House and garden...
OK. So far this morning I've washed the bay windows (with the floor mop, oops). I've washed the sheets and hung them out to dry. But this is a gardening journal, right? Unfortunately, just sometimes, house chores get in the way of an early start in the garden. I am not a natural house-worker. Sometimes, seeing mess, dust, dirt etc., I try and fool myself. For example, today, if I work really hard in the garden, then I am allowed to vacuum the downstairs of the house as a reward. What sort of reward is that? I have to do this after my shower and before I light the log-burner. Hmm...
Two Collies
Later...
My house is cleaner! I've made my bed in the cottage with clean sheets, I've cooked the evening meal, and I've slurped a glass of House Merlot. And today's gardening has been superb. I've been trundling horse manure to the gardens over the water race, then carefully (by gloved hand) throwing it between the sprouting forget-me-nots and perennials. Back and forth, back and forth, dogs following, looking for their sticks. When I can be bothered I find one and throw it. The stick! Fetch the stick! Lucky that the lawns don't get mown in winter - they are littered with sticks dry, wet, long, short, half-chewed...
Saturday 4th August
Today has been a big wood day. Non-Gardening Partner has been chain-sawing, while I have been moving the logs onto the trailer and stacking them in the front paddock. I roll the heavier logs, and several have chosen curved trajectories, wobbling the wrong way and crashing into the white Camellia (buds almost opening) called 'Mansize'. Oops.
Logs and Sawdust
In the middle of the Driveway Garden the red rhododendron Cornubia is flowering. How very, very lovely it looks. This rhododendron has been slow to puff itself up and out into a decent sized shrub - it was planted ten years ago.
Cornubia Rhododendron
When one has a big wood day one doesn't think about anything else. Actually, that's not strictly true.
Mansize Camellia
One thinks a lot about food, and stopping work, the wood all magically gone, the rest of the trees all felled. One devises lists of new ornamental trees which might like to be planted here in The Hump. Hee hee.
Sunday 5th August
I have an early morning plan. I'm going to roll some heavy logs out of The Hump down to the collection place on the grass. I will do this for two hours. Correction. I will try and do this for two hours.
Hopefully there will be a strong-young-arms helper here this afternoon to load and stack. My old-lady shoulders felt slightly achy last night in bed. The preferred sleeping position (a stretched out starfish) didn't help.
Much Later...
First let me clarify that 'The Hump' is a hump. Being an old sand dune, it therefore has a humpy shape and sloping sides.
The heaviest logs have been 'down' the other side, and so I've had to roll each up the slope. Up is tricky with a heavy log! Then I've had to steer them slightly down, trying not to hit Mansize (a Camellia in a dangerous place, see picture) or take out the underneath of the trailer (where I suspect 'electrics' are lurking...)
perfect Logs!
Logs have personalities!
I can also say that each log has its own personality. Some are recalcitrant, with lumps and knobs that cause all sorts of problems, balance-wise. Some love rolling so much that they roll off down the driveway, following their own path. Oy! Come back here at once! Others are deliberately obstructive, falling down flat at the slightest change in terrain.
Some are just nuisances - so proud to have flat bits, (which are not designed for rolling at all). Then, just occasionally, there'll be the perfect round, symmetrical, clean-cut - what a joy this log is to roll!
As you can see, I have been rolling logs for most of the day. Help did arrive, and so many more have been shifted and stacked. Great excitement - NGP thinks we are ready to ring the tree men to book them for another felling session. Yippee! More logs. Oh.
Runaway Logs