A No-Spend Weekend
Michelangelo Roses
Right. I'm having a no-spend gardening weekend. I've found my favourite hand scraper hidden underneath the Astelias - no need for a replacement. And I've just bought - oops - eighteen roses from the rose sale. No need for any more at the moment. I'm saving myself for the Easter weekend nursery sale.
Saturday 28th March
There's just one big-small thing which will require money. It's sensible garden maintenance, so that's OK. I need to buy some thick black polythene. The 'stream bed' in the Wattle Woods needs replacing, so that water will actually reach the little pond by the cottage.
Young Winnie the dog has started finding plastic things to chew. This is OK when it's an empty milk container. But the DVD of 'Men In Black'? Oops. So I'm on Dog-Alert every time I hear contented, prolonged crunching sounds. Like now. Aargh! No, no, everything's under control. It's a pine-cone. Being a semi-eco-recycled-greenie I'd much prefer natural wood to plastic anyway.
Winnie the Dog at the Dog Park
So I'm off to buy five, maybe ten metres of black polythene? Hmm. That's the trouble with plastic. It's so seductive. One can so quickly succumb. Back soonish.
Much, Much Later...
So much for my plans. I ended up doing nothing in the garden. That's 'Nothing' with a capital 'N'. Tiddles the convalescing tabby has had lots of check-ups and food visits - early this morning, in a super-playful mood, she bit me. Ouch. But I've been to the dog park and to my madrigal singing group. I've done a bit more cycling (on the TV couch, from Paris to Nice) and filled in some more of my jig-saw. I have to do this secretly, hoping that Buster the black kitten doesn't notice - she leaps onto the table and eats the pieces.
Oak Leaf Hydrangea Leaves
Now that his return is imminent, I miss Non-Gardening Partner much, much more. Funny how that happens. Normally I don't feel lonely with the dogs and the cats for company, but after a glass of wine diluted with ice-cubes and cranberry juice... Oh boy! Think I'll go off to bed. I'll buy my black plastic tomorrow. G'nite.
Reflection of Sunrise
Sunday 29th March
Early morning, TV couch-cycling with ginger cat Percy on my lap, enjoying warm knees... A couple of hours gardening before going to the dog park would be nice. I would do a cosmetic sprinkling of work around the Herb Spiral. Inspiration - when emptying the compost at sunrise I'd noticed a cosmos tinted pink in the early light. Wonderful.
Eek! Now the skies have darkened. Too late - it's raining. Will wash my hair and have another cup of coffee instead. Hope I brought my camera back inside...
Breaking News! Jig-saw in Pieces!
Aargh! You know the 2000 piece jigsaw I've been working on for ages, with the really nasty bit (a large yellow tree) completed? Buster the black kitten has just been fighting it. It is in pieces. Ha! A jig-saw joke. Not.
Later..
Right. I'm back in action, with a Non-Gardening Partner (freshly returned from China) to organise. We are off to the dog park so Winnie can show him her new trick. It's the 'go round' command, and she is supposed to zoom round the dog park stream. She does it around the pond at home.
Monday 30th March
The dogs and I, fresh from an hour's forest walk, are now off to fill in some more of the holes down the boundary of my garden. Well, Winnie would rather be digging them, I guess! It's time I finished fixing up this part of the garden. Confession time - I have considered buying in a truck-load of fill, and/or top-soil. But then I think of my pride in doing things myself. I've found an old ash heap in the orchard I can take the shovel to. And then I think of sore shoulders, while my imaginary truck efficiently dumps its slithery load, and my smooth, level, dirt filled garden gleams in the autumn sunshine... Hmm.