Well the plants haven’t needed much watering for the last week. My Mistress has been trying to decide where to plant the rest of her poppy and marigold plants. The problem with growing things from seed is that you end up with rather more than you actually need. My granddad has suggested putting some in the verge outside the house, which is a lovely idea but would make the mowing rather more difficult. What might make sense is to remove the grass completely and replace with some plants that would look after themselves like a carpet of purple aubrietia. The only problem with that is the aubrietia seedlings have already been planted elsewhere and we don’t have any left. I think it may have to be lavender then, but our lavender seedlings are still very small indeed so the whole project may have to wait. I think my Mistress has been inspired by visiting Beningbrough Hall at the weekend. It’s a National Trust property that is quit near here and whilst she wasn’t that interested in the inside of the house, the gardens were really rather lovely. She started wishing she’d got more land to play with at home, but I pointed out that it would be a long time before she had completed all the projects she has in mind, without having a number of acres more to deal with. She asked if I would like my own herd of cows to play with and I have to say that the thought is attractive, but I think if I were going to do that I should have started learning at a younger age. Perhaps one of Shadow’s puppies could go and learn with one of our friends in the village who farms cattle. I could just go and stand by the fence and watch.