Some of the seeds I planted almost two weeks ago have caught in the early June sun and already there are dark green seedlings poking through the surface of the soil. I am not so sure about the sweetcorn I planted and it looks as if something may have been rooting through the soil to get at them. The spinach and beetroot are coming along and the two different kinds of broccoli look as if they are starting to fruit. Of course once they are ready it will then be a question of trying to get the kids to eat some of it.

The hot sun over the last few days has brought out the perfume in the back of the garden. With the kitchen doors open we can smell it in the house. As I walk down the garden it becomes more intense and heavy in the air as the sun slips down behind the labernum filling it with yellow light.

The Great Tits who have built their nest in the wall are still popping in and out and the hole they have made slowly gets bigger.

The air is still now in the late evening and the sky pale round the edges. It is on evenings like this it would be good to live away from the town and its sounds, the noise of traffic from Bidston Road, an alarm going off, someone doing work in their garden. It would be good to be away from the background thrum of the houses.

It is six weeks until we go back to Ireland. There on an evening like this you can lie back on the beach and feel the remaining heat of the sun in the stones and all there will be to hear is the sound of the sea and the angry squawk of gulls making their way back to Owen Island.