Finally, allium

Obviously, most things are somewhat behind here in the north. In addition, of course, we've just missed 18 days of peak growing season during our most recent absence. This becomes increasingly irksome. But we arrived to find a very bright and cheerful garden. Apparently, there were a couple of weeks of sunny dry weather up to about Wednesday, since when it was wet. But while we had to drive through a fair bit of rain on the way up, it was dry north of Inverness.

Friday was a slightly odd day, as it had a combination of rushing around and waiting around. After a very early peloton, I had a couple of early calls. The first one went very well. The second one was routine.

Then it was into a period of waiting around and getting stuff ready. A little later than scheduled, our new wheels were delivered. The process of buying a car has changed so much over the last few years. It's barely recognisable to how it used to work. I'm not sure exactly where this car came from, but in order to get it more quickly, I had to consent to it being driven (I think from Manchester) rather than waiting for a car transporter. So it had a couple of hundred miles on it before we put a load more on coming north.

The journey was slow, with heavy traffic, but - to coin my usual phrase - it is what it is. A few minutes out of your day one way or another makes the difference between a slow journey and a fast one. It's always best not to get hassled by it. We stopped at the Newtonmore truck stop for something to eat, and I checked emails and did a quick call with someone. More emails to sort out once we'd arrived.

But mostly it was just a potter around the garden with the camera to photograph the first allium I've grown (plus a plant I don't know the name of in the extras so suggestions would be helpful - update it's Veronica gentanoides, which according to my records we only bought on 4 May from Corry Croft, so it's gone a bit bonkers, hasn't it?), a little light weeding to get started on removing the goose grass, and then a quiet evening, which in and amongst also included a bit of digital housekeeping around my senior railcard and the liberating of a Scotrail ticket from the lost mobile phone. Great to be in our happy place, just for a few days in my case. So often, I just feel more like getting on with things here.