Please can we have some sunny weather?
Puppy and the Kittens
Christmas week - please can we have some sunny summer weather? The garden is enjoying all the rain, but the gardener isn't - some people are never satisfied!
Tuesday 21st December
Blast! It's wet again, and quite cold. There is more rain - and hail - forecast for this afternoon. What gardening will I do today? Serious preparation is required - clothes will get muddy, and will need to be stripped off before entering the house. Aargh! The naked old lady gardener trick!
Lunch Time...
I have gardened in the mud for two hours by Duck Lawn. Rusty the puppy has been 'helping' - zooming around carrying flax leaves trimmed off the big Phormium tenax. I have re-opened part of the dog-path which connects Duck Lawn (aka Duckless Lawn) with Rooster Bridge.
I'm still not feeling 100% virus-free, so have wisely come inside to have a well deserved rest. Musical sleeping chairs has been playing - now the kittens are asleep in the puppy's bed, Mugsy the cat is asleep in the kitten's bed, and the puppy is asleep on the patio. Ridiculous.
Hosta Foliage
A Feast of Foliage
The garden by Duck Lawn is looking great. Some of my favourite foliage plants live here, underneath the scarlet oak trees. There's an ornamental rhubarb of some sort which I don't remember planting. And a hebe hedge! Plus sedges and grasses on the water's edge, and the huge phormiums. There's a reddish hybrid flax cowering underneath a cistus - must dig it out.
I've trimmed the old flower-heads off the euphorbias - these were my very first mass planting plants (that seems like years ago). Think how much I've learned since then...
Hosta Alert
A note to remind myself that all the hostas are in full leaf growth and are starting to flower. Please no hail to spoil the look!
And please note my restraint regarding the taking and publishing of kitten photographs! How long will this last? Tiger and Smoocher are well settled - so easy to look after two of them! Stand by for the cutest chocolate-box pictures imaginable.
Smoocher the Ginger Kitten
Late Afternoon...
Success! Sunshine! Duck Lawn is a little smaller - the new shape sensibly allows the big green flax more room (the mower of lawns should enjoy the new curve, too). My hands are so sore from pulling out weeds, and puppy has had the most boisterous gardening session yet. The kittens have been playing on the house patio, jumping in and out of the wisteria leaves. I am really tired, but happy - at last the sun is shining.
Wednesday 22nd December
Roses, the new puppy, and the two new kittens - these are the pictures of my life at the moment. Christmas is looming quietly - I am going to get a Claret Iceberg rose for the garden's present, to complement the house's present of a BBQ. Rusty the puppy is getting a year's supply of luminous coloured tennis balls. Are there any people in my life to buy gifts for? You wouldn't think so!
Summer at Last
This feels like a proper summer morning - Corelli tootling away on the stereo inside, sunshine and no wind outside (I am going to ignore the weather forecast of thunderstorms - thunderstorms are not part of my plan for today, the longest day, the summer solstice).
I'm very pleased with my re-modelling of the curves in Duck Lawn. And I've been redirecting stones from the Hump to edge the Driveway Garden - it too is finally the right and proper shape. Having the lawns mowed and the edges done makes my garden areas look brilliant.
The Driveway Lawn
When I return I will try recording some video of my garden (it's scary stuff for a real-life gardener with a minimalist approach to technology!)
Lunchtime...
Blast again! It is raining on and off. And I've done no gardening - I shamed myself into some quick (but thoughtful) Christmas shopping - while the sun shone. The roses look fabulous, though, especially the climbing rose Compassion. It's a similar colour to the (wet) house patio stones - what blessed harmony!
Rose Sexy Rexy
Later...
My walking friend has just visited and we have managed to sneak a country walk and a Moosey Garden walk in between the showers. The garden is wet, all the roses are wet, but things are looking in place and gently well-organised. I feel very proud.