Several red admirals fluttered by, as I sat in the garden this afternoon. They kept landing in a bucket we keep around for gathering up the fallen, overripe, bird-pecked cherries – just after I thought that maybe I should empty that bucket. Then I read that adult admirals drink from flowering plants and from overripe fruit, and left those cherries right where they were. I also read that their primary host plant is the stinging nettle, and felt better about all the nettles that keep coming up along the edges of the garden.

The library, soon to be bedroom.

The electrician did his work today and we can finally move into our new kitchen. Now we can do the dishes in the kitchen instead of the laundry room – and we have our dishwasher back! And we can unpack all our glasses and plates and cutlery and utensils.

One of the best things with the new cabinets is that we have far fewer of them. Instead we now have drawers wherever possible on the lower level. There will be no more digging in the deep corners of a cabinet while crouching or even kneeling on the floor. Especially Adrian has really been struggling to reach some of the plates and bowls. Everything cannot be at the front of a cabinet – but with drawers, that’s not a problem, because even the things at the back are easy to reach. Best thing ever!

Nearly there! Apart from the floor and some electrical work, everything is in place – and most essentially the stove is back in its place and plugged in and ready to be used. For weeks already we have been dreaming of all the things we will be able to cook when we have access to an oven again. Pizza! Cannelloni and, lasagna, potato gratin and stuffed peppers! Bread and cakes! We’ll just have to be careful about not spilling anything until the floor has gotten its finish.

The new kitchen cabinets are now all in place, with handles and recessed lighting and everything.

Still missing: countertop, sink and tap, electrical outlets, wall tile, floor.

The garden still has two large bare patches from when the water pipe was replaced. One from replacing the water pipe, and one from removing a concrete sewer access thing that stood in the middle of the front quarter of the garden. I’d started to plant bushes around that lump of concrete to try and hide and camouflage it. The idea of removing it had never occurred to me. But when the digger was here anyway, the workmen asked if I would like to be rid of the sewer access, and my answer was an immediate yes.

At first I was just going to sow grass in its place. I don’t know what I was thinking! this prime location, where the soil has now also been thoroughly tilled so it is easy to work with, deserves better than grass. Why would I want more grass in my garden, anyway?

I planted a witch hazel bush and some ferns and Epimediums, among other things. Given some time I hope this planting will grow into one whole with the hedge next to it.

Eric is playing something exciting (Destiny 2, I believe) and Adrian is sharing the excitement.

In the background the room is a messy pile of boxes with stuff from the kitchen, as well as things that didn’t fit in the laundry room any more since part of the kitchen moved there. I’m looking forward to getting some space here again.

The grass in the garden is getting kind of high. I guess it might be time to do some mowing, even though I don’t much like the look of short grass.

I gather that it should be possible to convert this “lawn” into a meadow by simply removing grass, to gradually lower soil fertility. So this year I will remove the grass after mowing.

It’s national day and I had vaguely thought we might go somewhere and do something national day-ish, but the heat is such that I have no energy for anything like that. Instead we had a picnic in the garden, in the shade of the cherry tree, with the most cooling food we could come up with – a strawberry and melon pasta salad and iced elderberry cordial.

It’s that time of the year: the bleeding hearts are flowering.