IN PRAISE OF SUMMER EVENINGS..

In an unashamedly fit of self indulgence, ladies and gentlemen I give you this image of a bit of my back garden.    (Please click on it for a better picture.)

Now as well as being something of a horticultural wonderland, it is also a haven of refuge.  I enjoy gardening - it`s very therapeutic and you can see the results of your labours.  Just out of sight there are loads of tomatoes coming along nicely and in the greenhouse I`m developing the art of taking cuttings from things like geraniums.  So there`s always something that needs doing and it keeps me out of mischief.

But the real pleasure is to be there on balmy summer evenings.  Right now it`s high summer here in deepest Kent and now and again we get an evening free of wind, rain and all the other stuff that the elements throw at us in a typical English summer.  I sat there last evening for a short while - and when some nearby mowing had finally stopped - there was just the gentle breeze, the birdsong and the sun meandering its way towards sundown in the west.  

And, of course, it`s away from all the nonsense that`s going on in the world outside - in that respect it mirrors the comforting enclosure of Canterbury`s St. Lawrence cricket ground; once you`re there, anything that`s going on outside really doesn`t matter that much.  So it`s good to have a little time for yourself and to be away from all the political idiocy, the Boris thing, Batley and Spen (which sounds like a firm of estate agents,) Covid and it`s variations on a theme, climate change (what`s happened to Greta, I wonder?) Wimbledon and the most boring game imaginable (bonk-bonk 15-love, bonk-bonk 15-all, the `Come on Andy,` the strawberries and cream and the elitist culture that lurks beneath the purple and green) and a whole lot more raining in from the outside world that seems determined to enrol me into the path of mental health issues.

So the older and more cynical and disillusioned I become, the more I`m content to sit in my Kentish enclave on balmy summer evenings and let the rest of the world get on with it.  Just to add to the self indulgence, for which I hope you will forgive me, here`s another photo of a bit more of my lovesome plot, God wot ......