Taking a month off work to crack the summer jobs just isn’t long enough.  I have at least another month’s work to do and only a few days left to do it in.  Mental note to self to win lotto to be able to take whole of summer off next year.  With the frustration of the rains of the weekend banished from my mind we’ve been back building, sorting, creating, weeding and occasionally taking a moment to enjoy the view.

Once I start work I hate to stop. Not because of my work ethic but I find these days is if I stop for long and sit down my body seizes up and like my temperamental lawn mower it is a bugger of a job to get going again. I think Fortnum and I have more in common than I really care to admit.

The golden evening sunshine is one of my favourite parts of the day.  After dinner is eaten and the kitchen closed there is nothing better than taking a wander down the garden to just relax.  Now we have our new benches the kitchen garden is a destination to sit awhile.  The bassets can’t understand this human behaviour after all they’ve spent all day trailing me up and down the garden and faced with a choice of settling on the sofa or trailing me again it’s a tough choice.

They sit at the top of the steps for a while and contemplate the pros and cons before usually deciding they’d better follow.  In Fortnum’s case that choice is getting easier and easier since the kitchen garden has become his own personal salad bar.

The audacity of this dog.  He no longer waits in line to be served it’s all self service as far as he’s concerned.  Peans, beans, brocolli and strawberries are his favourite picks.  I need to have my wits about me otherwise he’d scoff his way through the whole lot.  No kidding.  This butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth basset is a shameful food thief.  Guilty as charged.