Rick on a Hot Shed Roof

TO CUT BACK the top of the hedge that has enveloped the shed, I got the stepladder and worked from the roof. It doesn’t seem long since I re-felted it but already there are cracks in the roofing felt on the south-facing side, probably because of expansion and contraction in summer sun (well, what we’ve had of it this year).

Once again I tried the Tintin style of drawing and once again I realise how skilful Hergé was in setting up situations in his long-running comic strip.

Mighty Oaks, Little Acorns

Barbara tells me that when she was out picking beans this morning the squirrel came through the hedge and down the path towards her, then froze as it got within a few feet of her. It had an acorn in it’s mouth. I had thought that the squirrel - or rather two squirrels, they sometimes pass each other by the shed - had been plundering next door’s bird table but no, they’re after acorns, not peanuts.

This explains why, when I was weeding the new vegetable bed, I found three seedling oaks growing from the remains of acorns. If the squirrels had their way, I could imagine that in 50 years time there would be a disc of oaks radiating from the single old boundary oak in the garden three doors up the slope from us.

Our Resident Rabbit

The rabbit is no longer resident in our garden; the patch of current-sized droppings in the middle of the lawn has gone. I think he might have outgrown the garden and moved on to the meadow. The last time I saw him (or her) he popped out from under the hedge by the compost heap and popped back under when he saw me.