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China Girl blog 1st June 2017

The cherishing of the fragmentary beauty of nature, and reaching out to be kind are the corner-stones of our society, so my Dearest Mother is always telling me. Mother and I did our good deed for Sunday morning. We were having our Sunday morning snooze, when at 7 o’clock the telephone rang. A frightened voice said “I’m in a field surrounded by a circle of cows, they won’t let me pass, please come and help me”. “Just say shoo very firmly and keep walking” replied Ma. The voice said “please stay on the phone until I’m safe”. We heard her say “Go away cows”. Mother said “No, no, you must be firm, they don’t understand”. Mother heard the lady say “shoo” and “I’ve reached the gate”. We felt rather guilty and put on our dressing gown and slippers, got in the car and drove up the lane. We spotted the voice and learned she was on a walk from Wellington, getting fit for the Macmillan charity walk along the Jurassic Coast.  Ma & I felt guilty for not joining her.

We have had three lovely days. So hot, Ma looked like a cross between a tomato and a pillar box. I kept cool under a table. But as a Canadian visitor remarked, “if it’s not rainin, it gonna rain!” How right she was.

Anna, Ma’s grand daughter auditioned for the South West Ballet performance of Beauty and the Beast and was accepted; much rejoicing followed.

Today Mother worked in the Tearoom as Dawn was away. She is extremely nervous of the complicated till, which she feels is out to get her! When Jan asked her if she was alright, Ma replied she was fine, as long as no one tried to buy anything! At the end of the day Jan told Ma that she had done extremely well using the ipad and card reader. So this dispels the idiom that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

The Plant of the Week is without doubt the glorious single-flowered rose Rosa chinensis mutabilis, which grows as a climber up the south-facing wall, breath-taking in its changing colours.

As early summer moves on, the garden is steeped in happiness; for the moment all is peaceful in the cool of the evening. We feel the evanescent spirits of the past owners walking in the old garden, watching and waiting.