Pootering about between showers

This morning had a slightly unpleasant early start as I needed to get over to Canterbury to collect the eldest before 10am.  He has just completed his first year at Uni and today was throwing out of halls day.  Fortunately, it is about a one and an half hour trip each way, so we were back just before lunch.

The family had decamped to Our Youngest's school fair, so I pottered about the garden taking stock and putting off jobs I really should be getting on with.  There are quite a few of these, and when I noticed that The Wife had dutifully trimmed back the wisteria which was overrunning the den, I thought I better set to on one of them.

Our northen border currently has a raspberry and a gooseberry bush ensconced.  The plan is to add some fruit trees, probably two apple trees.  Before this can be progressed the rest of the northern border needs clearing out.  Unfortunately, that includes removing a palm tree.  I had already had removed a substantial portion of this tree a few weeks ago.  I take no pleasure in cutting a tree down, but this one was definitely on the way out, and to be honest I think I put it out of its misery.  However, it still need to be rooted out, and based on my previous experience of digging big stuff up I have been happily ignoring this job.

As any parent knows, the answer to the question "Are we there yet?" will depend on how many times you have been asked in the last five minutes and just how far you have actually travelled.  You know it is going to be a long journey when the refrain starts just as you pull out of the drive.  In like vein "Am I there yet" applies to rooting out a tree.  As I headed towards China I began to have serious doubts over my ability to get the end of this particular journey.  Here it is after about an hours digging and general grubbing about:

I could have done with a couple of yoked bullocks at this point to hoik the fucker out, but no such luck.  Anyway, suffice to say I perservered, mainly because I am a stubborn git.  Eventually I was able to get sufficiently underneath the roots to get the chainsaw on the stump, and things moved along relatively swiftly after that.  A patch of earth may be boring to look at, but this looks good to me, if only because of the singular absence of a tree stump:

Last week, a drought was announced for some parts of the East of England.  Naturally since then it has poured down.  Last night it rained so hard that rain was bouncing upwards from the decking to reach my knees.   However, the garden seems to be lapping it up, and the broad beans in particular are maturing nicely:

While I was waging war with the stump, Big Al came out to see what all the swearing was about.  As I have mentioned previously, he is very proud of his peas and he set about weeding with a gusto around them.  They are still small, but I think (given the love and attention they are getting) we can expect great things.  Here is one of Big Al's peas:

The Wife and family rolled home from their fair extravaganza, replete with cake and fizz, and joined me in the garden.  The Wife immediately set about tidying up the tomatoes, which are starting to get a bit leggy.  Lots of flower buds are starting to emerge and despite the disappointing weather we have had in June, I think we can expect a good crop:

It has been a day of sunshine and showers, but we even though we have been pootering about, we have made progress, it has been a good day.

By the way, I know that it is not obvious how you comment - you click on the bit that says  "comments 0" below the post and that will open a new dialogue box for you to put your comments in.  I would be grateful for any feedback on the blog.