Slow and small.
Some of the Succulents
Writing up my gardening journal after a slow day doing very slow things. Small things, small satisfactions, but rather nice to have a relaxed pace in the garden for once. Fixing up little things that I've been ignoring for years.
Repotting the succulents...
For example, I spent ages repotting the patio succulents. Have been sitting on the patio (having breakfast, morning tea, lunch, reading books, etc.) for years, happily ignoring these fleshy little things in smallish pots. Varieties? Sedums, sempervivums, not really sure... And no idea why it took me so long to sort them out. Pity about the dark Aeoniums, though - they didn't survive being left out in the winter weather, though one pot of pieces in the glass-house is still OK.
Then I shifted the hoses around the Hump Garden, watering the new rose and perennial plantings. The greenery is very beautiful and shiny, the clumps of Muscari are flowering properly now, and my paths are amazing. Yeay for my paths!
Muscari
More repotting
Then on the top patio I found a pot of variegated Yukka pieces (I think), very spindly little things they were, struggling to do anything. So I refilled the large terracotta pots with new potting mix and replanted the Yukka pieces therein. Hope they grow.
Watered everything, swept the excess mess off the patio, planted Paris daisies (taking a deep breath - Euryops chrysanthemoides syn. Gamolepis chrysanthemoides) and a green Carex in the patio garden near Lilli's toilet area. Hope she doesn't dig them up.
Did an hour's slow piano practice - Beethoven (Sonata No 3) and Mozart (sight-reading practice). Slow enough to get the notes right, and keep the semi-quavers in proportion to the minims. Then took my cup of tea onto the house lawn, sat on one of the Adirondack chairs, and finished a rather gloomy detective novel. Hmm. Not a good choice for a slow day.
Cat antics...
Then I shifted the hoses again and stood on the Driveway lawn watching the cherry blossom slowly falling down. So beautiful, so dreamy. Aargh! Was accosted by one of the Fred cats, demanding to be picked up (threatening to climb up himself if I didn't oblige). Heard the other Fred, high on top of the two-storey house roof, miaowing loudly. Hello mother! Look at meeeeee! So scary.
Miss Buster
A shiny black flash...
A shiny, black flash - Buster, my beautiful black cat, danced over the lawn and leapt gracefully onto a post. And where was Lilli-Puss? Aha! Snoozing on the patio in the sun. Four cats, close by, filling up the garden with their antics. And where were my lazybones dogs? No comment.
Saturday 25th September
At dawn this morning I was rudely woken by the birds chirping and the wind, roaring and whining in their trees. Blast! Hold on tight, birds! This will just about finish off the cherry blossom in the Driveway Lawn - near gale force winds are predicted all day. So gardening will not be pleasant, slowness and smallness aside.
Had already had a night fright - woken up by a loud clumping crash on the cottage roof. Eek! A tree branch? No, one of the Freds, leaping onto the roof from a nearby tree. A muffled miaow and the lightest pattering of cat paws gave him away. Go away, Fred!
Later...
And go away, noisy, horrible, blustery wind. Nasty, aggressive wind. Rude wind! And assorted other windy adjectives. How about transforming yourself into a slow and small wind? And leave that beautiful cherry blossom alone...
Blossom and Blue Sky