Balance!
Small Pink Azalea
Ha! Have worked out what I want for my birthday, which is quite soon. Some balance. Not the non-wobbly kind when I do my Silver Swans ballet class (thought that would be rather nice).
Balance!
I want balance between out-going energy and inner peace. And a trailer load of garden mix for my new potato patch (this might be easier to achieve).
Friday 4th September
Ten years ago, in the darkness of early morning, my house rock'n'rolled to the big so-called Darfield earthquake, magnitude 7.1. The ground near the epicentre (about 20km away) moved up 1.25 times the acceleration due to gravity. There were approximately 17,600 aftershocks. I looked all that up on Wikipedia.
Periwinkle Blues
Goodness me! And how time has flown by - Minimus is the only cat left from that year. I am going to have my own wee ceremony (though not at 4:35am).
Other things to do today :
- Play Bach with my flute friend.
- Spread horse manure. Where? On the Stumpy Garden, on top of oak leaves. Nice.
- Weed the Shrubbery. Clear one path of periwinkle.
Gnomes need balance too...
I will turn it into a loop and turn other unwanted paths into garden. Thoughts - more Agapanthus plantings? Reposition the garden bench, creating a quiet, secluded spot for a cup of tea?
Mid-Afternoon...
So far so good. Except we played Handel, I haven't spread any manure yet, and the garden bench is in total disrepair. It is totally unsittable-on. If one of the Fred cats leapt up on it I fear it would collapse under his weight. So I'm having my cup of tea inside.
Dusk...
What a lovely time 'dusk' is! It's apres-gardening time - a shower, hair wash, clean clothes on, feet up, relax. The evening meal organised. Perhaps a bit of book-reading or journal writing? At dusk, a wonderfully evocative word for gardeners.
I rescued a scruffy garden gnome who had fallen off his stump. Silly chap! The loopy path is cleared and edged with stones. I crawled around it with scissors and hand digger removing periwinkle, followed closely by my hoppy blackbird friend. The Hump Garden is his territory, but he is always alone (worry that he might be a bachelor).
Path Through the Periwinkle
I love the periwinkle. It's starting to flower, and transforms this rather difficult garden wilderness area into something very beautiful.
Saturday 5th September
My music friend has given me five potted hollyhocks and some Echinacea and Cosmos seeds. Just so lovely. Gardeners are generous people. Today I even found a box of healthy strawberry plants (free to take) on the side of the road. I've put them in pots on the patio.
Free Strawberry Plants
More joy - I sent Non-Gardening Partner off to get my advance birthday present (a trailer load of garden mix) while I prepared a second potato patch in the Hump Garden (have rather a lot of potatoes to plant). Just having a wee break (sore hands from scoopy weeding) before barrowing the mix onto the garden.
Dusk - again!
That special time again. My blackbird friend watched me shovel and rake garden mix onto the first potato patch. I've redesigned the nearby path to make more sense.
Blossom
Late in the day - oh so lucky - I had absolutely no idea where I'd left my camera. And quite by accident I found it (almost tripped over it) in the grass. Oops. Now to look at the blossom pictures...