Out and about in the garden...
The new puppy loves being out and about in the garden. We wander around the garden a lot, with Rusty the dog and big Fluff-Fluff the cat following. We look at the beautiful mid-spring flowers and glow with happy pride - well, strictly speaking, one of us does that. The other is busier escorting Fluff-Fluff up a tree, yapping at the big dog, or fighting my shoe-laces.
Monday 6th October
Puppies (and kittens) are time-wasters? I can't think of many nicer ways to spend (not waste) my time. It's a joy nurturing and caring for young animals, and watching them grow.
Winnie the Puppy Helps with the Weeding
But today it's sheep shearing day, and so the garden walks have to be temporarily postponed, at least for this morning. The sheep are already in the sheds down the road, and the shearer is due. I'm going down in half an hour or so to 'help', so the dogs will be popped into their outdoors kennels to snack on second breakfasts and snooze in the sun.
Later, Lunchtime, Smelling Sheepy...
Yes, I am truly fragrant, but the lanolin is so good for the worn gardening hands! I love handling the fleeces. And great news for the garden - while in the shearing shed we had some serious vertical rain. Not such good news for the person (me) who had hung loads of washing out on the line. Oh well.
Winnie Loves the Broom
And the Dogs...
The dogs are back inside, and Rusty is slumped in his chair. Winnie the puppy is yapping at me. Big dogs are boring, apparently, and so are people whose shoe-laces are too cowardly to fight back. I've distracted her with a Winnie the Pooh soft toy.
If it's still raining, I could do some work in the glasshouse after I've had a shower. Yesterday I pricked out more Echiums - I love their blue summer flowers, and so do the bees. I'm also hoping that lots of my purple leaf sage cuttings will take root. I love this herby shrubby plant, and it, too, has blue flowers. My favourite colour!
OK. Better check what that puppy is growling at down the hallway. Probably Tiger the cat (who is terribly mature about such interruptions to her routine), or could be my missing hiking sock - expensive, top shelf - and that's where I should have put it! Blast!
Tuesday 7th October
So what's the plan for today? We've already been for a couple of early walks to check the rhododendrons. It's almost frosty again. The cup of hot coffee is a disappointment at such times. It slurps itself all over the paths, and by the time I go to drink, half of it isn't there and the other half has gone cold. If only sensible, insulated mugs had pictures of cats on them...
Rusty by Middle Garden
After the early morning walk Winnie the puppy loves to drag her bed blankets and all her toys out onto the floor, then she races outside to bring in assorted bits of vegetation. Add the odd shoe carelessly left by the door, its shoe-lace twitching, ready for a fight, and one has a rather messy room. Fun though!
Pretty Daffodils
But first, some chamber music. Bach! My hero!
Later, Lunchtime...
I've done some inconsequential digging down the boundary - slowly, slowly, oh so slowly the holes are filling up. But - confession - I don't really feel like being energetic and physical. I'm having a mid-day crisis. I'm going to sit on the Adirondack seat with a lazy book and a cup of tea and just relax. I won't even plan anything.
Much Later...
After giving up totally and having a sleep on the grass - with Fluff-Fluff and Winnie in attendance - I decided I had to get over this malaise. So Winnie went back in her dog motel for a compulsory afternoon nap, while I worked away in the glasshouse. I've taken seedlings outside to harden off, and pricked out more Meadowfoam and purple Cornflowers.
Tomorrow I must start planting things. I probably need a list, so here it is.
- All Lupins get crammed into the Cottage Garden.
- Pink Phlox goes by the Pergola.
- Stachys goes in the Driveway Garden and along the Pergola Garden edge.
Sir Edmund Hillary :- A creamy climbing rose.
And the Sir Edmund Hillary rose, a reluctant climber (unlike its namesake, the legendary mountaineer) can go up the pergola with the All Black (actually dark blue) sweet peas. Now there's a nice New Zealand connection.