Mid-Summer Rain...
Summer Lavateras
Four days of continual mid-summer rain - so good for the garden, but lacking the gardener's gentle touch to provide some subtle summer balance. Eek. I wonder how the weeds are getting on? They'll be in full party mood - it's ages since I checked them out. And lots of flowers have probably flopped over.
Rusty the dog gets very bored in the rain. He lurks inside around Non-Gardening Partner, tennis ball in mouth, sighing and groaning. 'Let's dooooooooooo something!' Walk, bicycle ride, car, pond, check the sheep - anything! Dogs are so basic.
Sunday 28th December
Having to spend time inside has been good for my Beethoven - just nine sonatas to go, with my new deadline being the end of 2013. I've made two more sets of green striped pyjamas for the Pond Cottage teddy bears. I've nearly finished the Christmas jigsaw, and I'm reading 'The Adventurous Gardener' by Christopher Lloyd.
Adventurous?
The word 'adventurous' in the title requires some imagination. So far Mr Lloyd has been lecturing me on the most precise methods for taking hardwood cuttings, and the strictest pruning regimes for shrubs. Then he'll pop in a solitary encouraging sentence like 'Mistakes are fun!' Hmm.... One percent adventurous, perhaps...
A Type of Allium?
Last night we went to the movies to see the Hobbit, Part Two. An excess of Orcs, not enough Hobbit, and the King of the Dwarves had lost his smouldering X-factor and just looks plain tired. Too many scary footbridges over gaping grey chasms, and not enough green scenery. Please ignore me if you haven't seen it!
Minimus the Grey Cat
Much Later...
It's still raining - these last four days have felt like four weeks. Tomorrow I am going to do some gardening, wet weather or not.
Percy Cat
Monday 29th December
Well... I've done a half an hour's weeding, but very lazy weeding it has been. I had my good jeans on, so there was no sitting down in the wet and damp. And no gardening gloves, so the extractions had to be fairly innocuous. I was doing rather well, but then it started pelting down with rain. When I'm in a 'driven' mood I'll garden and get totally wet. But there's a slightly lazy holiday mood in the house at the moment.
Cats!
I was met back at the house by ginger Percy, who is my new best cat-friend. I saw rather a lot of Percy last night, as he leapt in and out the cottage window, chirping loudly. Then he landed (deliberately?) on Minimus, so there were noisy howls. Fair enough.
And then contented crunching sounds as Percy ate more of Minimus's special grain-free, sweet potato flavoured 'Fussy Cat' dried food. Then Minimus woke me up - she was now hungry and all her food had gone. Then in leapt Percy again...
Bears in Green Pyjamas
Green Pyjamas
I've now produced sets of green pyjamas for all the cottage teddy bears, and I'm about to start some red tartan shorts, for daywear. The PJs all have little buttons, collars, and pockets, but no elastic in the pants (those fat bear tummies will hold them up). There'd better not be any energetic bear-dancing while I'm asleep.
Six sonatas to go, Beethoven-wise, and only two days in which to play them. Still to come are two that I know well (nos 4 and 25) and the ever perennial 'Moonlight' Sonata.
Tuesday 31st December
Right! It's sunny! It's B-Day, and I have to play five and a half Beethoven sonatas before it ends. Escher the big brown dog is arriving soon (he is spending New Years with us). We will do some super-gardening, wear ourselves out, collapse with wine and roast lamb, and be in bed with a good book by 8:30. That's the last plan for the year 2013! Now let's see if I can deliver. Possibly there'll be a short comment on the last of the Beethovens, and then I will sum up the great man before I retire pianistically for the year.
Mid-Morning...
Aargh! Two duck-eating dogs in the house, and a lost ducking has just run squeaking through the lounge, in one door and out the other. And what to say about Beethoven's last, no. 32? 'Less would have been more'?
Lunchtime...
Another aargh! Now a duck with ducklings (alas, minus one) has been dog-discovered, lurking in the garden by the Glass-House. So Escher and I have been gardening as far away from this location as possible. The lawns are being mowed, so he's inside with me. I take my dog-sitting (and duck-nurturing) responsibilities very seriously. Love that sun!