As the afternoon was very close i.e. uncomfortably warm, I took a break from the strenuous back-breaking work in the bog that had occupied my time for the past two hours. I peered through gaps in the ovate copper and purple coloured leaves of the beech hedge that forms part of the boundary of the vegetable garden. The lady of the manor is doing her favourite job-weeding, hoe in hand, moving between the ridges of potato stalks with their dark-green tear-drop shaped leaves.

My mind drifts back many years to the time we fenced off this area of the haggert to enclose a vegetable garden. I pride myself in my prescience and sense of forward planning in that it was mostly my idea. So does that mean I am talking all the credit in that I was the brains behind this project? Yes! but don’t inform the lady that I told you so. Of course I tell myself it’s a labour of love, but without a doubt, the lady of the manor takes great pride and is truly happy and content in the room outside.

Seriously though, for dinner today we had the first of the early potatoes. Their thin wispy skins keep their shape when cooked with butter and herbs, their taste oh so sweet. As a side dish we also had baby carrots and beetroot. All from our own garden. What’s not to like!

I had intended to write an essay on the subject of trees. Well I did start talking about the beech hedge. Which reminds me, later in the year-August- I need to prune it back and tame it’s exuberance. It’s a beautiful hedge but it grows vigorously and sometimes it’s shade can be overpowering in a vegetable garden. So the lady will be in the garden on her hands and knees and I will be up a tree.