Circle of life

Nothing stripy today, until the end of the day (I'm coming to that later - today feels like it needs a linear treatment), so instead here's something dead from last year.  And yet, this hydrangea has life amidst death - with new buds bursting forth regardless of my not chopping it down and not even bothering to take it out of the slug and dead-leaf infested saucer it has been rotting in all winter.

A gardening day.  Glorious weather all day.  When in March you can garden in a vest (and still feel a bit hot) you really have to smile.  Some digging (as much as my sore shoulder/chest would allow) lots of sorting and tidying and now the cold frame (unused last year except as a storage device for old pots and, turns out, snails) is cleaned, relined and surrounded by sharp gravel.  Seed sowing will happen whenever I can remember where I hid the seed trays.  (Quietly in brackets I'm just going to note for future reference that the thermometer (which is in the shade) noted 28 degrees.  I wonder if it is broken?)

After a leisurely lunch in the garden, some leisurely planting with TallGall - who needed a change of pace after some essay writing on the Great Gatsby (again) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brody with Mr B.  Inevitably, that segued into a game of garden charades (you charade a plant) with the (to me) known result that TallGirl is a good receiver (ie she guesses well) but she will need to sharpen her act up if she wants to join the girls team...  My Bolthardy Beetroot was particularly well received, though Miscanthus was a struggle.

The sunset was quite something.  No photo though, for a good reason.  I commented to CarbBoy - just in from playing football with his pals) that the sky was a cool colour.  And so we went out and sat on the steps and watched it.  And counted the colours (and lost count) and oohed and ahhed over the changing spectrum.  My favourite was the green stripe behind the trees, his the orange, yellow, red, blue (three types) and purple stripes of the main show.  So it was a stripy day, but I told him we didn't need a photo of it, as we wouldn't forget it.  (Little bit wish I had taken a photo though.... but that would have stolen the moment away from us.)

Later, dinner and a long discussion (with chart) on the history of Christianity.  This was intended to help TallGirl understand The Prime of (etc), though I felt the minutiae of the differences between Calvinism and Lutheranism could have been left for another day.  Regardless, there was some Laurel and Hardy in French to bring some end of day downtime (CarbBoy got over his disappointment at missing Top Gear in French) before bed.