Touring the garden...
Aha! A Most Serious Plan for presenting the Moosey Garden is required - a choir will be singing here on (checks calendar) the 10th of April, with guests offered afternoon tea and a tour of the garden. That's four weeks away. So what do I need to do first?
Probably draw up some sort of time-line and display it prominently in the kitchen so Non-Gardening Partner can see his tasks clearly, hee hee. I can think of mowing lawns, trimming trees, weed-killing (oops) the driveway just for starters...
Ha! I've thought of something else - he can wash all the house windows and water-blast the patio tiles.
Annual Salvias
I've got a priority plan, which fits nicely in with my autumn burning. Water features come first - their surrounding garden areas need to be thoughtful and welcoming, which means no mess in the middle of paths, and no piles of rubbish too close. Rustic features second - unfortunately this includes my hen house (alas still henless). Rubbish from this garden area needs clearing and burning.
Friday 11th March
That's enough for now for me to be getting on with. And considering how droopily tired I am after just two days of burning, it's going to be a long month. But I can do this! I even have a designated burning shirt, which I will go and put on. Groan, groan, I hate burning. Shush - sotto voce, please...
My Autumn Bonfire Continues - Day Three
Eek! I've thought of a third priority - house patios, their pots and surrounding gardens, particularly for the visitor who is not inclined to wander far from civilisation. It takes a certain confidence to strike out into the unknown greenery, down a wiggling path which leads - nowhere?
Much Much Later...
What a brilliant day! In the morning I burnt for two solid hours - zooming here and there collecting rubbish. The Hen House Garden area is now clear, except for the chook-run. More of the side fence is clear, and I've made a decent start on the mess by the Pump House (which is very close to rustic Pond Cottage, and therefore bound to be visited).
Wait For Meeeee!
In the lunch break my friend and I played some flute-piano music. Poulenc is quite delightfully 'light' to play after a seriously heavy earthquake, particularly his circus-noisy third movement. My friend says that I shouldn't 'hate' burning, so shamefully I made her prove it by helping me in my afternoon session.
Birds, Cats, and Dogs
The fantails have been very excited by my old squeaky metal wheelbarrow (with metal wheel). Not only has their trusty human friend been wandering around stirring up flying insects, but she's sounding like a super-sized fantail (these birds squeak).
And so I've been followed by a cloud of small squeaking birds, with Rusty the dog furiously trying to bark them away, and Fluff-Fluff the cat lagging safely behind. Well - maybe not a cloud of birds, just two or three...
- 'How could any gardener even for a minute feel lonely, with animals and birds sharing their garden.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
And really - how could any gardener even for a minute feel lonely, with animals and birds sharing their garden. I've even rescued several large see-through spiders from being thrown onto the bonfire. Dear things - this is a fate they certainly do not deserve.
And now - oh joy! I'm inside, guilt-free because it's raining, and I'm about to clean myself up. A white cotton shirt, I think, a quick vacuuming up of dog hair while I'm making a pot of tea, and then I might do some of my 3000 piece jigsaw. Nice. The best of life's pleasures are often the smallest and simplest - though 3000 pieces of a thatched cottage and garden jigsaw might not be everyone's cup of tea.
Saturday 12th March
Our world is a savage place - coastal parts of Japan have been hit by an earthquake tsunami. I felt really sad, tucked up snugly in Pond Cottage listening to the dreadful news.
New Zealand Natives :- I have a whole section devoted to the New Zealand native plants I grow.
Being a good gardener is not an inherently dangerous thing. With the best intentions I nurture the surface of my bit of the earth, hopefully not reshaping it too much, trying to do all the right things, saying the right words. Hmm... My impact is infinitesimally small, yet I think What I'm doing is so important - enriching the soil, planting natives, weeding by hand, digging by hand, nothing too nasty... And I never have to think about nuclear power stations because my country is so tiddly and under populated that it doesn't need any. Hmm...
Today in a somewhat sombre mood I will be carting and burning more rubbish. But here's a thought - if I can catch Non-Gardening Partner he can help. I bet he'll be elusive, suddenly needing to 'do' the sheep's bottoms or something equally serious. I am probably destined to burn my bonfire alone...
Some Hours Later...
I'm having a break for ten minutes, during which time I am allowed to mention, just once, how much I dislike burning. Blast - that was it! Non-Gardening Partner has taken himself off, as predicted, but he is doing 'the pump' - a seriously manly (and undoubtedly necessary) activity which I really cannot counter. For all I know he may be sitting in the pump house reading the Saturday newspaper...
Bright Pink Asters
Sometimes gardening has to be tedious, because if it were always amazing and creative there'd be no contrast. So to make the tedium a little less predictable I am clearing rubbish from three different fence locations. Unfortunately by one pile I suspect there is a honey bee nest, in the ground, and I am a bit scared to vigorous. If I can finish the immediate surrounds of Pond Cottage I will be really happy. Well, I'll be happier...
Much later...
I love little Minimus the grey cat very much. She brought me the same mouse twice last night, in bed in Pond Cottage. Thank you, young Minimus, such an excellent mouser - I really appreciate your wriggling trophies in the middle of the night. And just now, aiming to jump into the jigsaw box, she missed, brought down the box and a large piece of my 3000 piece jigsaw with it - the bland green lawn bit which had taken me ages. Aargh!
By the way, I did finish the clean-up behind Pond Cottage and trimmed some fence-line Tree Lucernes so the path could run underneath. I tended my bonfire sensibly, raking up the edges and flattening the middle. And I humphed so silently that no-one could have possibly heard me...