What do you want your garden to be?
A gardening book has asked me this terribly serious question: 'What Do You Want Your Garden to Be?' Ha! Today I can answer that, as follows: I want my garden to inspire me when I'm feeling a little down, and overwhelm me when I'm feeling lazy.
- 'What do you want your garden to be?'
- -Moosey Question.
I also want it to shout out (nicely) all sorts of things to at me - 'Weed me! Prune me! Over here - look at my blossom! Look at me flowering!'... Not the sort of answer the book had in mind (its writer sensibly went for check lists of objects).
Good Morning, Lambs
Wednesday 15th September
Yesterday was a non-day - apart from getting up to feed the lambs I was in bed, sleeping on and off, with a mild case of 'flu. But today I'm half-back. I've had early morning tea with the pet lambs, Fluff-Fluff the cat and Rusty the dog. I'm talking to my animals again - a sure sign of recovery. Also the cup of tea tasted half-decent. I am also doing a couple of loads of washing. Another good sign!
Slow and Thankful...
This morning I'll do a couple of hours of lamb-free gardening. Then little Milly (on antibiotics) and Stu can come out of their lamb creche for a walk. We do provide an interesting, stimulating life for pet lambs here.
Slow Gardening
But my gardening will be slow. Slow and thankful, I think. And I must check the Silver Pear trees for blossom buds. The Almond tree is buddy now, and the big flowering cherry in the Driveway Garden is starting to flower. Back soon. Hope my headache stays away.
Much Later...
All I did was weeding, but I had lots of slow fun. And I am definitely better, thinking about food to cook for dinner, etc.
Daffodils by the Water
Thursday 16th September
Still feeling a bit slow and achy - have only done two hours weeding, and planted three yellow Flower Carpet roses in the Driveway Gardens. I'm having lunch inside (it feels quite cold). Little Milly lamb seems to have a sore leg today, while Stu lamb is just busy being Mister Pushy.
I give the lambs little feeds often, but I write all the amounts down so Stu doesn't end up the shape of a woolly barrel. And I took some 'Morning Tea with the Animals' photographs. But check out the blossom!
I intend to re-reschedule my birthday for tomorrow. The plan is that I will feel even better, have more energy, and really enjoy opening all my presents. Hmm... Where are all my presents? Non-Gardening Partner? Sons of Moosey? They've gone off the boil a bit.
Friday 17th September
Hmm... I think I do feel better. I've just got up to feed the lambs (their 6am feed) and I'm staying up with a cup of tea and toast. So I will have my birthday today.
Driveway Blossom Trees
As far as the morning's gardening goes, I'll be doing some work in the glass-house (it's raining). I have seeds and cuttings to organise. Is this a good time for penstemons? Also I'll take some side pieces off the lupins. And maybe if the rain lets up I'll finish planting the new roses.
Happy B-L-K-R-R Birthday...
So it's a Happy Belated, Low-Key, Re-Rescheduled Birthday to me for today. Here are my instructions. I do not want any annoying aftershocks - so many, I had no idea they'd be so intrusive. I would like all my energy back, and some presents from my man-relatives.
Dog-Tooth Violets
Summer Promises
It's nice being cosy inside the house watching the early morning rain. I can see such a beautiful variety of out the house windows - rich green grass, all shades of yellow daffodils, pale pink tree blossom and a deep pink Camellia. The bright yellow Forsythia shrubs are flowering, and a few of my red and orange tulips are trying. It's nice seeing the fresh green growth on the roses and perennials. Summer promises, promises...
A Little Later...
Hmm... After two aftershocks (thank you soooooooo much, Mother Earth), one Paracetamol, and my first cup of coffee in days, I've decided to go into town and play chamber music with my flute friend. Playing Bach on my non-birthday morning feels like a great idea - the flute sonata in B minor is one of the most amazing pieces of music written for anything. Sometimes I get so carried away listening I forget to keep playing!
And Much Later...
I've planted more roses and done lots more weeding (with lamb-company). But now that my non-birthday day is supposed to be winding up I've totally wound down. All I want to do is go to bed. Hopeless! There's fancy food arriving, and pudding!
Little White Camellia
Saturday 18th September
Since I am a half-sick person, I am allowed to watch daytime TV. And, having done so, if I decide that the Bachelor is just getting too frilly and silly then I can look up the finale on Youtube rather than wait two weeks. Hee hee.
I've done a bit of gardening - more of my new yellow roses are now planted, and I've weeded around the Frisbee Lawn. The lambs have been out and about, following me and getting in the way. Today the rubber rings went on their tails etc. Sorry, Stu lamb, but becoming a pet ram is not in your woolly destiny. And to think that my spell-checker keeps wanting to call you 'stud lamb'...
Big blogging rule - half sick people should not write much at the end of the day. This is when they'll be really annoyed with how they're feeling. I like my sunny days to be packed with gardening achievements, not afternoon naps and rugs by the TV. Tomorrow will be better? Better be!
Sunday 19th September
Finally I am almost better. I've gardened for four hours. Finally all the new roses and two new hebes are planted, and I've done a lot of slow fussy weeding along the water race and around the Frisbee Lawn border. I've also cleared mess off the waterside stony dog-paths and burnt my rubbish.
Gardening with pet lambs is interesting, though, and I fear I am setting a poor example with all this bending and fossicking in the dirt. As their ovine mentor I should be peering and poking at swathes of green grass... My two lambs are now snuffling through the garden borders on their own, sniffing soil and nibbling at mulched leaves.
Pet Lambs Milly and Stu
+10 
+10The new Moosey music system has been filling the air with Rachmaninoff's piano concertos (my lush gardening music of choice) through a portable iPod dock (one of my birthday presents). I've also got a huge nursery voucher and a grow-home-mushrooms kit. Non-Gardening Partner has mended one of the wobbly garden benches as his birthday contribution. Really the whole of the day has been superb - sunshine, daffodils, cat company (thanks to Fluff-Fluff and Minimus), and bouncing lambs. And I feel fifteen-sixteenths well, too!