Where is my camera?
Taking photographs of the rhododendrons by Willow Bridge this morning. So beautiful! So I stayed there, to tidy the gardens. Now my camera is lost - hopefully not mulching under a pile of weeds. Oh camera! Would that you could whisper to me : 'Over here! Underneath the Iris confusa!'
Tuesday 5th November
Today is a lovely day for gardening, after the recent excessive heat. And, oh dear, a lovely day for taking garden photographs. It's overcast, and windless, and the air is full of chirping birds.
And nothing looks or feels tired. The water race is burbling mysteriously (running water always soothes the gardening soul).
The Water Race
Watering...
Just to help out, I've got the hoses on in two garden areas - the Driveway Garden (which is looking wonderfully woodlandy) and the Allotment Garden (where the tall bearded Irises and the rugosa hedge roses are flowering). The idea is to move the hoses every hour, and water thoroughly.
A crisis of nature...
There is a reason why my camera is - ahem - mislaid. A duck commotion - mother Mallard with just one duckling bobbed down the water race, watched by my dogs. She decided to fly out of trouble, leaving her duckling behind. Poor baby! No wonder there's only one left... Naturally my rude dogs chased after the duck, while confused duckling ran up into the garden, peep-peep peeping.
Enter my two Fred cats. Now there is a certain gravitas in a squawking duck, if you are a cat, but these little peep-peep noises are extremely tempting. So I roared, waving my arms in circles, trying to distract everybody (I mean 'everyanimal'). And in so doing I must have put my camera down. Somewhere - in the garden, in the grass - but where? Nature in the garden can be cruel, and simple. Dogs are rude. Cats are hunters. And ducks are hopeless.
Dogs are rude. Cats are hunters. Ducks are hopeless.
Right. There's just enough time to finish my edge trimming, collect my tools, and walk slowly over every path, along ever border's edge, looking for my old Fuji Finepix.
Me? Chase a Duckling?
As well as photographs of my beautiful shrubs, it has all my pictures taken at the recent Garden Tour I went on. Aargh!
A Bit Later...
No sign of any agitated ducks (or deceased ducklings) - phew. But my camera! I found it in the long grass by the Bergenias. Now I remember - I was dividing them when the Nature Crisis occurred. Also found the lens cap in my wheelbarrow, covered in old forget-me-nots. Oh my goodness. So lucky!