Piddinghoe

WONDROUS GROWTH: What a difference a little rain makes. Suddenly, sad looking plants have grown tall and bushy in no time at all. Unfortunately, that also means that nettles and other invasive species have also grown. Six feet tall in the case of some of my nettles. I am advised that one can do many things with nettles such as making nettle beer, as a vegetable (cooking removes the sting), and even for making ropes. I have not yet been brave enough to do any of this, but I will. Bluebells are everywhere, but alas, where many gardens are concerned, they are the Spanish variety and not our native ones. How to tell the difference? The native are more delicate and the blossoms hang demurely down, whilst their bully cousin is sturdier and holds its head upwards.

PIG NEWS: Due to having to build a new wall around the pig houses, the lovelorn pig had to be deprived of its liaison with her boar friend and shut up in the sty for a couple of days. This was to prevent the wall being demolished by eager pig noses before it was set. Unset concrete blocks are no match for an assault by a pig’s snout. Good news for the pigs, only one day to go to liberation.

TERRORISTS: As with the latest attack in Manchester, the aim of the perpetrators is to disrupt normal life as much as possible. Once, one could go anywhere in the UK without having to wonder whether one’s life was in danger. This, alas, is no longer the case. To attack young people and children, on what was meant to be a joyous occasion, is despicable and unbelievable. All our thoughts go out to the victims, their families and friends.

SMILE FOR THE DAY: Why are some chickens being excluded from polite henhouses? Because they have been using fowl language.

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