Headless poultry.

Well to say we've been busy would be an understatement. I naively thought getting the things in the ground would be the majority of the battle. How wrong I was.

The paperwork and related bureaucracy have very nearly finished me off. Having carefully completed all our paperwork correctly as we went along and doing all the forms so they all concurred we got to the final stage and were told by the Duanes that we had put too many vines in the ground. Alot of driving round the countryside later and we seem to have it sorted only to get the offending clearance form from said Duanes, on which NOWHERE does it mention quantities of vines, only surface areas. I swear I'm going to kill someone soon.

Anyway, ding ding round one finished, rounds 2-100 no-doubt still to come.

After the vines went in the ground we then commenced the watering marathon which at one point saw us finishing at 1.30am only to start again at 5am, with torches and a lot of caffeine. P has constructed a very Heath-Robinson contraption which does mean we can both do a row at the same time, thus speeding up the entire process and hopefully there won't be many more times that we need to do it for.... but then again, seeing as its stupid-hot here now...

Anyway, I've now started the new marathon event of weeding the little darlings. Needless to say my back hurts and as it's currently 39 degrees and is not set to drop below 35 for the rest of the week, the weeding happens very early in the morning, ditto the hand treating.

All in all I'll be glad when spring comes around and they're all still alive!

Fingers crossed.

We managed to watch a little of the Olympics, which I love beyond reason, except the football and possibly the tennis and hockey. We've also had a non-stop stream of visitors which has been alternately, something to be endured (thankfully, mercifully short) and a pleasure.

I'm not sure exactly where this year has gone but it does seem to be rocketing past and I suspect I might have to think about getting the heating fixed soon.....