Dogs and sunshine...
Thank you, July, for some blue sky and sunshine (finally). Please let me never take such winter treasures for granted. And let me never take having two fit dogs in good health for granted. Both are convalescing at the moment : Winnie in a crate, Pebbles with stitches and a bucket on her head.
Miniature Roses
Saturday 11th July
I am going into the Hump Garden to shift a path. And there's another path which I never, ever walk along - so guess what? It's being decommissioned - given back to the garden (I'm thinking potatoes, later in spring). But first - the dogs. Winnie and Pebbles the bucket-head dog both need a trot around the orchard. And I need to change into my gardening clothes.
Much later...
I dug out three insignificant miniature roses (which were completely smothered by forget-me-nots). Sorting those paths out was easy. I shifted two wrongly placed roses and one yellow-leafed Choisya. I also dug out an alarming clump of - wild onions? Whatever they are I'm sure they're a nuisance.
Sunday 12th July
After singing in the Kodaly Missa Brevis (just beautiful) I went shopping with my vouchers. Vouchers! I bought some Hebes. Welcome to Charlotte, El Camino, Otari white, and Beverley Hills (already have one of these - the prettiest blue flowers). Hebes are lovely shrubs, as long as they get enough sun. I spent ages in the Hump's rose garden planting them. Then I shifted more spindly roses and popped more unwanted miniatures into a pot. I planted all the yellow Gladioli bulbs in a heap near the garden's edge, hoping there is enough 'air room' from the surrounding dahlias.
And then at dusk, like magic, it rained. Quite warmly for winter, strong, vertical rain. Yes! The perfect reward for another perfect day. Gush, gush. Winter sunshine does that!
Monday 13th July
Another beautiful sunny winter's day, and my gardening was all going so well. The wee garden at the end of the Stables was weeded and trimmed, with some miniature Agapanthus planted along the edge. I was on a roll. Winnie had done well in her leash walks, and Pebbles the bucket-head dog was keeping me company. Awwww, I thought, my dear dog friend. Then it all went wrong. She charged off down the fence-line to chase the dog next door. Crash! Result : one broken bucket.
Pebbles :- Three buckets to last hopefully ten days. Cross fingers.
Tried to tape it up. Hopeless. Off to the vet for a twenty dollar replacement. Couldn't work out how to slot the new bucket together. Got in a bit of a sulk. So Pebbles had to stay inside under supervision, and my gardening came to a premature end. But three cheers for Non-Gardening Partner, who arrived home with grapes. Being of an engineering bent, he made short work of constructing the new bucket.
Footnote : The new bucket has barely lasted one day. This morning Pebbles ran into a (shut) door and broke it. Bucket number 3, a relic from dearly departed Rusty I found in the garage, is now installed around her neck. It's already covered in small dings, but has survived for eight hours. Phew!
Left my tools outside again...
Oops - just remembered, left all my tools outside, dropped in the grass as I roared after my dog. They spent the night out under the stars! Oops...