Dark but Short.....at last!

                                  

                   

After days and days and DAYS of rain with weirdly mild temperatures, I was desperate to mow the lawns.  The grass was ankle deep and almost long enough to hold a tiger shoot.  However today, the winds strengthened and dried the grass enough for me to sneak round with the lightest, smallest mower on its very highest cut.  I kept turns to an absolute minimum and almost tip toed around! I know that the ground beneath wasn't as dry as I would have liked but with storms expected tomorrow it was only ever going to worsen so it was now or never!  I don't remember taking so many clippings to the compost heap in January or even seeing so many stripes at this time of year.  Even the girls down in the Henclosure were very eggcited (sorry!) to have a box of clippings to peck and scratch around in. Of course, I had left the wind to do its job of drying as long as possible, so, it was rather late by the time I finished and was much darker than these photos (which have been edited to depict the curvy strips) actually suggest.  The garden lights were on and I would have been happier with headlights on the mower.  Some gardeners are just never satisfied!

Guess what happened when I'd finished.  Yep!  It rained!  Smugness or what?