...and once again we are waiting to hear whether restrictions are to be lifted further next week or not. In the meantime the French Open is nearly over - which means Wimbledon cannot be far behind, and the garden is rather untidily full of flowers.
The peony in the picture above has been annoying me for some years, as it would bud, and then drop, so I said it could go. It must have heard, in the way these things do, because this year it had four big buds, once of which was in full flower when the scaffolding from our roof replacement came down...and knocked the stem a bit. It might have recovered, but I decided to cut the stem and add it to one of the vases of the latest delivery from Bloom and Wild.
We are both fully vaccinated now, and have had a wonderful night away at the Castleman Hotel in Chettle, Dorset. This had changed hands since we were last able to get there - 2 years ago! - but the ambience and the food were still of exceptionally high standard, and it was such a treat for us not to have to think about preparing or clearing up a meal. The room we were given had a four-poster bed, which was a bit high. In fact anyone shorter than me would have needed a step to get in, and getting out (inevitably) in the middle of the night, was a bit haphazard, so next time we go, I think we'll ask for a different room.
I am still knitting - a top-down rust-red cardigan at the moment, though also trying to finish a conventionally structured black one while the days are bright, as it is impossible to see the stitches properly in winter or artificial light. A few days ago I had to drop down about 25 rows to correct (with a crochet hook) the two purls that should have been knits on the body of the garment!
We also have a new dishwasher! Many years ago on here I recorded that I was unhappy with the first dishwasher we had, and thought the problem was the detergent. 10 years on, we have replaced it as it was just pumping and not draining properly, and find that the new one (which has the added benefit of popping open when it has finished) doesn't smell of detergent when it has completed the cycle. This makes us think that the old one had never drained/rinsed properly, and that we've been exposed to dishwasher detergent in our diet for all that time. It was the first one we had, how were we to know that it wasn't normal to get the detergent smell?
The garden is looking good, if a bit wild. The strawberries are ripening, the blackcurrants are setting...and the forecasters tell us that summer is here!
