Drought!

The day is finally beginning to brighten up. When I've done this, I'm intending to get out into the garden. I'm hoping to tidy up the front garden & plant a second Basil Bush out. The old one is reviving a bit. I think it was suffering drought rather frost, but I bought some more last week just to make sure we should have plenty for the summer months. We do enjoy Italian food & it doesn't taste the same without a bit of basil, not to mention oregano. The latter is threatening to overwhelm the rest of the herb garden.

Mentioning drought I was amazed to hear that we in the north west are being asked to try to conserve water. It doesn't seem that long ago we had flooding in Cockermouth & Workington. Most of the winter we've not been able to reach the greenhouse & compost bin for our extra lake. I can only assume folk in Manchester must drink an awful lot of water! Or is it the number of baths & car washes?It certainly doesn't say much for the water authority's ability to conserve water. Plenty has come down over the winter months.

I accept by all accounts April & May have been dry. I gather while we were away no rain fell here. I can believe our friends when I saw just how dry the garden was when we got home. Basil Bush & our sweet peas have both virtually dried out & withered. We're very glad we didn't plant the veg out before we went. Al, our gardener, had agreed to give them a good water while we were away, but, as he never arrived, they would have got very thirsty by the time we were back.