Mild madness reigns...
The Moosey animals (and the gardener) have been inside for two and a half days, and mild madness reigns - as opposed to outside, where wet goodness rains, hee hee. Mugsy the disabled cat has started talking (in excited cat-chirps) to her kitty-litter box.
Saturday 21st February
Minimus the woodshed kitten has been roaring around play-fighting, leaving a trail of discarded pint-sized soft toys. Tiger the tortoiseshell has been hiding underneath things and then leaping up semi-acrobatically into the air like an overweight furry ballerina. Only the younger cats show any balance - they actually go outside, then come in drenched, and naturally want to sit on a lap and smooch themselves dry.
Mid-Summer Cosmos
But today the rain is supposed to lift. On my soggy journey to feed the hens I noticed a lot of new things that need 'doing'. And, being a sponge, and having just skimmed through my latest gardening library book on 'garden transformations', I have found at least six perfect sites for a stone sculpture, a tree house, some quirky salvaged items, and a Gypsy caravan...
If it's too wet all day, two of Schumann's Grand Sonatas and a little A Minor one from Schubert will do nicely. My gardening book has left me feeling a little less confident than ever about placing strange sculptural objects in my garden, though... This could be a good thing?
Sunday 22nd February.
How come I've just found at least two week's work in one small garden area? It can't all have grown and 'got away' in two and a half days. Anyway, now the Dog Kennel rockery is cleared, Hebes pruned, the rambling rose trimmed back, weeds lifted, edges trimmed... And I've only just begun. After lunch (which is now) I will return.
Verbascum:- I think I might have fallen out of love with another self-seeder!
I am removing the old Verbascums from the water race edge - after one year they are pretty hopeless for me, flowerwise. And I'm about to cut up the Cornflowers in the Birthday Rose Garden for mulch. This garden is looking ragged and colourless - maybe it needs some autumn flowering perennials to perk it up...
Gender Issues
Something awfully embarrassing has happened concerning Lilli-Puss, my grey girlie cat who lives upstairs. Her body keeps growing longer, and her face is upsizing, and she's starting to look - well, rather manly, in the cat sense. This morning, on the pretence of tickling her tummy I - ahem - tried to check. Hopeless! Lilli was desexed and 'vetted' before she came here as a foster kitten - I assumed she was a girl because she was small and timid (oops).
My other-worldliness regarding cat-gender could have a spin-off for Minimus the 'boy-kitten' - I have instinctively 'boyed' him, simply because he's feisty and loves to play-fight. Oops again... Right. I'm off back outside with large Fluff-Fluff (definitely an ex-boy) and tiny Minimus, gender unknown, my Moosey gardening companion kitten.
Pefection? Oops.
Monday 23rd February
All is well. After indiscreetly lifting up all my cats' tails, I think I've got it right with 'Lilli - you're my girl'. Phew! That's quite enough talk about gender in this gardening journal! Also, the Moosey waterwheel has been the object of serious discussion with another engineer down the road. There are positive ideas, and more bits are required from the salvage yard. This is good news.
Perfect Gardening?
Yesterday afternoon my gardening was perfect. The Birthday Rose Garden is tidy - I removed lots of tenacious clover and woolly verbascum seedlings. I do require a little more colour in here - some more delightful Echinaceas (they've been flowering for weeks and weeks) spring to mind, and maybe some blue Asters.
Today I am going to weed the tiny planting strip which runs along the water race. Also the curve of the Glass-House Garden isn't quite right, and needs to balance the opposite curve of the little Elm-Tree Garden. A tiny spot of digging, I think...
Much, Much Later...
A garden looks so much better when its lawn edge is trimmed and its soil edge is weeded. This is not rocket or plant science, it's not even garden design - just pure common sense. So rather than panic about the Garden Club who is visiting in April, I just need to - you guessed it - trim and weed all the edges.
Crocosmia
Tuesday 24th February
I've been speed weeding around the edges of Duck Lawn. Aargh! There is (as there has always been) a problem and I'm contemplating doing some chemical weeding on the Sorrel weeds. This is Golden Hop territory, too, so there are tendrils of those robust spreaders going up all the nearby shrubs to try their luck. The new path network works OK - the small path which wriggles to the water's edge is officially designated winter access only. The Gunnera in summer leaf blocks it completely.
Cats in Baskets
Now it's quite late, Minimus is curled up in his basket by the computer, and I'm thinking forwards. Tomorrow I will be out all day walking, and then I'm driving into town to go to the cricket T-20! This type of double booking is really racy for a retired lady of considerable leisure. Go, me!