Shopping

Much of the day was spent in, or on, the garden. First thing, I grasped the nettle (literally in a couple of cases as we had some nettles growing by the back fence) of the untended grass in the back garden. It was before the solstice that we last cut / strimmed it. An hour of sweating later, it was strimmed back to a reasonable level and there were grass cuttings everywhere. I raked some of them up, but one way or another we actually ran out of space in the brown bin, so most of it is not getting raked up. My vow for the rest of the summer is not to let the grass get out of control again.

Then it was a trip up to Rogart to Corry Croft nursery, where we procured the plants in the blip (and a few more) (but not the dog, obviously, but he came over to check us out as we arrived and kept a firm eye on us throughout our visit apart from when he headed off to check that the Postie was behaving herself). I think it was 7 plants altogether, with an emphasis on tall ones for the upper level in the front.

We came back here and got stuck in clearing up and planting out. Mr A dug up a load of lilies in the side garden which are just not what we want there. That was brutal labour. He also removed a lot of foxgloves from the upper level. But all of this clearing then gave us an option to move a couple of things to the side garden, and thus create space for the new plants in the places we want them. Finally, there was a round of clearing up (the front patio was filthy by then), plus Mr A watered thoroughly. The front, especially, gets very dry, very quickly. One or two of the pots were starting to wilt. After this mid season clear up the garden looks very chipper and the brown bin, thank goodness, is due to be emptied on Tuesday.

After an early supper, we collected N and A and drove up to the Invershin Hotel for a Sutherland Sessions concert as part of the Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail. The warm up act was some even younger musicians enjoying their own feis, one or two of whom we had heard previously as warm up acts at Sutherland Sessions concerts. It is wonderful to hear traditional music, sometimes with modern interpretations, being kept alive and developed by young musicians. We were rendered even happier by the fact that the Invershin Hotel actually has proper beer - Jarl and Northern Light were the favoured pints on tap. A drive back through the gloaming completed a very satisfactory day.