Cooling

The filling is cooling. I'm in the midst of making a chicken & mushroom pie for this evening. Once it's cold I'll encase it in some pastry, ready to be put in the oven this evening. The Fox is going to make some mash to accompany it.

Outside I observe the pinkish blossom on the apple tree is starting to come out. I'm quite surprised by just how much more pink the flowers are compared to those on the cherry & pear trees. I suppose it is just that the underside of the flower tends to be pink but once the flower is open you only really see the white inside. So far it looks as though 2011 is going to be a bumper pear year. The blossom is setting well in this spell of wind-free, rain-free, weather.

I keep thinking I'm going to have time to get out in the garden but so far this spring has been far too tiring for me to have the spare energy to tackle that. I see mare's tail is once more spreading under the fence from our neighbours' garden. I've yet to tidy the dead heads from last year's astilbe blooming. There's already plenty of new green growth. I usually leave the dead stalks partially because even their brown stalks give a little textural interest to the winter garden & they also seem to be regarded as valuable nesting material for our birds. However, I do usually get them tidied up before the new year's growth has got established. Not so this year. I'm telling myself it won't harm. After all, in the wild, plants wouldn't have someone to tidy around them in this way so they must manage without such tending.

 I did get out one day & tidy the herb garden a bit. Fortunately I did that much before the Fox's stroke. Already it has burgeoned out so much I think I will have to have another thinning exercise.


It was wonderful to get up today feeling a certain coolness. The central heating hadn't come on at full blast. Maybe we've finally got it under control!