Brambling

No, I'm not taking bovine artificial insemination classes, I've had to invest in 'farmer's defence sleeves' for my rose- and bramble- pruning expeditions through the overgrowth. Man, are they hot to work in! It was Dale's idea to refer to it as brambling

All for the sake of these fragrant beauties

In other news, 

• we now have our National Health Numbers so are enrolled in the healthcare system.
• our container of goods is expected around June 10
• peas are definitively the English "go-to" vegetable
• I've tried grocery shopping at 4 different stores, some of which have 2 or 3 hour limited parking (camera monitored). I like Sainsbury's, they have a lovely wholemeal farmer's loaf, and I think a better selection and in larger amounts (that's my American experience coming out).
• The last time we were at Tesco, Mr checkout-guy decided he had to make a pun about EVERY item he scanned. By the time he'd done the first 5 items, it became very tiresome (there were 49 items in all) and he was over-the-top corny. We felt we had to react or respond to each one. Ugh. It really prolonged the process of checking out, too. 
• We're learning that going out anywhere, for any amount of time, without a raincoat is always a mistake.