Quietly Content...........

 
We have a tulip tree in front of our house.

The chestnut tree that used to be there was rotten but as it had a preservation order on it we had to replace it after we had it removed. The chap from the forestry commission (who needed to inspect and sign off the paperwork) recommended the tulip tree and got us one at a very good price. 
Wikipedia says - Liriodendron is a genus of two species of characteristically large trees, deciduous over most of their populations, in the magnolia family. These trees are widely known by the common name tulip tree or tuliptree for their large flowers superficially resembling tulips.

We were told they can start to flower after about 15 years and we planted a 15ish year old tree, so we've looked longingly for flowers every year since it was planted about 15 years ago!!! Yes that tree is now about 30 years old!!!

So excited as today (Sunday) we looked and were rewarded with maybe half a dozen beautiful flowers 😁

I suddenly noticed the fruit outside is growing, not sure why it felt sudden probably as we haven't had proper spring summer weather and time has felt a bit odd for the last year and a half! So I thought I'd better use up some of the fruit frozen from last year. The jam is thick and sticky and Daughter declared it very yummy 😋 

I'm a very tolerant lounge sharer as at the moment tv is mostly Euro football, Wimbledon tennis or England v Sri Lanka cricket, often with remote flicking back and forth. I have my knitting and online Words With Friends (scrabble) until it's time to watch something together. 

Hubby was on call Tuesday night for SERVSC and he got a call to pick up three boxes of blood from Bury St Edmunds to deliver to Ipswich Hospital, but thankfully he didn't have to leave home till 10:30pm so he watched the whole England v Germany game uninterrupted. I thought it was a totally boring game showing almost no skill apart from lots of tripping up and pushing over, however 2-0 to England was a great result. 

Daughter had quite a busy Thursday afternoon mostly at my house. R had rehearsals all afternoon and evening, so after taking R to the theatre she came over with O and the dog. E is going camping with friends next week so Daughter came over to sort the camping equipment box that's stored in our shed. E was working all day so after picking her up from the station at 5:30pm they came back so E could learn how to put up the bell tent on her own. They left at nearly 7pm and R would be finished at theatre 8:30pm and need collecting so none of them would be with us for quiz night. 

This was week 66 for Jay's Virtual Pub Quiz and Hubby and I haven't missed any since week 2, sometimes part of a team of eight with Daughter, R, O, M and a couple of R's friends in the US online too and twice just down to three with just R joining us and any combination in between, but this week just me and him and we struggled. Final score 38/50 and mentally drained hahaha. 

I'm cutting the dead poppy heads to save the seeds and so far the hardest bit has been walking back and forth to the shed trying to find secateurs that actually cut..... now trying the fourth pair. I need to put a report into the head gardener!

I know a lot of people can't stand Jeremy Clarkson, including Hubby, however with nothing else to watch after Hubby went to bed I started watching his usual bumbling bafoon persona take on farming. I really enjoyed it, especially meeting his support team who apart from his girlfriend are all local and fun characters. 

I've watched them all now so will have to look for something else. If you have any suggestions for light easy watching for late at night that would be great. 

I'm still amazed that it's been 66 weeks since this pandemic panic all started in earnest. 66 Wow!

Till next Saturday be good and be safe.

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