had a dead leg, possibly a side-effect of the strong dose of statins that she's taking.
Sunday was a particularly fine day and I was up quite early. I was having a nose around the garden with the dogs when I saw Margaret next door filling up her bird feeders. She asked if I was going for a walk and I said I'd give her a shout when we left after breakfast. Holly and Gravel were a bit puzzled as to what I was doing, but they're always happy to have someone else on their walk, even if my sister slows the pace a bit.
No sign of the muntjac (I've not seen them for a little while now), I wonder if Holly scared them off chasing them across the fields a few weeks back? We did see a couple of Buzzards, quite a few hares (including one that Holly chased across a field and a half - talk about hopeless cause) and a couple of owls. The dogs' noses seemed to be full of smells and Holly, in particular was covering large areas of ground. At the turn-around point, neither dog wanted to turn around.Gravel went on ahead and was worked one stretch of ditch putting up half a dozen pheasants and Holly was way off to the south two fields away. Both eventually came back, but then Holly was away again. We waited for some time, but she showed no sign of coming back and so I put Gravel on the lead and went to get her. We bumpred into her in the long grass by the side of a dyke and she looked very surprised to see us, but came staright away and went on her lead. We'd been out for a couple of hours by this time.
Next morning Gravel was really stiff; he seemed reluctant to get out of his basket - I know just how he feels. Margaret says he's been sneaking into the office to snooze on the sofa any chance he gets.
Sunday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours sawing wood. I'd pruned back the holly, corkscrew hazel and laurel on Saturday, so cleared that and also some old garden chairs. We're getting quite a pile a wood now.
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