As I write the bells of the cathedral have struck ten. Very handy if you don’t wear a watch. Even if you only get a notification every quarter of the hour. The famous clock in Rouen only shows the hour so even less resolution. Works for me. Why do we need to know it is twenty three minutes past the hour?
I gave up on watches perhaps thirty years ago. I would break them or lose them. There is always a clock somewhere if you really need to know the time. I recall once going to a meeting at Marconi Defence Systems in Stanmore. The meeting was at half past the hour and the pool car I had had a broken clock in it. Hmm. I couldn’t even rely on the news at the top of the hour to tell me the time. I stopped at a garage and bought the cheapest watch they had. It still cost something like fifteen quid.
Made it to the meeting on time but the watch broke in a matter of days. Never bothered again. I’m certainly not going to lash out on a piece of trophy jewellery watch that many of you seem to go for. It would be like pouring money down the drain 🙂
So this morning I am sat on the deck in front of the shed. An avocado on toast with poached egg and some streaky bacon has set me up for the day and I have made a start with tidying up the grape vine. It almost certainly needs pruning but I am inexpert in that art and have therefore for the moment settled for tying the various loose vines up with cable ties.
I’m roughly half way around. In the process I came across a bunch of grapes. Well it is a grape vine, I hear you say. However we thought we hadn’t got any this year. Cold spring or similar. A result. I shall at some stage clean out the grape treader and get the barrel ready.
Really I should find someone who knows what they are doing with these things and get it done properly but that can wait until winter. So now I am enjoying the back garden while THG is out at the Park Run.
In front of the deck the strip of flower meadow has been a success in its first year. The first batch of blossoms are very much turning to seed and there is evidence of new growth coming through. The packet said to expect flowers from July to October so hopefully plenty more to come.