The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good
What a full and eventful week it's been! As the post title suggests, a mixture of stuff generally, but I am happy to say mostly good.

The working week has been really nice because the sun has shone all day, every day. Grass is lovely and green everywhere, shrubs are greening up and in some cases flowering, bedding plants are in full flower, and all jobs are up to date with another contract in the pipeline....if I can get this one, then that will make the elusive number of thirty that I have strived to achieve for the last ten years.

These are photos of The Grove that has featured in a previous post. The grass isn't quite as green as it has been because of a heavy scarifying, but give it a couple of weeks.

The days are long and hard, and so to relax (we have ditched the TV a long time ago, as we can waste too much time staring at it), we read, talk over coffee, go for walks etc. On this evening we decided to drive over to The Haven Hotel again for a coffee and a chat. The picture is of Poole harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world and very beautiful at sunset. We drive around to your left until we reach the chain ferry and hotel.....must confess, substituted the coffee for a large glass of Merlot....mmmmm!

A couple of shows were on the menu for us this week at the Poole Lighthouse Theatre. The first was a fantastic and 'in your face' film of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. At last we were able to see 'Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend' sung on the big screen in full Technicolour...brilliant! The second show was a version of Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck.....again, brilliant, and in such a small theatre very intimate.

Another day saw us taking the day off to take my daughter to hospital for check-ups as she is expected to have our second grandchild this week. Everything proved to be on course and so we spent yet more time over tea at a local bistro/cafe. My grandson Josh, as you can see, got into a mood and was intent on shutting everyone out.....it didn't work by the way!

Daughter was very tired by lunchtime, and Josh had to go to nursery, and so all were dropped at their various places and I returned to A, whereupon, as work had bitten the bullet for the day, we decided to do something with the afternoon.

It was decided that a drive around the harbour to Corfe Castle would be nice on such a day.
There is evidence of civilisation at Corfe going back to 6000BC. The Celts lived here around 1300BC, and the Romans around AD50. After the Romans came the Vikings and Saxons until about AD1090 whereupon the Norman Conquest took over. Before the Normans came, there was a fortification on the site with also a possible Roman military presence. William the Conqueror rebuilt the fortification with stone to ensure it's durability as a royal fortress. In the 13th century King John improved it's defences and also erected a hall, chapel and some domestic buildings. Following that, Henry III had additional walls, towers and gatehouses built.
It's ironic that although it was built to be impregnable, it's in ruins today because of a "turncoat" during the civil war. He gave entry to the castle from inside, allowing Oliver Cromwells army to get in an destroy everything. During this time, Cromwell also fought the local royalists Lord and Lady Bankes, large landowners of the area who were trying to defend the castle. The bankes estate still exists and a pub, The Bankes Arms, at Studland sells some of the best ales around....speaking from experience there!!
That was Corfe Castle, and having had a busy morning and then a splendid walk, it was time to crash and snooze in the villages church garden.......ZZZZZZZZZ

Walking back to the car park I was reminded of the fact that despite how we gardeners work the soil and plant kingdom to our own advantage, nothing amazes me more than nature itself. All around me were tens of thousands of Dandelions....WOW, let's not forget natures simple miracles.

I tried to catch these Soay sheep that live on the slopes of the castle but alas they wouldn't play ball and stand still.

During the week, A took some arty pictures of some of our tulips.

The Bad

The bad things to have happened, well apart from that darn mower clutch lever not only breaking my nose as I mentioned previously, it also smashed my mobile phone this week.

Add to this that at a point that I thought that it would be nice to pop home for a quick cup of tea with A, thieves decided that even though it was outside my house, they felt it a good idea to steal all of my machinery from the van.....nice and expensive that one!! £1500!! OUCH

The Ugly

Broken body parts are never I feel something that should earn a photo on a gardening blog.

My nose, although now having a dent in the top, is still rather noble looking (I like to think!).

Why is it that we have brains, eyesight, a strong sense of perception and awareness of our surroundings, taste, touch and hearing, and yet whenever we don't wear shoes around the house we always misjudge where the doorframe is and catch it with our little toe? I'm not talking about a gentle tap, it never is, but that full force BAM that in this case took the whole nail off and has left me with a bloody stump! Once again, I shall save you all a photo of that!

Bye for now!!