Well, the little urn remains down under despite the series being drawn at two each. A pity we didn’t quite make it after Headingley where, as all my loyal readers will know, we won a famous match after being bowled out for 67 in the first innings, being set 359 to win in the fourth and being rescued by Sir Ben’s unbelievable innings of 135 not out to steal the match from the complacent Aussies. What memories!
But memory can masquerade as truth as an incident in the family beach cricket at Seaview (see my August musing) proves. The left hand picture shows what the batsman remembers while alongside is how the bowler recalls it. A trick of the light or what?
Actually it’s quite a relief that the cricket’s all over. Instead of dragging a radio round the garden or dashing inside to see what Jofra, Rooty and co have been up to I can finally get on with the serious business of putting the garden to bed. Not that I was idle in August anyway. The old philadelphus that flowers so wonderfully in June needed some attention because it was bashing against the internet line when the wind blew but a minor haircut became a complete coppice when we realised how large it had grown.
And the wild flower meadow had to be cut, raked, burnt and mown, which gave the dogs the chance to invent a game of their own - mouse taunting.
But the most exciting change in August was the swopping of the tatty, rusty old ironwork around Raymond’s Retreat. We commissioned young Tom Gontar of Glynde Forge to design, make and install it and here’s the before, during and after:
Thank goodness there’s now plenty of time to do the more mundane autumn clearing up: cutting back, leaf sweeping, final mowings and weeding, bonfiring, hedge cutting and pruning. Oh, hang on…there’s the rugby world cup for the next seven weeks. Bollocks.