After The Drought

RANDOM PHOTOS from the last week....

Clevedon Pier near Bristol on Saturday...

the little glass house cafe at the end  of the  pier is like stepping back in time to the 1960s with plastic flowers on the tables,  powdery Cupasoup for sale and stale slabs of cherry cake for 50p. But it was good to shelter from the wind for a bit and look out across the Bristol Channel and the wind turbines turning in the sea.

At the end of the pier - more like going back to the 1950s...

At Tyntesfield before the tulips...

 and petticoat peonies.

Supper - stir fried spring cabbage and fennel with jewel chips of turmeric, garlic and galangal ( even hotter than ginger ) and circles of lemon grass...fragrant accompaniment to

  roasted cherry tomatoes tossed with the feathery fennel tops at the end of cooking -  so nothing wasted. 

More Topsham bees....feasting on cow parsley

and white wisteria. I keep signing petitions to save the bees - don't know what else to do - can't believe the unimaginable world we'd 

 have without them. 

Pigeon on our roof  yesterday evening.

Wild cherries in the car park at Killerton House

after our wild garlic goose chase.

Budleigh Salterton pebbles -washed clean....

a brief visit today in the rain and mist shrouding the cliffs.

I'm glad it rained today - meant I didn't have to water the allotment - didn't have to decide which beds  would get a drink and which wouldn't because I'd run out of time/energy..... a  wonderful gift of unasked for help after the drought. It's still raining - even better.

 This morning Robin said he couldn't go for the walk we'd planned as his hips and knees hurt. Maybe we overdid it on our hunt for wild garlic yesterday. So I walked into town and he took the car for a drive.

When I got home - before him  - there was a message on the answer phone from a worried friend. He'd met Robin in the street in Moretonhampstead ( on Dartmoor) he said he seemed OK but did I know where he was.... and that he was there alone..... and he had the car ....and should he do anything?

He hadn't seen Robin for a long time and wasn't up to date with his current situation.

I rang, but his wife said he was so concerned that he'd gone back to look for Robin and there was no mobile reception so she couldn't get in touch with him.

In the end Robin came home completely oblivious - said he'd met someone he knew but didn't recognise him or know his name. I spoke to our friend (who had asked the local policeman to keep an eye out) and re-assured him that Robin could find his way about if he'd been there before or with a Satnav but that he wouldn't know the name of the place he'd been to. We agreed to meet up for cup of tea soon.

 Later, when the lovely man from social services( I keep forgetting to call it Direct Care) comes to visit he's so down to earth and helpful and understanding and says immediately he can get me 28 days respite a year and some one-to-one care for Robin, that I don't know whether to laugh or cry or hug him. 

There probably won't be any funding for it but never mind.... just to hear someone say,

 You definitely need it ....and I can make it happen,

 is like a gift of rain after the drought.