A lovely wet morning.

It's good to see some rain at last.

Hissing and pattering through the trees.

Frost on the daffodils.

 

Frost on the daffodils,

but nothing on the A2.

Amateur Epidemiologists

During this terrible COVID 19 crisis it seems that there are hundreds of people who are convinced that they could do a better job than the current experts of keeping as much of the population of the United Kingdom alive as possible.

Suddenly we are swamped with amateur epidemiologists. 

They are spreading like a virus.

Slow start morning

 This morning is really reluctant to start....

 
 

....as suggested by the insipid 

effort of the sun.

Sunrise on the colza.

 Was there ever a more visually monotonous crop?

It is nature's Pantone®

Morning Gold

Sunrise through a beech hedge.

Bells on Sunday

Well. bluebells, actually. They are starting to show through.

I said I would stand 

you a drink.

Baaaa.

My very own solar Banksy

 The Sun is getting up earlier and earlier. Does it never have a lie-in?

I think it has a hangover this morning – it's looking a bit bloodshot.



 Now it is shining on the railway bridge which carries the abandoned Elham Valley railway line over the road. This line used to link Folkestone with Canterbury. At the coastal end during World War 2 an enormous railway cannon was sheltered in a tunnel and brought out occasionally to fire on Northern France.

I use the sun to paint my own solar Banksy on the wall.

Misty morning.

The sun rising to hopefully burn off the mist.

Still struggling as I cross the valley floor.

 Success!

Passport Portraits of Yesteryear no. 43

Continuing the series of passport portraits in my collection.
Peruse and wonder.

Mr. J. Milton Hubbard is a 70 year old Merchant from Boston who wants to visit Europe. He was born in 1851 and it is now 1922.

On his passport he is described as being 5 feet, 5 inches tall and having a high forehead, grey eyes, aquiline nose, large moustached mouth, broad forehead, grey hair, pale complexion and oval face. In the event that you might still be unable to identify him from inspecting his photograph, to this description is added the distinguishing feature of 'dent between the eyes.'

He sails to Liverpool where he disembarks on 1st. July 1922. He then visits France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy before returning to Dover on 16th August 1922 to go to find his ship in Liverpool.

The Moon was not abed.

Calm but misty morning. 

Swish of my tyres on tarmac.

Alarm call from a startled blackbird.

Rumbling of lorries on the A2 driving down to the docks at Dover.

Looking in the other direction, the Moon is not yet abed.

A single bark from the lazy dog at the fruit farm.

'Oc...Oc...Oc...' from a pheasant as it flies out from under my wheels.

The machine gun rattle of gravel running around under my mudguards.

A horse snorting down its nostrils at me.

The whirring wings of pigeons as they take off in the field.

The rasping of my breath as I climb the 1 in 7 hill. 

Sunrise over the oasthouses

The perfume of a mountain of manure gently steaming in the field 

alongside the road.

The warm animal smell of sweet bedding straw as I pass a farm.

Aromatic wood smoke hanging in the air above a knot of cottages.

A sharp yet cloying tang of a heating oil spillage in a garden.

Vapour trail before dawn.

Somebody was up early to be flying over Kent before sunrise. 

The family of deer discuss breakfast.

 

 And the letter box yawns as it 

awakens to another sunrise.

 

Is C0VID 19 virus good for hollyhocks?

I think it is.

Now is the time for you to be preparing your hollyhocks for 

a splendidly blooming display in summer. 

Here is what you do:

  
Remove all the dead remains from last season. Your aim is to eliminate as far as possible all the traces of last year's rust infection and most of that will be retained in the dead matter

You should remove any leaves or stalks which are infected.

Break off and remove the old canes.










 

 
You will probably remove all the darker colour leaves. 

Cut them out and uncover the fresh green shoots.

Don't be hesitant. The more infected matter – leaves and stems – that you remove now, the longer your plants will remain clean and the fuller the eventual blooms.

I have absolutely

 no authority or 

expertise in gardening which should encourage you to take any 

notice of what 

 I have just told you. 

The choice is yours.

 (Some of my

hollyhocks in 2019)

 So, why is COVID 19 virus good for hollyhocks?

Well, with all the time that you now have on hand with your social distancing, this weekend would be a jolly good time to stay in your garden.