Magical

Greetings friends, I hope this finds you well. It's like summer here, long, warm, sunny days, light evenings, roses blooming, so many roses, and garden picnics everywhere. VE Day was lovely I thought, despite everything. There's a lot more interaction between neighbours these days which is nice.

Lots more gardening time for many people too, I've been loving dog walks around the place, admiring front gardens. The local garden shop has managed to stay open and it's doing good trade in everything.

The blue tits in the nest box have babies and are busy, busy, busy whipping about the place finding little juicies for them to eat. And the other evening the middle boy and I stood in his room at the top of the house watching and listening to a blackbird on a neighbouring aerial, singing his heart out.  After a while, another blackbird flew to an aerial over the road and joined in. The sun was setting and it was absolutely magical. Although of course they were probably yelling things like, 'Put one feather over my side of the street and I WILL BREAK YOU' and 'Come on then if you think you're hard enough.'

Did anyone read that piece on the BBC News website about how well honey production is going in France? I just tried to find it again to link to it, but I couldn't locate it. But apparently bees are producing masses more honey during lockdown than they usually do. The beekeepers think it's because spraying of 'weeds' with chemicals to kill them has stopped, so there are more flowers. Also there's less pollution than normal. It was lovely to hear, and I hope that somehow chemical use can be reduced in the future. At least now they have evidence of one of the benefits.

Has anyone tried a home haircut yet? The urchins' barnets are heading out of control. I have dog-grooming scissors and I've volunteered my services. No takers yet, but it's only a matter of time. I reckon I'll crack the littlest boy first. He has fine, floppy hair that hangs down and it's pretty much in his eyes now. The other two have curly wiry hair that grows straight outwards, so it's not quite as annoying and providing they don't look in any mirrors they're fine.

And then there's the dog himself. Persuading him to sit still will be the trick. There are only so many sausages you can hand out at a time. I've seen the occasional dog who has had half a haircut for just this reason.

Everyone is still into magic around here. Coins have been introduced alongside cards. The middle boy turned a big clump of dust into a £2 coin yesterday which was brilliant. He says he is keeping all the dust in his room and will gradually magically transform it into money. I'll let you know how it goes.

Look after yourselves my lovelies, I hope it's a good week for you. CJ xx