I'm pleased...
I'm pleased with my spring garden. I'm pleased with the blossom trees, and my pet lamb Stu (he's feeding properly), and my watering and weeding programmes. I'm pleased with my new October attitude, too.
White Choisya Blossom
Friday 8th October
And Lilli-Puss my reclusive, random grey cat is back, large as life, in her home base the Stables, purring and miaowing as if nothing has happened to her (she's been AWOL for three weeks). How many times have I tearfully (well, sniffingly at least) searched along the roadside hedges, looking for her body? This cat is a mystery, and nothing short of a GPS tracking device will give me a solution. Non-Gardening Partner loves all the cats, but he's stepped back a bit from Lilli - he reckons she's a cat bigamist, double-teaming us.
Yesterday I enjoyed a hike on the peninsula cliff tops, and when I got home all I did was put on the hoses. Then I wandered around looking at things, smiling at my plants, and taking photographs. And so I should!
Rusty the Dog in the Pond Paddock
Stu lamb and I had a few races in the ram paddock (I won, hee hee) while Rusty the dog roared around the fence line trying to join in. Hmm... 'Running with the lambs' could become a New Zealand tourist attraction? It's fun - one kicks out ones knees, bends everything else, and gambols along in compound duple time. Hmm...
Late Pink Camellia
Still Blossoming...
Every house window I look out has some tree or shrub in beautiful blossom. The two Brides in terracotta patio pots are absolutely dripping, and the big flowering cherries in the pond paddock are starting to bloom. The late pink Camellias are flowering for the first time behind the Stables - very nice!
Cat Memorial Row (in the orchard) is alive (oops) with a Mount Fuji cherry, two weeping Silver Pears and little Mugsy the cat's Black Boy Peach (whose flowers are surprisingly pink). There's a lot of white and purple Honesty underneath everything, too - plants which have self-sown themselves in unusually lovely places.
So what should I do first in the garden today?
Lunchtime...
Hee hee. A long morning's session of grasshopper gardening, during which I've potted up Renga Renga lilies here, planted lupins there, weeded assorted borders and random paths, and pulled out six transplanted Convolvulus shrubs which were not behaving. Behind the glass-house my hydrangea plants, grown from cuttings, have gone up a pot size. I've had the hoses on, and I seem to have been everywhere.
Forget-Me-Nots :- Forget-Me-Nots don't deserve this sort of treatment!
However I must say I am puzzled by what I've seen of Non-Gardening Partner's contribution to gardening. He was supposed to spray some Californian thistles which grow from runners behind the glass-house and in the garden there.
Well, he hasn't - he's obviously got a bit bored, and has wandered off down a couple of wiggly woodland paths killing innocent forget-me-nots, patches of violets, and other little edging plants which have spilled over the stones. This will not do! I know what he's up to, of course. I'll complain about his actions. Then he'll righteously state that, since he always gets told off, he will not do any more spraying for me. Oops...
Right. Now I'm off to have lunch on the decking garden dining table with Son of Moosey, Rusty the dog, and Stu the bleating pet lamb. I'll tackle NGP later, over the evening meal...
Late Afternoon...
I've sort of petered out, gardenwise (even grasshoppers get tired). I'll do one more shift of the hoses, and take some photographs of the Crab-Apple tree in Middle Garden (so beautiful). I'll then do a rhododendron check in the Willow Tree garden, collect up all my tools, and that will be that - another great day.
Merino Sheep and Lambs
Saturday 9th October
Oh dear. It's raining rather heavily - Stu the pet lamb's first rain experience. He's curled up underneath the Omar Khayyam rose (not really leafy or big enough to provide shelter) with a bellyful of lamb milk.
Paddock Lambs
This morning the other two paddock lambs had rings put on their tails. The boy lamb is two weeks younger than Stu, but already bigger and heavier, a really well-built lamb. He's going to be the new Moosey ram. The girl is younger - only two weeks old, tiny but strong.
But hurray for the rain - the garden needs it. And hurray for the Crab-Apple trees in blossom - I keep finding more. I like these trees - they really are the perfect small ornamental.
Head Gardener, Pet Lamb, and Blossom Tree
Later...
It's still too wet to do any gardening. So I've taken Stu the lamb for a walk around the house gardens. The lawns need mowing, but of course the grass is far too wet. Non-Gardening Partner was supposed to take cute action photographs of Stu running around. So now I have a series of big Lady-Gardener-From-Behind photographs with a tiny speck of running lamb... Aargh!