Rain and sun...
Small Flowered Fuchsia
Rain, more rain. Blobby rain with serious intentions. Puddles in the driveway! I have had to reinstate my gumboots, and the dogs and I go for wet walks around the gardens and orchard.
Deep thoughts...
I think deep thoughts about the concept of shelter, and how annoying wet shoulders and wet feet can be. The dogs don't care about wet necks and feet at all. I think even deeper thoughts about what it would be like to have fur all over my old skin. It would save on all the gardening scrapes and scratches...
I think it's too wet to garden. So I am going through my web-roses, putting strips of six thumbnails in as many of the rose pages as possible. My late spring garden photographs are so pretty and rosy! Yet those I'm taking at the moment (autumn, earlyish) are equally lovely. A more mellow mood, obviously. Leaves just starting to change colour, toadstools popping up everywhere, green lawns again...
Friday 7th April
Yeay! The sun has come back. The sun! Whoopee! So we went to the dog park, then I went off to the vet to pick up some super-expensive food for Rusty, and then I - well, actually 'we' - did gardening. Yeay! Four hours throwing Winnie's ball and clearing, trimming, sawing, weeding, etc. in the Stumpy (AKA Willow Tree) Garden. I shifted two recycled roses out from the depths and onto the sunny edge. I planted some Heuchera. I pulled out lots of baby Oak, Broom, and Gorse trees.
Autumn by the Water Race
What to do with the fastigate Oaks that are soooooo not fastigate? I tried some high trimming with the saw on a pole. Too hard! Actually, I thought of Non-Gardening Partner, and how he loves to be organised in the weekend. So I thought I'd leave him something to do, hee hee.
Another deep (for me) and probably terribly obvious (for everyone else) thought. The sun has an amazing effect on my spirit. But why is that? When the sun is covered over, it's still light. The sun is still up there. I can still stay warm. Surely it's not just the Vitamin D or whatever. That sun has spiritual powers.
Saturday 8th April
Aargh! The sun is sharing the sky with puffy whitish clouds (nice) - but there's no time yet to garden. I've just seen groves of happy weeds in the Allotment Garden. The plan is to zoom out to Madrigals practice, then zoom home and start weeding. My reward - a hot bath, and a sultry Merlot. Not simultaneously...
Spotty Toadstools
Later, dusk...
Hmm... A thoughtful 'hmm'. My best laid plans in the Allotment garden have worked. The perennial blue Agastache (encouraged to self-seed) and annual Calendulas (so bright and pretty from autumn into winter) are growing well. And most of the weeds are growing happily in the middle of these desirables. The Nasturtiums have had a new lease of flowering life, and one cherishes flower colour in autumn.
But I've done my best. I've also dug out two spindly roses, which are going on the bonfire - one is even covered in mildew. My garden isn't allowed to have mildew! I've talked to NGP about a more secure arrangement for the rope swags and the rambling roses.
A misplaced rambler...
A recycled rose in the middle of one Allotment section looks horribly like a rambler, too. It has a creamy flower, and is sending off rose shoots alarmingly in all directions. Oops. Tomorrow I'll shift it. That's the trouble offering a good country home to unwanted, unnamed roses. They're usually dug out in autumn or winter and pruned before I pick them up, and so I have no idea how they will want to grow.
More deep thoughts - when it's sunny, it's easy to think about gardening in the rain. Not a problem, when it's sunny...