What on earth is there to talk about?
Tiger the Cat
Three pages in one summer gardening week - and all I'm doing in the garden is weeding! What on earth is there to talk about? The roses? Blessed are the minimalist garden bloggers...
Thursday 13th November
Oh dear me. The eight Moosey house-and-garden cats have a certain indoors-outdoors flow. But throughout the day each cat will 'check in' with the Head Gardener - usually when they hear noises in the kitchen. So when one large Tortoiseshell cat with short legs (AKA Tiger) hasn't been sighted for 12 hours, it's time to start a serious search.
Tiger the Cat Lost!
Where was Tiger? My first 'worry' was that she'd got herself locked into the pantry with Rusty's big bag of dog food. Not there. Then I opened all the other kitchen cupboards (it's a case of 'know thy cat'). Not there. Then a check of all the other rooms in the house. No luck. Calling and calling...
Tiger as a Kitten :- Tiger has her own page in my cats and dogs section.
In the silence a tiny cat-squeak, but that could have come from Fluff-Fluff... Oh dear. Where was my shiny Tiger cat? As a last resort I lifted up the blue TV couches, and she shot out from underneath.
Fat cat Tiger had obviously wriggled in underneath, probably to pounce on an unsuspecting furry passer-by, and got herself stuck fast. Oops. It's just too silly - I can't see how a barrel-shaped cat with short legs could fit under a couch. I'm imagining a rather unfortunate game-park fireside rug look.
+20
Anyway, she's unhurt (phew!), ravenous (naturally), and super-friendly, and I've been laughing quite a lot. How unfair! To think I sat 'on her' for about an hour last night. Why didn't she miaow then? Probably had all her breath squashed out. Oh dear...
Today I am visiting my seaside gardening friend. She has a beautiful cliff-side garden full of eclectic treasures, tiny paths and stone steps (no lawns), unusual succulents and some wonderful foliage plants. For reasons of space she has to have just one of everything. Country gardeners can be so greedy!
Green Fern Foliage
For the last two nights the big irrigation has been on, and yesterday again I ran the little drippers on the roses and the cat memorial trees in the Orchard. When I get back I'll just do some more weeding and then find a new spot to read my new library book. And maybe - just maybe - I'll call into the big hardware store on the way home and look at that circular table and chairs.
Apricot Watsonias
Later...
I've done three hours speed weeding. I've also picked up all the weeds from along the water race and dumped them in one of my informal compost piles. Now I'm allowed a quick cup of tea and a bit of a twitter, before I go aqua-jogging. Two friends in one day!
Watsonias
My seaside friend's garden was lovely to look at. She can grow huge swathes of wine-black Aeoniums, and has many other amazing super-sized spiky succulents, a huge clump of Poor Knights lilies with blood red flowers, and some amazing deep cherry red Watsonias. Wow.
My first clumps of the species pink Watsonias came from her garden. Initially they were great value (they were free!), filling up spaces as I started digging new borders, but they soon lost favour. Now I am nurturing a far superior, modest clump of apricot coloured Watsonias, and I've put in my 'order' (cheekily) for a few of those cherry reds!
Friday 14th November
Good morning to all the Moosey cats, thankfully present and correct, none of whom are lost underneath the TV couches. Histeria is in a cat basket, Mugsy is staring vacantly at a leaf on the carpet, ginger Percy is serenely posed on the kitchen bench (oops) and big Fluff-Fluff, part-time bully part-time sook, is lying all over my feet.
Lilli-Puss :- Lilli-Puss is one of my young ex-wild foster kittens.
Upstairs Jerome the Grey and young grey apprentice Lilli-Puss are stretched out on the balcony in the morning sunshine, having purred loudly in my face all night. It's a good cat's life here in the country.
Mow Those Lawns
I am having the most looooovely breakfast pot of tea known to gardening woman. Good news - Non-Gardening Partner is on holiday today. What does this mean? Lawn mowing! Lawn mowing! And more lawn mowing! All the lawns need mowing...
The Moosey Pond
What should I do first today in the garden? Yesterday I weeded in the small Laundry Garden, and partially dug out the perennial forget-me-not which I think is called Alkanet. It's a pest - deep rooted eradication is impossible, but it's easy to deal to cosmetically.
Right. I'm going to start by finishing (hmm...) the water race weeding near the William Lobb rose. I'll use the spade, and scoop up small stones from the bottom of the water. Then I'll weed the Pond Garden and the end of the Jelly Bean Garden.
Later, Mid-Afternoon...
I've had a successful weeding day, but a few problems with wildlife. The good news - a fantail, rescued from the jaws of Percy, sat in my hand looking hopelessly stunned, then flew expertly away into the Oak tree.
Weeding by the Water Race
Not so good - some dilly mother duck has left about five ducklings behind in the Pond Paddock gardens. I rescued one from the jaws of Histeria, placed it in the pond, and managed to direct a second into the water. There are at least two more squeaking shrubs in the Apple Tree Border, but I can't get the ducklings out.
Some or None
Mother ducks are just as bad as mother hens, with their binary concept of counting - some or none. They either have 'some' ducklings (any number from one up to, say, sixteen) or 'none' ducklings, at which time they think to stop hiking overland and start searching. Oh boy...
Roses by the House
Too Many Roses?
There seems to be an overabundance of roses in the garden - too many to appreciate properly, if that makes sense. I wonder sometimes (just sometimes) if I've been a bit indiscriminately greedy in my rose purchasing. I reckon there must be near three hundred and fifty planted, so many that some are barely noticed. For example, the archway roses by the side of the house never get photographed any more, and the rugosas behind the glass-house (except fluffy yellow Agnes) are ignored. While hunting for squeaking ducklings in the Wattle Woods I was surprised by Complicata (in flower), non-climbing Cecile Brunner (in flower) and an unknown fluffy pink I've never seen before.
Sunny Mary Rose
Whereas each and every big bearded iris flower gets 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed over - like the delightful peachy apricot one in the house border and the patch of beautiful Wedgwood blues I pass on the way to feed the hens. I wonder if roses ever get iris-envy...