Not fair!
I'm getting an early Christmas present from Non-Gardening Partner. Aargh! It's another paid dentist visit to seriously repair another tooth. This just isn't fair. Why can't I just eat mush and enjoy a new rose garden? Or a huge new pond with a waterfall?
Tuesday 11th October
So this morning I am off to face my present (groan, groan) and when I get back I can do some gentle gardening. But I don't even feel like writing a list.
Gnome Update
The latest batch of garden gnomes - oh joy! I now have several pairs of brothers, and all desperately need new clothes. Some need face paint (no eyelashes, please), and all need red hats.
My Newest Garden Gnomes
I am inexperienced at gnome painting - are faces perhaps done last? Or are gnomes usually painted from top to bottom? Hmm... Something to ponder while my Christmas tooth is getting the treatment. Aargh!
Later, Mid-Afternoon...
Aargh! I'm not doing anything, except watching TV and waiting for my face to come back to life. I can't even enjoy a cup of coffee yet. I will return to the garden tomorrow.
Wednesday 12th October
Eek! Blogging about a dentist visit will surely put readers off - and I have at least two more serious appointments to go, in this the Year of the Moosey Teeth. And spare a few thoughts for Non-Gardening Partner - I broke down and cried on him when he got home yesterday. It was all just too much, so much money, the teeth still not finished, I just couldn't face cooking a meal, and how would I ever manage to get the Brahms piano music up to speed? Sob, sob, sob... As well as blogging, unwise to practice a big Brahms sonata immediately after a big dentist visit.
Better Spirits
New Gardening Shirt
But today I'm in better spirits, wearing my new gardening shirt, of which a photograph is surely required. It's such a cheery light blue, and flops nicely over the gardening hips and backside. And just wait until I have my fully reconditioned smile, hee hee... The pictures will be dazzling!
Paths, Brahms, and Gnomes...
The plan is simple. I will spreading more path mulch, weed, and play more Brahms. My reward - lunch with my friends. Then I will hunt in the depths of the garage for gnome paint.
Artist Son of Moosey painted Bach, my original bachelor gnome, and I will copy his colouring if I can. I have Googled the issue, and have found two types of entry. People are either taking money selling 'Gnome-Painting Kits', or taking something else - offering games of gnome-bowls and the like. Liberating gnomes seems to be popular, too. Hmm...
Fluff-Fluff the Cat
Lunchtime...
I've weeded one barrow load of weeds and mulched a path - the one behind the Glass-House. I'm so much happier than yesterday. Optimistic gardener overheard talking to Fluff-Fluff the cat:
'Weeding is easy! I don't know why I ever grumble about it'.
Easy to say, can I add, immediately after a piece of garden has had intensive weeding treatment. Of course it looks wonderful. Just wait a few weeks... Right. I'm off to lunch. Good for me. There is life after the dentist, hee hee...
Even Later...
While I was out Rusty the dog manoeuvred a whole loaf of home-made rye bread onto the kitchen floor. Naturally he then ate the lot - what a waste!
Then I did two more gardening hours weeding the Hen House Garden borders and paths, and spreading path mulch. The side garden next to Hen World is a funny area. It's never 'luxuriant', not even after dumpings of rain, and never looks green and pleasant enough, even in spring. Rugosa roses in here have a tough life (too near the Leyland shelter belt hedge, not enough sun) and are unspectacular as a result. A quick-fire garden make-over, perhaps? Turn it into a tough shrubby garden with some Agapanthus around the edge? Good idea, but is it too late to shift the rugosas this spring? No way, and I know exactly where most can go - into the Apple Tree Garden. I'll do it!
Thursday 13th October
I'm saving that garden make-over, for today is a hiking in the foothills day. But first I have to clear the last of the path mulch from the trailer. Later this afternoon the sheep are going down the road (in the trailer) to the shearing yards. Tomorrow hopefully is their big day, when their woolly fleeces come off.
Tiger :- Tiger! As Senior Moosey Cat you are a very poor role model for the youngsters...
Tiger the cat will be bereft - I've busted her twice squatting in the trailer using the mulch as a cat-toilet. Eek! Tiger! You are supposed to be senior cat - that's sooooo lazy. Dig a modest hole in a garden, please.
And how's this for an idea? You could actually come outside, do some exercise, and keep me company in the garden. Go on - surprise me!
Friday 14th October
Oh boy - yesterday's hike was just brilliant, with yet another 'Best Lunch Spot in the World', the saddle just below Mount Grey. This lunch spot is not as precipitously high as some of the others I've enjoyed, but has wide-reaching, open views of Canterbury's coastline from the Banks Peninsula hills to the mountains of Kaikoura. After lunch the track descends around the backside of the mountain and down through beech forest gullies, with the most benign gradient. But then there's the 'The Plod up the Dry, Hard Logging Road' for 3.5 kilometres back to the Moosey car - more than likely contributing to my aching legs and an almost-blister. I never get blisters!
Blue Brunnera Flowers
Today has been great in a totally different way. After a therapeutic aqua-jogging session (such as enjoyed by thoroughbred racehorses), my friend and I had sushi breakfast, did some shopping for Daughter of Moosey, then more shopping at the Ecostore (I bought some good garden tools and a big red bucket).
Garden Path Dog
I arrived home in the drizzle to find Rusty the dog missing from his kennel. Aargh! But all was well - the sheep were being shorn today, and Rusty had gone with Non-Gardening Partner in the car. Not to help with anything, though - Rusty is a rather untrained border collie, sheepwise.
Apres Shearing...
The sheep are all back, and quite clean of shearing cuts. Fat Fred gave our shearer much cause for laughter, with his bottom hanging right out over his back legs in not-very-graceful curves (I mean Fred's bottom, of course). The general consensus was that Fred should have been someone's Christmas leg(s) of lamb, all those years ago. Oh dear! Sheep are not supposed to be so curvaceous.
And About That Quick-Fire Garden Make-Over...
That's tomorrow's job. Easy peasy. Too drizzly and cold today. And too busy shopping...