Sunday 5th June - Paul's Himalayan Musk

.. No not my new designer aftershave, but one of the rambling roses that has 2 weeks of glory at this time of year.

Paul's Himalayan Musk - Don't know who Paul was but he smelt good

In fact there are 19 different Rose varieties in the garden and now is absolutely the best time. Wandering into the garden you get hit with the rose fragrance (and that's even when the cesspit is having a problem). So a little bitter-sweet enjoyment given that the moving out date is firmly fixed as July 4th, and it feels that all of the (emotional) effort - and there's been a lot of it - having gone into the garden over the last decade will be left behind - hey-ho will just have to do it again.

As for the moving plans ...... aaaaarrrghh !!!! - Who says moving house is stressful ?! - bugger. Moving out is being sorted - moving in is not - The solicitors just say helpful things like - 'I don't know how long it will take or when it will be, that's the risk you take when you exchange' - The agents just repeat what they said 2 months ago i.e. 'yeah it'll be no problem you'll be fine' (RJ get your profession sorted !!!!). So we're just having to arrange movers where destination could be 1) house we're moving to 2) storage 3) Somewhere to rent ????

So the last couple of weeks (and the next few) seem destined to be packing/house moving / sorting etc  which invariably takes longer than you think and as you can predict, work suddenly becomes excessively busy and I've been fighting another bug this last week - one of those that doesn't make it impossible to get the train but means you sleep virtually all weekend.

As for the birds around the garden, well they're still busy nesting, brooding, raising young.  Particularly visible in the garden have been Blackbirds ,Song Thrush, Blackcaps, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Robin, a Long-tailed-tit party, Swallows and a pair of Bullfinches.

Other sightings in flight this week included Cuckoo, Turtle Dove (both early one morning) and 2 Red Kites (Sat and Sun) and 4 Black-headed Gulls (gulls are very unusual around here) along with the more usual Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel.

Male Bullfinch outside the Kitchen.

Mrs Bullfinch - just to prove there's a pair .

A stray Poppy - although a field full of this variety is more likely to interest the Taliban or an occupying western military force.

Pineapple Broom - The smell is incredible - exactly like pineapples

... more roses

....even more roses

Damselfly - possibly a common coenagrion rather than a common blue - not my expertise though.