Barking Friday...
Pescy and the Piano
Yeay! It's Barking Friday! Nothing to do with dogs, everything to do with playing Bach's chamber music. And a special treat this morning - Non-Gardening Partner joined me and my flute friend to play Bach Trio Sonatas. He plays the violin, I play the piano (which I sometimes misspell as 'paino', hee hee).
And then it turned into Burning Friday. Slowly but surely I burnt all the hedge trimmings in the trailer, as well as raking and burning all the leaves off Duck Lawn. I also trimmed Phormiums and Astelias and gathered up fallen Cordyline leaves - the best burners of all! Pebbles my young dog (usually a persistent 'barker') was in a more compliant mood today. So I like her again. Hmm...
And now I am going to play my piano, just for myself - a groovy piano sonata by Prokovief. The House Merlot is going down well, so best not tackle Albeniz with all his double sharps and and cross-over hands.
Sunday 9th June
It's been a grand weekend. I've burnt two trailer loads of hedge trimmings. I've cleaned up more mess from the Hen House Garden (gum leaves and bark, very useful to encourage my bonfire). I've even started to clean up Hazelnut prunings from the orchard.
Hedge Trimmings on the Bonfire
Today was the biggest burn of all, from 10am until sunset (about 5pm). Red Fred (who loves gardening) was very much in attendance, and occasionally a bored dog would drop a ball at my feet. I spent a lot of time gazing at the bonfire flames (avoiding the smoke), thinking about roses. I am going to plant my spare roses (I've dug four sad ones out of the Hen House garden, far too shady) in last summer's potato patch. I will dig a new potato patch further along in The Hump for next vegetable season.
Thoughts...
Thoughts - the huge green Phormium near the Hen House Garden path is flattening out and splitting, rather sadly, into pieces, and is not long for this life in its present form. Might deconstruct it. Another thought, too - the Sedum Autumn Joy plants are not at all joyful in this shaded, out-of-the-way garden. I think they could move into The Hump, too. The Hump is sunny.
Red Fred the Cat
Sat down at dusk on the wet grass, because Red Fred was trying to climb up my legs (and that is scary). He sat on my lap instead and enjoyed the longest cat cuddle. The fire burnt slowly down, my face warmed by the flames, my tummy warmed by beautiful Fred kitten (who is not a kitten any more, but I still affectionately call him that).
Loneliness or laziness?
Some deeply analytical soul-searching regarding my piano : Maybe I wasn't playing it very often because the piano was a lonely instrument, and I spent a lot of time alone? Daughter put me straight. Not loneliness. Oh no. It was simply laziness. OK.
Kitten in the Piano
So now, a zealous convert, I am trying to turn NGP into a VPP ('Violin Playing Partner'). Brushing aside the effects of too much House Merlot (just me), we launched into some Bach violin sonatas after dinner. But the very first Allegro misbehaved, and the piano part derailed, trundling off the tracks like a cartoon train. Aargh! Schubert settled things down. Memo to self. More than half a glass? No barking.