So much to say...

 A lovely little dog.
Rusty the New Puppy

So much to say - about so little - that is, if the Grand Moosey Gardening Experience can ever be dismissed as little. In fact, on a good day (mentally, that is) the garden is far too small - perhaps some summer digging?

Saturday 4th December

Every morning I get the new puppy up at 6am - it's fresh outside, just a little early even for obsessive gardeners to start work. I look around at the big boundary trees, the roses, the lawns (please don't go brown!) and get waves of good feelings. I am so lucky! Rusty the new puppy rejoices, bounces around, pees on the driveway gravel, bounces some more... 'Let's go' I say and we walk-bounce our way around the house gardens.

The rooster crows at us (aargh!), and the pigeons flap out of the big gum tree - I must remember to water the pots underneath here today... Maybe 'lucky' is totally the wrong word - is it just a vote of cosmic thanks, mixed up with the joy of a bouncing puppy?

 Growing in the Stables Garden with a bright yellow-flowering Euphorbia.
Bright Pink Peony

Ha! I am feeling spiritual! Hopefully I will be able to weed, plant, clear, and water in this haze of well-being - for at least six hours. Today I must finish the gardening day feeling as good as I start it. A sense of having accomplished something would be nice! Hmm... Let's go!

I've 'discovered' a new rugosa rose with deeper purple flowers. I thought I saw it last night at dusk when I took Rusty the puppy for a garden walk. But today I can't find the rose anywhere - and am now confused, thinking it was in a dream. Rugosa rose dreams are a bit of a worry!

 With one summer rose.
Pond Paddock Arch

Lunchtime...

The mid-day sun is too strong for delicate English Roses (meaning my good self). I have the hoses on - today it's the vegetables' turn - and the Elm Tree Garden, where I've spent the morning planting and digging and weeding. The trouble is that the more work I do the more work I find that still needs doing - if that makes any sense.

When the sun disappeared behind the odd cloud I raced around taking lots of photographs of the new puppy, plus more roses. The phantom rugosa is nowhere to be found - hmmm... a sign of total garden madness?

I will now read my book in the shade of the flowering cherry tree, with the gentle sound of water trickling into the pond, and the beautiful musical song of the bellbird in the big gum trees above. Rooster with his ghastly crow will be banished. Clucking is OK - I will even accept quiet gurgling and industrious pook-pooking (that's what it sounds like!) - but crowing will not be tolerated.

Much later...

I did two and a half hours weeding. There is nothing particularly spiritually uplifting in weeding, particularly when one is tired, and has sore hands. The ground is dry, the hand-digger jars, and those ridiculous raspberry canes are sprouting everywhere.

 Flowering up high, with the rose Clair Matin underneath.
Flowering Cordyline

Sunday 5th December

It rained heavily last night - this is so good for the garden. It complements my watering programme so well! What shall I do first today? It's a bit cold and still very wet outside. Puppy woke as usual just before 6am. The early mornings are really peaceful and calm (when Rusty the puppy is up) - except for the raucous rooster. He has a neighbourhood network going now - I can hear at least two answering crows. Lucky neighbours!

Yesterday to keep myself on task (grumpily digging in the afternoon sun) I tried an old trick - I pretended the garden was preparing for a public open garden day. All the little jobs had to be done, and all the edges. I got really grumpy! Then I noticed the weeds growing in the driveway - another two hours work. So many things go unfinished at any one time - I guess that's why amazing public garden owners have under-gardeners! But it would be so nice if just once in my lifetime every garden area was well organised - all at the same time.

Today I could either set a list of achievable goals, or I could write out a timetable - change work stations every two hours, that sort of thing. Eek - I'm still a bit garden-grumpy! I promise not to write any more until I have regained some decent summer positive optimism.

Much later - it rained all day. But we won the cricket! Ha!

Monday 6th December

Good morning to my garden - plants, roses, trees - and to the cats, chooks and old dog. Good morning Rusty the new puppy, and good morning rain. I hope you've turned all the lawns green. More than a month's average rainfall in two days - the rose flower petals are soaking wet. Gardeners are never satisfied - I wish it would rain (that's warm, summer rain, please) all night and be dry by 9 am the following morning. I also want an instant cloud-cover button that I can press when I am about to go outside. Having a delicate (English rose) complexion I don't happily garden in the summer sun.

 This patch grows by Rooster Bridge.
Gunnera by the Water

The white flowering Deutzia shrub in the Septic Tank Garden is in bud, ready to flower (it looks like sprinkled icing sugar). This shrub flowers biennially (because I have a bad history of picking the incorrect pruning season). What else is happening in the garden? The Iceberg roses are at their very best now, though several branches have flopped over (the weight of the water on the flower-heads). Various Flower Carpet roses are just starting to bloom - the hard-to-ignore bright pink, and white ones. Lychnises are starting to flower. The Valerian (false, apparently) which plans itself in the JAM Garden is really good this year - I have been watering over there.

Water Race News

Exciting stuff along the water race - the big yellow Verbascums which self-seeded here have produced huge stalks, and are almost flowering. My first Verbascum arrived from up-stream (rather like my first Gunnera), and now I have quite a few of them.

 Oops?
Verbascums By the Water

Like foxgloves they should be easy to 'control' - famous last words? Weeds? I don't mind - they look better than the other weeds on the sloping water race banks. Headlines in local paper - Verbascums Colonise Canterbury Water Races...

Garden Tools and Accessories Update

Oh well - one loses some, one wins some...