Weed, a Kaleidoscope of Colours and The Munchies

Hell's Horses it's hot.

The air temperature may hang around the mid twenties but the temperature inside my neoprene waders as I thrash away at verdant weed growth with my scythe must be double that. For the supporters of the sous vide cooking method, a slice of sirloin steak in a plastic bag secreted in my shorts should achieve medium rare status in a little over two and a half hours.

It's one of the more challenging weed cuts I can remember. There is plenty of weed but no water. Blanket weed is also having a high old time of it. A filamentous algae, it likes low warm water and phosphates and can swamp weed like ranunculus and water celery. It will also quickly occupy any areas of dead water. Raking down early next week will be an interminable business. Twenty five years ago I would rise at six and have much of the business done by mid morning (there is no data or graph to confirm this only anecdotal evidence) Next week it may take the best part of a day and a half. Graphs and data don't demonstrate a decline in the discharge of the Dever but anecdotal evidence suggests that the principle reason it will take me this much longer to clear weed down next week is that there is less water flowing down this river than there was twenty five years ago.

But like I said, EA and Water company monitoring of groundwater levels in this valley do not reflect this chronic decline.

Which remains a worry.







Over on the Itchen ribbon weed is very much king and last week I went bananas with the scythe in order to keep it in check. Water levels over there are also low.

Back on the Dever the meadows remain unmown as orchids continue to appear. I don't like to fire up the topper until they have finished.

The top fen is a kaleidascope of colours and the place is alive with butterflies, damsel flies and many other critters with the munchies that fizz about the agrimony, meadowsweet, loostrife, willow herb, comfrey and further flora.

Our garden continues to play host to the mother of all hedgehogs. Each evening she crashes her way through the undergrowth like a miniature boar to seek liquid sustenance at our pond. I am told that in prolonged dry spells nursing hedgehogs can sometimes abandon their hoglets to source some of the old eau. A self preservation instinct as a certain amount of water must be taken on board in order to prevent dehydration when producing a ready supply of milk for her brood.
While scraping our current crop of second earlies at the sink the other day, a harvest that is frequently described as "failed" I caught sight of an adult grass snake easing her way around the pond. Regular readers will know that we often entertain grass snakes in our garden and our crap cat will occasionally bring a baby wriggler in through the patio doors of an evening.

Last winter, or was it the one before, memory wise one does seem to blend into the other of late,

where was I,


Oh yes,



Tidying the workshop I disturbed an adult grass snake around 30 inches in length hibernating under the work bench, which made me start a little.

Anyway the reason for all this spiny shrew and reptile talk is that hedgehogs and snakes are quite tolerant of each other. Hedgehogs have some inbuilt immunity to snake venom. (You may want to have a look at that one Pfizer) Ok the snakes in our garden are of the harmless variety but brer hedgehog hasn't read the I spy book of snakes so how is she to know that the Bransbury Nagini is not about to give forth of the old venom.

A splash of water in a garden will provide succour to all manner of beasts not just those of the aquatic variety.

Yes garden ponds are a good thing, the more unkempt the better.

Ours was hewn from solid rock by minors,

not miners

Minors.

Years ago when children were small and Madam worked some weekends in a retail emporia in return for a discount card and entry to a company share scheme (The shares financed the deposit for a house purchase) Time had to be filled while mother was away so I came up with the idea of a couple of small ponds in the garden. Two fibre glass models were bought on the local black market for just over ten pounds and the project was up and running.
It's a small garden but sites were decided upon and spades were put in the ground. Ten inches down we hit the chalk. The fibre glass ponds were just under three feet deep so it was out with the peck, shovel and the metal beach spades from Fowey and at the chalk we went. I the foreman, the two primary school children the workforce chipping away at the bedrock. We were against the clock as candles and canaries were out of the question as it would mean a breaking of the bedtime curfew, but by four in the afternoon we'd chipped enough chalk away for both the ponds to be fitted.

That was twenty years ago and one of the ponds remains valid and teems with life. The other sprung a leak after I fell off a ladder standing on frozen ground while cleaning windows, but that's another story with echoes of Buster Keaton.

Referring back to canaries we've the odd parakeet about at the moment. They pop in now and again and are easily identified as a flying "T" with an irksome screech. Fishing is hard work, even for July. Most fish are soporific during the day feeding occasionally. Concentrating their efforts on a sub surface repast they will occasionally be drawn to a well presented parachute or klinkhammer. They are easily spooked in low clear water and perfect presentation is key.

Well the cricket ended well.

We didn't attend, we've tickets for the Test later in the year, but goodness England have got the hang of the fifty over format.

Fitbits will confirm that Madam and myself trod over twenty thousand steps on the day of the final, most of them pacing around the settee and in and out of the kitchen in order to get both TV and radio coverage.



The 2005 Ashes series has a huge impact on a generation of junior cricketers, It certainly did on the junior cricketer who lived in our house.

Fingers crossed this world cup success has a similar effect. The football season is nearly upon us and I fully expect a Pardew moment when, after the roaring success of the 2012 Olympics, Pardew spouted in a TV interview

"yes, yes the Olympics were a great success with some tremendous sporting behaviour but let's not forget the noble game of football and its great sporting tradition"

Only to be sent to the stands three week into the season for headbutting a player on the touchline.