The Pig Yard

July 09 - Looking back over the last month once again we can say we've been very busy but there have been no dramatic changes in our lives. Our weekends have been spent in the garden and Jane's vegetable plot and greenhouse are looking very good, possibly the best ever. Steve has been trying to clean out the pond that has been leaking for over a year but every time he pumped it out it would fill up again - this is going to take a lot of effort to put right but it has to be done.

We planted The Catalpa tree or Indian Bean Tree in the area of the garden we dedicated to grasses and ornamental plants. After 7 years of the tree growing at a steady pace this year it has suddenly flowered. This wasn't expected and it gave a marvellous display.

It will be interesting to see if it flowers again next year. Perhaps it is similar to wisteria which generally takes 7 years before it flowers.
Before Dave returned to Kenya we had a farewell barbecue at Nick and Val's to celebrate Val's birthday. Nick loves to cook alfresco and Dave cannot resist getting involved.

A good time was had by all and the weather stayed warm late into the evening.

Jane has maintained her links with the Whitehall farm dig and managed to find time to give them some support on their open day. Her main interest is in Roman pottery, although she manned the stand selling t-shirts and Friend's memberships on the Open Day which was very well supported. She enjoys the art of 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzles with the shards of pot dug up over the last 10 years.
At the end of the month Steve took a day off and so we decided to go to Sywell Country Park. It was a lovely day and it was great to be out without any pressures. We walked around the reservoir and saw a variety of wildlife.
It also gave us an opportunity to take in the wildlife particularly the butterflies. This photo of a comma was one of many. In the 1980s we used to spend hours at the weekends looking for rare butterflies and trying to get good photographs but we just don't seem to get the time any more.
The small blue butterfly is often overlooked but is really beautiful. It is found all over Northamptonshire and it isn't unusual to find them in our garden in the summer.