Good morning...
Black Buster
Good morning to the log burner, to the dogs, to Tiger the cat and black Buster, and to Non-Gardening Partner, who is going to spend the day chain-sawing. And less of a good morning to another grey drizzly day. Sun! Get your act together!
Gardening Talk-Back...
Earlier this morning in bed I found a talk-back radio gardening programme. It was still dark, so I listened. Did I know that it is the right time to prune apple trees? Sort of. I could have checked this out for myself, but a gentle reminder from outside my gardening bubble is rather useful.
Right! I'll do it! And as to how, exactly - well, I'll just have to see how high I can stretch. Not so scientific, this approach, but I am not happy sawing or lopping vigorously whilst perching on a step-ladder.
Trailer Half Full
Answer the question?
The programme was funny. Whenever the host cheerily asked a caller 'And how are you doing?' they'd reply with their age : 'Oh, I'm seventy-three!' or 'Oh, I'm eighty-five!' Not one actually answered the question. So excited to be on the radio that all conversational sense had departed? They'd been awake half the night and were feeling old?
From their questions it did appear that they'd never made the acquaintance of Mister Google. But hey! I could have easily asked him (Mister Google, that is) about apple tree pruning. QED?
Later, Dusk...
The chainsaw wasn't very happy but it did manage to produce one trailerful of logs and some neat little piles of smaller firewood. Apparently chainsaws are sentient creatures with emotions.
More Logs
Anyway, I threw the logs around like I was a Masters Games athlete in training. Then my bonfire reignited, so I added four barrowfuls of small stuff to it. I shifted bags of pine cones over to the Stables where they will dry out.
Winter photographs...
And I took some photographs! Yeay for my winter garden. I found lots of little splashes of colour mixed in with the beautiful burnished winter bronzes and browns.
Non-Gardening Partner reckons we've sawn up and shifted about a quarter of the wood. This is great progress, since the weather has been rather wet. And guess what happens when we've cleared it all? The tree men come back and fell nearly all the remaining trees and we start cleaning up all over again. I'll leave some of the large Eucalypts right at the end of the Hump - they look reasonably well-shaped and healthy. Too busy to do the Apple trees. But I will, I promise.
Hamburgers...
Now we are off to have hamburgers - it's our Sunday evening relaxing ritual. We sit in the car to eat them (I take a glass of house Merlot). We talk about the dogs, and the grandchildren, and I remind (in other words, nag) Non-Gardening Partner about his on-going gardening tasks. Very relaxing...