Daffodil bulbs...
Gerbe Rose
Bach chamber music... Ooh, goody! What a groovy way to start the day. And my lovely flautist has presented me with a huge bag of daffodil bulbs, too. Yippee - fat bulbs! And a bag of freshly picked plums. This busy late-summer life is good.
Sunday 12th February
Today I like my gardening self, because I have made a very good (if totally random) gardening decision. I am removing all the ivy from the Driveway Border, piece by piece, root by root, using the law of finite numbers, since ivy is very much a finite nuisance. I foolishly planted the very first little piece here seventeen happy years ago.
My Very First Gardening Project
This was my very first gardening project, a little garden dug from paddock grass around the weeping cherry trees. Thanks to the wonderful imbalance of gardening life it will NOT take seventeen years of prodding, scooping, tugging, slicing, and digging to get it all out. No way! I've had to be careful not to prod, scoop, tug, slice, or dig Little Mac the gardening kitten, who has been 'helping'. Ouch!
End of the Driveway Border
Anyway, I've worked for only two hours, and I already have heaps of ivy all over the driveway ready to be gathered and disposed of (probably on the fence-line, where it can regrow underneath the pine trees).
Possum Problems
Actually, my day technically started about 1am with the pesky possum sitting in the tree by my open cottage window. Imagine the sound of a gargling zombie from a C-grade horror movie - if you can. This is the horrible possum noise that woke me up. I stood on the verandah and waved the cottage broom at him. Most ineffectual, methinks... I need to trap and dispatch this nasty creature. Possums are dreadful pests in New Zealand, stripping native bush and killing the forests. Unfortunately for me they are cat-sized, and in torchlight can be mistaken for one - eek! Apart from their spooky circle-eyes, of course.
- 'Celebrate the random.'
- -Moosey Words of Wisdom.
Right. I'm going back outside for the second ivy-ripping session. This random idea came out of nowhere, really, but it's a fine one, and long overdue. Celebrate the random, I say! It stops boredom, and keeps a gardener on her (or his) toes.
Little Mac the Kitten
Much, Much Later...
I spent three more hours pulling out that wretched ivy from the Frisbee Lawn side of the garden. During a short break we got another load of compost, and I've already spread most of it around the rhododendrons at the beginning of the Driveway Garden. That silly kitten almost got composted at one stage, though, hee hee.
What a brilliant day. Two sensitive hours of chamber music (which sounded rather good at times) plus five solid hours of gardening - perhaps a large glass of wine with the evening meal? I'd better stop writing and start drinking. Goodnight.
Monday 13th February
Terribly exciting news. Fred the lamb, saved from the Christmas roast when he was a woolly toddler, is going to be used as inspiration for a miniature. The artist, Kerri has a wonderful gallery of cats, dogs, and farm animals - have a peep!
Fred :- Meet Fred the lamb.
Fred and I are highly honoured to be associated with such a collection of animals. Being a 'meat-breed' Fred grew into an obese sheep, and has been one of the Moosey dearly departed for a year or so. But his lambhood was highly entertaining.
Now, is there to be any gardening news today? I'm feeling a little slow, but do I have horse manure and compost to spread, and, alas, much more ivy to dig out. Why, why, why, why did I plant that tiny piece?
Two Hours Later...
Two hours pulling out ivy is better than no hours, and Little Mac really enjoys this gardening activity. It's nearly clear enough to plant the remaining daffodils and get the compost on. The border looks so much tidier, and there seems to now be space for roses - maybe!
Tuesday 14th February
Happy Valentine's Day. My life is my Valentine... Oh, and my garden, my little cottage by the pond, all the cats, and Little Mac the kitten, my friends and family (of course), the roses, my new little footbridges, compost... Oops, forgot Non-Gardening Partner and the dog...
Happy Valentine's Day 2012
Not only did the big irrigation run last night, but now it's raining - such a nicely applied double dose of water for my garden. Ha! A Valentine's Day present! This morning I'm in town playing chamber music, the perfect activity for such a day. There's only one thing I wish I'd done. Only one? Can a gardener ever sing 'Je ne regrette rien' with conviction? I have manure in bags and compost in the back of the trailer and the rain is pattering down... Oh well, at least I'm not fertilising the ivy (sounds a tad rude, sorry about that).
I will call into the big Ecoshop on the way back home from music. Who knows - there may be garden gnomes (or concrete cricketers) to rescue, hee hee.
Much, Much Later...
Back home in the drizzle my Valentine's Day afternoon has just got slower and sleepier. I've watched an unsatisfactory episode of Midsomer Murders, poked at my jigsaw and put in about thirty pieces in thirty minutes, and have even lit the log-burner. Hopeless - it isn't really cold, just damp and dull, too much so to be outside gardening. Hmm... Take my dog for a walk, I think, to wake up the mind and body. Then I'm going to wash my hair and play some Schumann. I am trying to make sense of the awkward chromaticism (and general burble) in his Kreisleriana piano pieces.