So sad!
Pink Cistus Shrub
Oh dear. Overnight we have lost both the cricket and the rugby league, to Australia. That's so sad! But sadder is the problem that Australia is having with water supplies. Poor Australian farmers - and poor Australian gardeners!
Saturday 21st April
I think it's time for an 'I-Am-So-Lucky' paragraph - I can irrigate my garden without worry, and grow all sorts of lovelies - roses, hostas, trees, even ferns. I have a wonderful running water feature - the little stream which cuts my garden in half. Every time I slosh in it, or grab a free bucket of water from it, I must remember to give thanks.
I Love My Pond
I have a pond - a country sized pond (that probably means medium sized) - surrounded by flaxes and other lovely foliage plants. This is Rusty the dog's giant bath-tub, and bath-time is no problem - fetch that stick! I love my pond - it's a grand water feature and yet I hardly ever sit by it!
The Edge of the Pond
This weekend I have much to do. I have more newspaper to lay and mulch over. The Dog-Path Garden's new shape isn't quite finished. And Henworld now needs some plantings - yesterday I bought four puzzled plaster hens, which I've lovingly plonked on the brick towers.
Garden Kitsch
I couldn't find a rooster - it seems that discerning shoppers of garden kitsch are choosing statues of flabby little men sitting in robes. I saw a few dispirited ducks, seagulls, and rabbits (aargh!).
The Moosey Garden Gnome :- My own bachelor garden gnome is desperately in need of new clothes - and a new garden outlook. He's been lurking in my small rockery all year.
Garden gnomes were very thin on the ground - those I saw had ridiculously bright clothes, fat red noses, and vacant expressions, and looked drunk. Thoroughly plastered? Hee hee - not a good gnome look. Mind you, my own garden gnome could do with a make-over.
Right. The trailerful of gum tree rubbish which I collected yesterday from the Hump needs burning. And I need some chain-sawing done on the nearly dead Wattle tree overhanging Henworld. I need to make up for the New Zealand cricket team's poor showing - by burning and sawing down my Australian trees? Oops.
Much Later... Autumn is Definitely Here!
The leaves are suddenly showing their bright autumn colours - I've been out and about taking photographs, and in every background there are trees turning golden and warm red. OK, same views as this time last year, but the colours are so beautiful that everything seems new.
I've spent four hours clearing and burning rubbish. The Wattle trees have been tidied up - their dead branches are brittle, covered with brown bulbous cankers, and I've burnt them. My hens have been nosy, watching me rake, and then chortling as some poor wriggling thing is uncovered. The glee of a hen who has spied something wriggling is a wondrous, inspiring sound.
Let the Autumn Burning Commence
Well, that's really all I've done. Raking up burnable rubbish and burning it are not the most exciting of gardening activities. But it's been a good chance to practice my choir songs. Tra la la.
Sunday 22nd April
+5
Regarding the poultry - I love my hens, especially the grey stripeys (Barred Plymouth Rocks) but I don't love my rooster. Yesterday he took an aggressive little run at me, then grabbed a Renga Renga leaf and proceeded to eat it furiously, all the time staring at me with his bad-bird eye gleaming. It was obviously a power play, a garden challenge. I tried not to imagine the conversation we could have been having - eldest toddler versus the young mother gardener Moosey came to mind.
Today I think I can finish the autumn clean-out and burn-up of the Hump - if (please, please) I have just a bit of help. The Hump path is only used and appreciated in spring, when the purple Honesty is flowering and the ground looks damp. It needs clearing. Then the last Hump frontage area (which I can see from the Moosey office) needs weeding. Simple! Sadly for a procrastinating gardener, dreading another repetitive day like the last one, there isn't even any need to write a list. Aargh!
David Austin Rose
Later, Apres Gardening...
Right. With help I managed to fill the whole trailer and burn it all before lunchtime. What normally takes me two days took just over two hours... And then my helpful person bought me a Gooey caramel ice-cream. Lovely! After lunch I weeded, planted a few natives, laid newspaper and mulched the very end of the Hump. Now I am the cleanest I've been all weekend!
Hebes
Last night I took my new Hebe book to bed, with notebook and pen. This was an mistake - the book was too learned in tone to be a suitable bed-book. It used lots of correct horticultural language, and more than once I found myself flicking through to the coloured pictures. Oops. I found my Beverly Hills Hebes, though, whose branchlets are 'finely bifariously pubescent' - sounds a bit rude. What I didn't know was that Americans - and Australians are breeding new Hebe cultivars. Hmm...
I've had a great gardening weekend - these autumn days are calm and warm, and the autumn tree colours surrounding me are just wonderful.
Monday 23rd April
What am I going to do today? Apart from sort out my passport, get my flu injection, vacuum the house, do towels and sheets washing, play the piano, practice my choir songs, tidy up the Moosey office... Sounds like a catch-up day for a random retiree - and far too much personal detail! Let's start that again.
Cat and Hen
What am I going to do today, version two? Sweep the house patios, sow seeds, organise pelargoniums before the first frost, pot up the Aeoniums and get them safely into the glasshouse, finish the Dog-Path Garden weeding, look for a cheap and colourful rooster statue for Henworld...
Cats and Dog First
Feeding the cats and the dog should come first - I have two large gardening cats climbing up my legs declaring everlasting love and devotion, while old grey girl Jerome tries to sit on the computer keyboard and purr directly into my ear. Please excuse spellng mstakes! Oops!
Waterside Plantings
Later...
I have weeded along part of the water race, and dug the back fence garden border just a little bit deeper. I seem to be randomly enlarging all my garden areas, reshaping their curves, and so on. This is an alarming trend. Or is it completely normal to get into a digging mood? Hmm...
The Moosey Semi-Grand World Garden Tour
Vaguely exciting news. My Semi-Grand World Garden Tour which didn't happen last year is this year falling into place. Soon I will be travelling, visiting gardens, going on trains (and planes) - all throughout the Moosey winter month of June. Plans are nearly finalised - some of which are quite strange. I'm going to Plockton in Scotland to see the New Zealand cordylines that grow there. No head-shaking, please. I have also found a little island called the Isle of Egg. Hee hee - dare I include this in my Scotland itinerary? Be warned - I am bound to burble more and more about the M-S-G-W-G-Tour as the weeks count down to June.