At last we have enjoyed two or three days of high pressure with sunny calm daylight hours and frosty nights. I almost feel slightly sunburnt! There is much more incentive to get on and do some jobs when the weather is like this. The paths in the sales area have now had a new sprinkle of grit and Pathclear has been sprayed on. it was getting very weedy and there is also some liverwort stuff which makes the paths very slippery during wet weather. I was able to do some Round-up spraying too yesterday, the first day with little or no wind for a very long time. No, we are not organic, there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep a 4 acre site weed-free.

One of the most unpleasant jobs is to be ruthless with plants which are way past their best. There are a few which are worth potting on and giving some tender loving care to but many end up in the compost heap. Speaking of which I have been able to barrow some compost into the garden in the last few days. And most of the ornamental grasses have been cut down over the last two or three weeks.

I had never been very happy with our old sign at the entrance so changing our opening times (see last blog) kicked us into getting a new one. After a number of alterations we finally got it right and Philip collected it and put it up. It is so much better than the old one, it looks much smarter we think.

The one down side was the second sighting of the muntjac deer. I might have to try the carbolic soap deterrent which a friend told me about but quite how much to use on such a large area I have no idea. Watch this space!