Hot and humid

It's great -- the weather feels just like home. I'm originally from the east coast of America and am used to summers that are like walking around with a hot, wet towel wrapped around you. After 2 of the worst summers I ever remember, it makes a nice change to be hot and sweaty and bitten to pieces by horseflies. Isn't it just divine?

Picked a pound and a half of redcurrants the other evening. The blackcurrants are nearly ready. They are deceivingly dark -- but dare taste one and you are in for a blast of sharp tartness that curls your mouth up. Lovely. The gooseberry bush isn't carry much fruit as I had to move it last year -- just a handful of lovely berries. But I'm still not sure about the gooseberry as it is not something that I am used to growing. Currants and gooseberries just don't do well in Virginia -- they'd just mildew to death. But they are fantastic here in Ireland. Usually get a few aphids on the currants but nothing I can't handle by blasting with a hose.

Ate the first cucumber yesterday -- it was great and really signals to me that summer is here. They'll start coming in fast and furious soon (though not as much so as the courgettes). I got a great recipe for making quick dill pickles that you just keep in your fridge. It's a great way to use up the extra cukes.

I'm debating about my ornamental beds -- or lack, thereof. I've lots of perennials that need to get out of their pots and stretch their legs, but I've nowhere to put them. I think I'm going to have to make some nursery beds to home them for the time being. Plus, I'll be wanting to propogate them, so they really need to get growing well -- this just isn't going to happen if they are stuck in pots. Plus, I'm getting tired of watering them. I've a couple of lovely Astrantias, a nice Geum, a Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll', 3 or 4 Dieramas, and a couple of primroses.

But before I get to do the fun stuff, I have to finish mowing the grass -- this includes cutting my big path in the rough field. It's getting easier every time I do it and it does make the place look almost civilised. I walked through it yesterday evening -- this is a field full of scutch grass and other kinds of field grasses -- and I hate to say it because it is so unmanageable, but it was lovely. The seedheads on the grass are a lovely lavender and they were rustling to and fro in the breeze. Really lovely, especially in the fading light. This is the grass that I regularly curse and cannot seem to get rid of in an organic manner. But yesterday evening, I stopped and appreciated it, for just a moment anyway.