Beauty & the beast

After the wonderful rain which has at last fallen here  in one of the driest parts of Britain, this morning I did some gardening .The rain has really perked everything up but with this morning's sunshine George was able to cut the grass and I planted another row of radishes and spring onions.  .   I am mad about clematis and at the moment the early ones are really putting on a good show.  This is The President of course.

                                      

I was working near the honeysuckle tree - an old dead tree which George wanted to chop down some years ago but I persuaded him to leave it and I planted a honeysuckle and a climbing rose - Rambling Rector.  In the evening this smells divine and when the honeysuckle has died, the rose takes over.  This is BEAUTY!

                                            

And this is the BEAST !  a huge grub which I dug up whilst edging my island bed.  Actually, I dug up two - but  I am afraid I put the trowel right through the first one !  Oooops.  Then I unearthed another - it must be the size of a fifty pence piece - I should have put one beside it for comparison.  I bet there is some bright spark out there in the ether who knows what it is - a June Bug, perhaps?   Anyway, I left it writhing on the grass and went to find George so that he could see it and when I cam back it had gone.  I hope Mrs. Blackbird got it.  It was breakfast, lunch and dinner rolled into one, a veritable feast.

                                        

Stitching ? No, not this week apart from the U3A class on Thursday and shortening the sleeves of a white blouse I bought in France last year..  But I have been thinking a lot - I must get cracking as I have to produce some new work for Open Studios in July.  I put four items into the Fowlmere Art Show last weekend but they were not very well placed, in fact I had to really hunt to find two of them.   A lovely show, but overcrowded.
On Tuesday George's Rotary Club (plus wives & partners) met for a meal at The Green Man at Six Mile Bottom (highly recommended) and then went on to have a guided tour of Tattersalls in Newmarket.  Most interesting - it was founded in 1766 and is still a family owned business and, if I heard the figures correctly, they have a turnover of bloodstock sales of over two hundred & seventy million pounds a year !  Howzat! It is possible for members of the public to go into the selling ring and witness the horses being sold - I think that would be quite exciting.  There would be no danger of accidentally bidding for a horse, as all the buyers are corralled into one segment of the ring.  There are also some very elegant rooms which may be hired for weddings or  product launches and everything, but everything was immacculate.  We saw a portrait of the founder which bears a dent in the top corner - evidently where it was hit by a champagne cork when the sale of the  first million pound horse was being celebrated.  A very nice evening, but golly, it was cold.  Come back, summer.