Lots of wet droopy daffodils...
Mixed Daffodils
My garden and I do appreciate some fairly decent October spring rain. Honestly, we both do. And there are definite spin-offs - like lots of wet droopy daffodils to pick for the house vases. Not to mention some enforced, quality, in-house time...
Eek! I could spring-clean the house. Now there's a novel idea...
Wednesday 5th October
So I've had two days off in a row from the garden. And even today it's still wet and rather cold, and my garden time has been rather minimal. Confession time - found myself photoshopping weeds out of some photographs of the Moosey paths - again! Felt very sheepish, so I made myself do an hour's real weeding in the Shrubbery, and I took lots of real photographs.
Lemon Rhododendron
Brahms!
I have made myself another promise. I will practice some Brahms (the piano and violin sonatas) every day, then get really good, and encourage (that is, demand) Non-Gardening Partner to do the same. I miss our Brahms together. Tough I sometimes suspect that NGP would rather be a secret violinist, or just play blue-grass fiddle, so he doen't get picked on like this...
Thursday 6th October
Right. Prepare for a big, super, uber gardening day, with lots of progress reports. I'm about to start my first session, a comfortable two hours, which will involve weeding paths in the Shrubbery, and restoring integrity into my photographic records, hee hee.
Morning Coffee and Chocolate Cake...
So far, so good - actually very good, with clear Shrubbery paths and lots of honest photographs (and no tricks). I've also been dumping ash and compost, planting stray Agapanthus, fixing up logs for garden edges, trimming Ake Akes, and collecting buckets of stones out of the ground. These then get thrown onto the dog-path by the water. Great cake, too...
Path by Pump-House Cleared
I'm now going to finish the Wattle Woods, including re-opening a bit of the bottom path by the Pump-House. A native bee hive in the ground put it out of use last summer. This is serious path-work, and I am prepared for a lot of repetitive scraping and raking. Yes!
Much, Much Later...
Make that six and a half hours later. I have worked so well, and I can tick quite a lot of things off my mental 'list'. The Dog-Path Garden is weeded, compost has been spread in the house borders, the top of the Island Bed is extended and mulched, more ferns have been trimmed from the water race edge, and all my rubbish has been burnt. I am very proud of myself, I love my garden very much, and that's really all I've got to say.
Friday 7th October
Aargh! The week started with rain and has ended with 'cold'. I've been cleaning up the Moosey web-site path pages, taking ages. I'm trying to do one page a day - it's to do with updating, while retaining the archival material, staying true to my first garden scribblings. As you can see, I take it terribly seriously. But now - off I go into the garden to continue some reality path weeding and raking.
Rusty Dog on Shrubbery Path
Ten Minutes later...
Aargh again! Rusty and I have been wandering around outside to find a path to weed. But it's really, really cold, and a cold wind has started to blow, which will make things (like my hands) even colder. I'm only talking eight degrees Celsius here, but never-the-less... So I've come back inside for a hot coffee and some hotter Brahms piano practice.
Big Pink Rhododendron
I love that big pink flowering rhododendron by Middle Path (which is now weed-free). And the tiny soft yellow one in the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden, down by the water. You lovely shrubs - thank you so much for warming my heart (if not my hands).