Pond Cottage...
Non-Gardening Partner (who is supposed to be organised) is still bed-snoozing. My goodness - what would he do all day without me gently nudging him into activity? Pond Cottage is getting its floor laid today - all the walls are done. And then the sleeping platform goes in - and then I can move myself in. I can be a recluse in my own paddock, hee hee...
Saturday 13th November
In fact, I have some more small jobs for NGP. Drippers need to go on the three new cat memorial trees and the lawns over the water race need mowing. While I'm waiting for him to surface, I would like to present some new photographic records. The first Moosey allium is digitally captured. One of the new thirty six yellow (and white, separately) roses is flowering. A very pretty colour, and expertly positioned by some purple lavender (what nonsense!). And that palish blue iris which I think (think, think) might be called Iris Confusa Chengdu. It's in full sun, crawling over the big Miscanthus.
New Flowers - Allium and Iris
In honour of Lilli-Puss I have put her photograph on my computer screen. What a beautiful cat! Sometimes I wonder that she would have been better off with some nice old lady. Then I remember - I'm one of those!
Lilli-Puss :- Dear Lilli-Puss was the littlest of my three foster kittens.
It's just that she's so timid. And odd. And totally random. And I have six other cats with which she must compete.
Being on my computer screen means I can say hello to her each morning, even if I don't actually see her. Hmm... My first virtual cat-human relationship...
Later...
Right. I'm back, and I must move on to the gardening day. It's wonderfully hot, so the only place for me to be is in the water again. I'm going to weed (and spray a little) between Car Bridge and the Willow stump, in the shade. I can supervise the lawn mowing (quality control) and dig out any rogue Gunnera seedlings. They love growing along my water race banks. Am I lucky to have running water meandering through my garden? Oh yes, a million times yes.
The Water Race
Later Again...
Success! I cleaned the water race banks as planned, got NGP to mow the lawns over the water race, and spent my last hour trimming the edges and pulling out forget-me-nots. And there was Lilli-Puss again, in the back of the Dog-Path Garden - this is obviously her November garden spot. So we communicated in the flesh and fur...
Sunday 14th November
Action! It's an overcast morning and so many of the roses are so beautiful - aargh! Camera, quickly! So I've been leaning rakishly out of upstairs windows for that overhead shot of the woodshed rambler, and then intrusively pushing to within four inches for the close-up of my new Ingrid Bergman. Some of the house lawns aren't quite as lush and green as I'd like for my landscape pictures, though - OK, I can't have everything.
Crepuscule Rose Flowers
Compassion is now flowering on the house pergola, as is Mary rose underneath her bay window, and even the famous eggy-yellow Graham Thomas has started blooming on the fence-line. And possibly the biggest 'oops' of my gardening career, Easleas Golden Rambler (banned and uprooted from the orchard) hasn't died after all, and is flowering. Oh dear... A monster rambling rose begins its new life modestly on a fence near the house. Too small a fence, too near the house...
Stu Lamb! Over Here!
Stu Lamb
NGP is off to finish laying the floor in Pond Cottage. I need to feed Stu the lamb and water the old-fashioned roses at the back of the Shrubbery. Wonder if Omar Khayyam will recover. This rose has really withstood the test of time - now it needs to withstand the test of lamb. Stu used to sleep underneath it and eat its new green shoots.
Four Hours Later...
I have been very busy, mainly in the glass-house, pricking out seedlings of Larkspur, Basil, Clary Sage, and Strawflowers. I've also done some edges, and wandered around. I'm afraid I'm in one of those rare moods of self-doubt... Perhaps, just perhaps, my garden is too big for one retired person (me) to look after properly? Aargh! Let us not go there...
Fluff-Fluff deserves some praise for sticking with me during this moody morning. He has been trying to sit on my potting bench, and I have been shrieking at him, telling him he is a nuisance, and throwing him off onto the floor.
Fluff-Fluff in the Cabbage tree
Sorry, big cat - I don't really mean that you are a nuisance in the grand scheme of things - just in the glass-house when I'm dealing to tiny fragile seedlings. Right. I'm going to clean up late yesterday's weeding session and take Lilli-Puss some food. I will have to sneak out when Fluff-Fluff is otherwise engaged (i.e. eating in the kitchen).
Fluff-Fluff the Cat
And Even Later...
I feel so good! I've trimmed absolutely all the edges of the gardens across the water race. I've said hello to the big Crambe (which is a silly plant for me - the wind blows its huge flowery stalks askew) and the Rhapsody in Blue roses (which have thin streaks of white - I hadn't noticed this before). I've taken a squillion photographs of Fluff-Fluff, my compulsory escort. No, I couldn't get away from him, but he is most useful posing as a cat-model on garden seats and in the foreground of scenic views. Histeria the tabby has been chased away, and there's no sign of Lilli.
Meanwhile just a paddock away the Pond Cottage's floor is finished, and the cottage is almost ready for furniture - it just needs a varnishing of the plywood walls. Wow, that's so groovy... Once I can move myself in there I may never, ever want to come out.