A superb spring month
What a superb spring month September is - on the days when the wind stops blowing, that is. Blossom, Camellias, Rhododendrons, and the first rose Canary Bird getting ready to flower. Lots of new beautiful plants and flowers...
And a new path! More specifically, a re-routed path, a path that went nowhere (well, not exactly - nowhere used to be a grove of Cordylines, but due to lack of water they've mostly died). It now curves around in the middle of some Pittosporums to get somewhere (the Driveway Lawn).
My New Path
Love new paths!
Yeay! So I'm sawing and lopping off branches that get in the way, and re-laying the stone edging. So far so good. I like this idea very much. I like building paths very much. I have a tendency to build too many, and they often get decommissioned from lack of use. I love byuilding paths!
A lot of the Pittosporums in this rough and tough garden area are self-seeded. Such generous shrub-trees, these. They might enjoy having some horse manure spread lovingly around. The application of such is so much easier when there's a well-defined route. For example, a brand new path!
Lunchtime...
Back outside I go. It's windy. But I can do this!
Red Fred on a Post
Much later...
Whatever 'this' was, I'm sure I did most of it! Finished my path layout - need more stones for the edge. Raked out more mess. Dug out Red Orach seedlings which had germinated on the driveway and potted them up. Similarly some Foxglove plants. Love my garden, I do, even if it's been a bit windy.
Animal news...
Red Fred the cat is again a 'funny face Fred', with a swollen cheek (another abscess). But he's full of life, eating and playing, and showing no discomfort, so am waiting until tomorrow to decide about a potential vet visit.
Next morning...
Phew! I've saved over two hundred dollars. Fred's abscess has popped. His cheek is the proper shape again, and the dogs have helped (sorry about this) him clean it up. So no vet visit needed. I could spend two hundred dollars at the nursery, right? Hmm... Don't think it works quite like this.
On our many orchard walks the dogs and I pass Cats' Memorial Row, a line of memorial blossom trees for some of our dearly departed cats. I say hello to each deceased animal as we walk past. Smoocher's Mount Fuji cherry tree is blossoming now, and Stu's peach tree has the tiniest leaves and buds (Stu was a pet lamb). He's been sprayed with fungicide.
Memorial Cherry Blossom in Orchard
Feeling smiley and spiritually connected, I cast my mind around the garden, placing the other RIP pets in their resting places. I often visit Tiger the tortoiseshell in the Hump Garden, and Fluff-Fluff by his cherry tree in the Island Bed gets - ahem - trodden on when weeding. Rusty the dog in the ram paddock, near to the cottage, is easy to say hello to.
Histeria :- Hissy was a rescued and socialised feral kitten. Hr proper name was Histeria.
But where was Hissy the tabby's final resting place? I couldn't remember. I shut my eyes and tried to find her. Aargh! Nothing. Miss Hissy, with her intense expression and her loving nature. Checked the journal. RIP Friday February 9th, 2018. No burial details. Hmm...
It's been a ridiculously hot day for September, so I've been watering the Pond Paddock gardens, and the garden where my new path is. It looks most inviting : 'Follow meeeeeeee, follow meeeeeee'...
View of Pink Rhododendron
Have walked the dogs three times, and done my ballet class on Zoom. Have weeded, carted stones, spread horse manure, watered the glasshouse seedlings, walked the dogs again...
Thursday 24th September
It's OK. I've located Hissy - she's in the Hump Garden near the Cercis tree. With this garden being enlarged and its paths shifted, her cat-spirit (and my memory) have become slightly confused. And it's sooooo hot! Hoses on again, find a spot in the shade and do some gentle weeding.