The garden is looking very lush with a lot of greenery, some flowers and it must be said, a lot of weeds. I took this photo two days ago and this morning I got around to clearing the bottom of the garden of assorted weeds. The wild flowers are still to make an appearance but hopefully they won't remain green for too long and we may see some colour. Plenty of bees but despite the plethora of butterflies last month we have seen only an occasional solitary Tortoiseshell or White fluttering around. We saw one bat t'other night which excited one of our cats. Speaking of which, Fluffy calls every day for his meals and a fuss. Whilst the weather is good and the backdoor open we have given up trying to stop him taking food. 

The tomato plant is thriving and we have radishes. I gave some to the neighbours and I have eaten some and very delicious they were too. The Borage is huge and finally some small blue flowers have emerged. The Willow I cut back to the ground is growing despite my efforts to remove it. I'll try again in the autumn. One fly in the ointment is the amount of rubbish dumped in the back alley. One neighbour put a new combination lock on the gate but gobshites have removed that. We suspect the drug dealers several doors down for that and the rubbish dumping from landlords clearing their properties when tenants move out. Dumping has become a big problem in this town and we regularly see piles of crap dumped near the local Sainsbugs. Fortnightly bin collections, charging builders for disposal of spoil and sheer laziness and stupidity account for the increase. Increasing crime, empty shops and rubbish piles add to the impression of the town centre becoming a Third World environment. Strange to think that we are a supposedly rich country but when you strip away the PR shiny nonsense it looks increasingly shabby and ill-used. Maybe we do need a revolution and removal of various 'leaders' but 1789 and 1917 did not lead to the utopia that some people get very excited about. The Arab springs showed further evidence of the cut-de-sac such movements can lead to. Ah well...back to the garden and common sense.

TTFN.