The first weekend in June was Andy's birthday. He still went to work on the Saturday, so I spent the day pottering. In the evening we went to his parent's for a steak dinner and a birthday chocolate cheesecake. On Sunday our plan was to drive into town to find a birthday present for his Mum and have a pub lunch on the way home. Andy tried crab for the first time and loved it. We then set about doing tasks around the house and garden that I needed his help with e.g hammering stakes into the ground for our Cherry Blossom tree. Then we went for a drive, it was a beautiful evening.

The following weekend was dominated by garden stuff, I cut the grass which takes a couple of hours, and my brother popped over with Andy's belated birthday present, and some cucumber plants for me. Later in the evening Andy and I sat outside in the fading sun making plans for the garden. We have a row of old conifers that need to come out, then we need a fence, and planting to go along it. I love making such plans for the house and garden. On Sunday Andy had a really busy day at work so I pottered and read a lot. In the evening we went out to dinner with my Dad and my brother and his family to celebrate my Dad's 69th birthday. A plan for his 70th is underway.

The next Saturday was Photo An Hour. On the Sunday Andy and I got up early to tackle the annual hedge cutting. Andy did the cutting, I handled the clearing up. This meant picking up all the cuttings, putting them into the loader bucket and then driving the loader to the bund and depositing them there. This took until mid afternoon. I can tell you that hours of bending down, and back up again, works the glutes, to the extent that I could hardly move when I woke up the next day. Or the day after that. I was fit for little else in the evening so we had a really simple supper of pizza and salad, and we watched some football but I can't remember now who was playing!


The following Saturday I had a little charity shop jaunt in the morning, only to one in the local village but I came back with a few bits and pieces. A pink top, a ball of wool, a book, and a game. Then I helped Andy with some roguing (dictionary definition - remove inferior or defective plants or seedlings from a crop), my definition is 'weeding a massive field by hand'. It was hot and the wheat scratches your arms, but it's nice to be out there with Andy, although I put my foot down at him calling it 'a date'. This has the same effect on your glutes as clearing hedge cuttings, although this time I didn't spend quite so long doing it, I still felt the effects the next day. Andy then had to see to some more irrigation and I cut the grass again. The evening was the Germany vs Sweden game.


The final weekend of the month we'd only been back from a short break for a few days and I thought Andy would be working but he took the afternoons off, on the Saturday Andy took me to watch Grass Track Racing.

On the Sunday I went to see my brother and his family in the morning, and in the afternoon Andy took me to watch Tractor Pulling. Both of these things I'd never been to before and I enjoyed both, ice cream and burgers where involved as well as a lot of noise and dust (grass track racing), and noise, smoke, and dust (tractor pulling). Stupidly I wore a white shirt on both occasions and came away distinctly grubbier than when I arrived.

And that was June. Six months of the year done and dusted. It'll be Christmas soon.