A single-task gardening day
Small Red Camellia
It's unusual for me to have a fully focussed, single-task gardening day. Unless I was mass-planting a thousand polyanthus, for example. Wow. If that was my day, would I feel proud? More likely bored! Variety is much more fun.
Tuesday 26th July
Gardening life (and life in general) works best for me when there are lots of different things which need to be fitted in. And when my 'busyness' exceeds the hours in which I can stay awake, then there's always the gardening tomorrow. That hypothetical day when all the foxgloves will be potted up, the roses and hydrangeas pruned, the glass-house tidied, the huge pile of forgotten rubbish by the fence burnt... The day when things are actually finished. Aargh!
Tuesday 26th July
It's been a day with bits of everything. I went to the dog park (social life), I went swimming (fitness life), my friend and I blundered through a new Brahms piano duet (musical life), I shifted a path and replanted Alchemilla Mollis along its edge (creative gardening life), and then I bonfired for an hour (garden maintenance life). And now I'm cooking a family pie (domestic life), and having a glass of wine (life).
Three Very Good Dogs
Gardener Ababndons Tour!
Just a short note on le Tour. It hasn't been a good July for couch-cycling. The winter weather outside has been far too benign. I'm still stuck in the Pyrenees, while they (the blokes) have reached Paris. I am two weeks behind, so this year I will have to regretfully abandon.
Wednesday 27th July
Good morning, at 6am, to my barking dogs - well, good morning to big brown Escher. The two collies would never be so needy (or loose-bowelled). Luckily for me it's not frosty. Now, if today goes according to my plans, it should swing between :
- Little planting details.
- Large garden maintenance.
Tell you more when I finish. Oh, that f-word again. I actually mean when I run out of time, or puff, or daylight, or all three.
Five Hours Later...
I've just popped inside for 'lunch for dogs' - the dogs don't understand 'afternoon tea', and I like to tell them what we are doing (I'm the bossy alpha bitch). I wonder what they think the words 'going gardening' mean. Circuit training?
Remember that pile of forgotten rubbish by the fence? That huge pile? Well, I've burnt it all, while simultaneously cleaning up the garden behind the Stables. I've even started pruning the roses. And I planted my new red-leaf Bergenias by the bird bath. The label says 'black foliage', ha ha. 'Dragonfly Sakura', welcome to my garden.
Cream Camellia
One last session...
Now I'm going to go back outside for one last session, in which I will pot up my foxglove seedlings. This will nicely match my visions of lilac, white, and apricot flower-heads, standing tall and looking summer-beautiful. And so it will have been a very long gardening day, and I have pretty much stayed on one task for ages. Without getting too bored.
Thursday 28th July
Good show that I chose yesterday to burn the rubbish. Today it's windy again. I'm taking the collies to the vet (pills, weigh-in, expensive dog food) and then for hopefully a walk in the nearby forest - that is as long as there aren't any trees howling and crashing down. Sorry, Escher, but you get a ridiculously early bedtime (with a dog biscuit, of course).
Much Later...
Our vet visit was really good. The forest walk was lovely. I arrived home at the same time as my friend, who had brought lunch, plus all our new piano duet music. We first spent an hour in the glass-house potting up Queen Anne's Lace seedlings. Then we ripped into Brahms with robust gusto (and slightly dirty fingernails).
Escher is trying to be really good.
Aargh! My dogs think they have seen someone, and are lined up by the glass doors barking and howling. Two very useful phrases I've been trying to teach them : 'There's nobody there.' and 'It's a false alarm.' One speaks with talk-to-a-toddler intonation and clarity. Dear, darling, doofus dogs. Thank you for keeping me safe from nothing.
Baby Pink Camellias
We've walked around the garden, and I've taken photographs of the early flowering Camellias. Flower colour! Yippee! Do you know, I've had rather a lovely week. There's been some serious alone time, plus activities with my friends (both furry and human).