Past and Present

Today the weather is good enough to get some gardening done. Every spring I like to take a picture of the magnolia tree. Incidentally I have my computer set up to automatically change the desktop background between images in a folder in which I keep all my photographs, and this morning it showed me a very old picture of the house taken by my late mother-in-law, probably 30 years ago or more, and it shows the magnolia tree when it was much smaller.

The house is 100 years old, and, as anyone who has come to visit tends to notice, in a state now pretty much beyond repair and modernisation. We have been involved in a battle with the local planning authority for the last two years, trying to get permission to build a replacement house. The garden has also fallen into disrepair or been lost since its heyday, and since we can't do anything to make the house more pleasant, I enjoy doing work on the garden and I'm slowly trying to recreate it in its original spirit.

Meanwhile, the pups met a Belgian Shepherd Dog and some children today.

Siegfried the emu seems to be going broody. I am not sure what he expects will hatch from this toilet ballcock!