Spring Madness...
Bricklaying...
The Pond Paddock spring blossom trees get more and more fluffy, the Choisya shrubs and rhododendrons are flowering, more of my new tulips are open, and the house lawns are the most amazing shade of green. And I'm showing definite signs of spring madness, experiencing my first ever brick-laying mania.
Saturday 12th October
Ha! Not content to build brick walls etc. in my own vegetable garden, I have now volunteered to simultaneously build a similar structure in Younger Son of Moosey's seaside garden, for his vegetables.
As at my place, all walls should be finished and all vegetables planted therein within two weeks. The phrase 'bitten off more than I can chew' comes to mind. So I spent yesterday afternoon in son's backyard making grand arm-sweeping gestures - along there, the round bit here, a corner there, and so on - while cleaning his bricks for him. Now today, back home, it's raining heavily, so I'm going to sit in my garage and clean more of his bricks for me.
Pink Rhododendron
Sunday 13th October
First of all - I am so lucky! Sitting up in bed in Pond Cottage, wearing my new old-school green plaid wool 'Made in England' dressing gown, sipping tea, talking to Minimus the cottage cat, looking at the new leaf growth on the Pond Paddock trees, listening to the pheasant honking behind the pond, sweeping my morning eyes over all the garden gnomes...
Pale Lemon Rhododendrons
More Bricks!
Where is this gush all leading? Aha! Unfortunately it's leading to more brick-cleaning, and later this afternoon some brick-laying, where I plan to be spiralling into control, rather than out of it! Blast! I'd love to do some spring gardening.
Much Later...
So I've picked up (ouch!) another trailer load of bricks, I've sat in the sun and cleaned another dozen or so, and I've done some serious brick laying into my herb spiral. The base right around the curved path is laid and level. Well, it looks level!
I went to look at the rhododendrons in the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden, too. The fruit salad coloured ones are just starting to flower, as are the yellow Saffron Queens. So is the big lilac one behind the garage, and a red over the water in the Dog-Path Garden. I love all my rhododendrons, and they all look exceedingly happy, with bees buzzing in and out of the flower-heads.
Lilac Rhododendron and Phormiums
+5Rather than panicking that all these new shrubs were flowering without me, I just thanked them calmly, took a few photographs, and promised to return on another day for further enjoyment. Then Lilli-Puss my reclusive grey cat turned up and 'helped' with some spring weeding. To quote my favourite fridge magnet: 'Whatever you're doing, it's not as important as patting the cat'.
Tomorrow's Brick Plans
Tomorrow the plan is to lay another thirty bricks (after swimming) and then wander over to Son's house to start digging his vegetable garden. I'm going to dig and weed the ground and then build the brick walls up without mortar. Daft gardening mothers that dig up their son's backyards and erect large structures thereon are possibly not always welcome, hee hee, but this structure (unlike this mother) is temporary.
Blue Aquilegia
Monday Morning...
- ‘Yippee for a good night's sleep in a garden cottage!’
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
Yippee for a good night's sleep in a garden cottage! All gardeners should definitely experience this. I went to bed feeling overwhelmed, thoughts clogged up and smothered in blankets of bricks. I woke up feeling lighter and totally positive again.
I can do this brick thing! After all, it is essentially a finite process, just like weeding - possibly a poor choice for comparison. A gardener going to bed smothered in a blanket of weeds? Aargh! That's enough! So when I get back from swimming I'm bricklaying. Simple, simple day - the best kind of day.
Tuesday 14th October
Today is almost a rerun of yesterday. It's bricks, bricks, bricks.
More Bricks :- My life is overflowing with bricks at the moment.
Early morning I lay in bed plotting the design of Son of Moosey's brick walls (I dug his garden yesterday afternoon). Then, after chamber music, I cleaned bricks for an hour and laid more of my own walls. But I am really getting bricked-out, and my fingers and hands are quite sore. No more brick photographs are allowed on this page!