A big day - garden visitors are coming!
Bees Share a Cosmos Flower
A big day - garden visitors are coming! Already, before breakfast, the Shrubbery paths are cleared. And now I'm having a pile of peanut butter toast, while my big musical passion - Brahms's piano concerto (B flat major) - plays really loud. Hee hee.
Wednesday 25th January
I'm giving the garden paths some extra attention for the visitors. Whereas I can still swish and slalom past the vegetation (granted, Phormium leaves are a bit tricky), only the bravest visitor would dare to emulate me.
- 'A garden visit should be stimulating yet restful.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
Polite visitors (and I'm sure these visitors will be polite) do not go charging happily down quasi-paths, through deepening undergrowth. In fact, paths that peter out can make even the insensitive visitor feel nervous. Nor do people like to hear the alarming crackling of gum tree bark underneath their (obviously sensible) shoes. A good garden visit should be stimulating yet restful.
Dog and Kitten
Great Coffee!
My goodness, this coffee is good - my compliments to the barista (me). While I slurp I must record a small plan to dig out a poorly behaving clump of red hot pokers. They can be repositioned by the water race, where (I might add) a bargain bin bright orange poker is thriving. I thought I didn't really like these rough, tough perennials. Well, I was wrong!
Gardening Companions
So I now gather up my gardening companions (big Fluff-Fluff, Rusty the toast-crust-obsessed dog, and Little Mac the kitten), point the stereo speakers to blast out the house windows, and rake madly.
Hmm... I wonder if I could actually play this Brahms concerto? I must have a look at the score. And from the sublime (Brahms) to the ridiculous, I'm thinking of bidding for eight garden gnomes in an online auction. Remember Bach, my original bachelor gnome, and Nigel, the gentle gnome holding the little forest creature? Well, maybe you don't remember, but their brothers are in this auction. Hee hee...
Late Lunchtime...
OK. I'm about to shower so I can greet my visitors elegantly, not looking like one of Macbeth's blasted heath witches. Hope there aren't any spiders in my hair - I hate drowning them.
Hydrangeas
I've finished the paths in the Shrubbery, trimmed overhanging Pittosporums, said hello to my two stylish gnomes on the big tree stump, and done the tiniest bit of cosmetic weeding. I've cleared gum bark off the lawns, too, and dead-headed lots of dahlias and Flower Carpet roses. This gardening legend is about to become a hostessing legend.
Red Hot Pokers
Later...
My visitors were lovely, and they liked my Hydrangeas - as I do. They brought cake and brandy-snap baskets (filled with cream and berries) for afternoon tea. And nobody fell over anything.
Thursday 26th January
Right. First I'm off swimming and sushi-ing with my friends. Then I'm gardening while listening to the cricket. I have a lot of loose plans, so will be grasshoppering around a bit. Dig this, plant that, weed over there, water that bit...
That's quite enough. The itemising of garden tasks is still banned from this journal - I know a thinly disguised list when I write one!
Later...
I've had a very quiet day. Little Mac the kitten came over Middle Bridge and poked around the edge of the water race by the big Gunnera. This kitten is fascinated by water, drawn to it, and then stops concentrating and falls in. But this time only his lower half got wet, and I didn't hear the splash.
Gnomes by the Pond Path
I Hope...
Oooo - I hope I win those garden gnomes. My price is set in concrete (as are the gnomes, hee hee).
Friday 27th January
I am sorry to report that someone out there, madder than I, has outbid me online for the scruffy garden gnome collection. So the money (non-gnome lovers would be horrified at the amount of my highest bid) can be spent on other things for the garden? Hee hee. Gardener's logic.
I know - I'll pop into the Ecoshop on the way home from chamber music. Who knows? The gnome of my dreams may be there, waiting for this Gardener in Shining Armour to rescue him.
Later...
Alas, a gnomeless (and gardenless) day. One can have too much of a good thing, however...