November Week 1 - More

Hee hee hee. Checking first with Non-gardening Partner (whose response was typically mannish - do I really want more of those?) I have 'bought' three monster Cordylines for one dollar. He will help me dig them out this weekend. By then the new Frisbee Garden will be dug ready to receive them? I hope so! And in they will go - instant height and spiky shrubbiness.

Tuesday 3rd November

Shape Up For Life - the Moosey household still being good. I'm off swimming again, and my new (old) jeans fit me. Tiger the cat is lighter, and NGP's trousers are looser - enough of that! My tuned piano sounds amazing - for some reason I can play more quietly. So now the delicate nuances of pianissimo tinkling can be heard... I've dragged out the Schubert Grand Sonata whose schmaltziness I love, as a foil for my quirky Bach Partita.

Connections - I run the Bach inside my head, with repeats, when I'm swimming up and down (it takes about 35 minutes). Right. Today I must, must, must weed the path behind the pond and water a new rhododendron donated by a friend. It's sulking, and she's coming for lunch and an inspection this weekend. Eek!

Lunchtime...

I'm just back from trawling around the op shops looking for garden gnomes (yes, I'm still collecting). No luck. I am surrounded by hungry cats. And the power is off- aargh! All I can think of is a hot cup of coffee. I guess that will taste so much better after an hour's solid digging...

Late Afternoon...

A baby bird crisis this afternoon, with a nest of fledglings blowing down. I've rescued two small squeaking birds from rooms in the house and another from the jaws of Rusty the dog on the patio. At the moment they are all alive and hopping in the Island Bed - a mother bird (she looks like a blackbird) is zooming around with food. This is a multiple cat garden - how can they survive?

Well - I have dug some dirt! The new garden area expands, the rough grass diminishes, my shoulder aches from slicing with the spade, and my hand tingles from pulling out clumps of grass. I am a gardening legend, however, and legends should make light of their physical trials.

As well as the big pink rhododendrons several of the pink roses are starting to flower. Othello by the house patio and John Clare by the glass-house (both David Austin English roses) are two of my favourites. They are always the last to stop blooming, too - I have photographs of their flowers in the mid-winter snow. Ten out of ten for stamina!