Huffing and Puffing...

'I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your garden down'... Thanks, Mister Big-Noise Wind. And he blew down the blossom flowers, and the big irises... But the Moosey trees stood tall, and the Head Gardener remained defiant (while reserving the right to retreat).

 Blown down.
Irises on the Lawn

You may have gathered - the Big Wind is back again, whining and blasting through the trees, spoiling a beautifully hot sunny Saturday. I've just been over to the Stables to feed Lilli-Puss. Craaaaaaack! went one of the trees next-door. Another one down to add to the mess. Too scary! I'm back inside. Another muffled 'craaaaack'.

Hang On Tight, You Birds!

There's already been a power outage. I hope all the birdies are hanging on tight. I hope their nests will survive. At such times I'm happy to offer the starlings my guttering, a secure place to raise birdlings. I'm assuming here that my roof won't get blown away...

Later...

All I did was watering, scuttling underneath the high trees, just in case. I didn't even want to stay inside the glass-house, imagining being showered with breaking glass. It was all rather cowardly, really.

 Aargh!
Next Door Cottage in the Trees

And then I heard another tree come down next-door, crashing over their cottage roof and demolishing the porch. And that was that, really. Sometimes to truly respect nature one simply takes shelter and stays inside. And not in a porch.

 What a colour!
Dark Blue Aquilegia

Sunday 27th October

I'll do my best today to catch up with the garden today. Hopefully the wind won't be as bad. I'm sorry that I shouted at it the other day - that was rude. Who am I, little insignificant me, bellowing at Mister Powerful Wind to go away and blow somewhere else? And that would mean that someone else might be damaged. Not nice, Moosey, not nice.

Plans...

I have some plans. Still a few pots of polyanthus are lurking in the garden, and need to be replanted with pelargoniums and daisies. The vegetable garden. Eek - the vegetable garden! It's the traditional weekend for the sowing of the seeds (mainly carrots, peas, and beans) and the planting of seedlings (mainly lettuces, lettuces, and lettuces).

My vegetable garden has shrunk a little since the creation of the Herb Spiral (which is fast becoming a Flower Spiral, oops). At the moment it is full of little purple violas, blue and pink Aquilegias, orange Calendulas, pale blue forget-me-nots, self-sown potatoes, and assorted weeds. All these things are exceedingly happy, growing merrily. So should I ruthlessly rip them all out? Hmm - definitely the weeds...

 In the Jelly-Bean Border. Flowering late...
Pink Recycled Rhododendron

OK. Best to start early before the wind starts whooshing...

Much, Much Later...

Well, it seems as if I've spent the whole day doing little bits of nothing. I've moved the hoses around, organised more of the pots, pulled out quite a few forget-me-nots and Alkanet, planted the vegetables, pricked out seedlings, put the Ladybug tomatoes in bigger pots... You can see that everything I've done is important, but in a minor way. Such things are at the core of successful gardening.

Less Scary...

The wind has been less scary, though from time to time it's reared up. I can ignore it when it's like this, though. The sun is shining strongly, glaring down on the late rhododendrons.

It's the late pink season now - three are flowering in the Pond Paddock, there's the cool pink in the Driveway, plus a beautiful marshmallow pink in the Island Bed. I seem to have rather a lot of pink rhododendrons, hee hee...

 Name unknown, but has a strong scent a bit like a house cleaner!
Cool Pink Driveway Rhododendron

Right I'm off to shift the hoses again. I'm trying to get saturation moisture cover on the roses by the Herb Spiral and the other recycled roses planted nearby. I'll take my camera, too.

 Please sit down!
Seats by My Cottage

Monday 28th October

Welcome to the daily spring weather report. Today the wind was even quieter, but it was cold - more like a winter cardigan day. And I didn't do a scrap of gardening, for personal reasons - swimming and sushi, my jazz choir's concert in the city's Restart Mall, a quick visit to welcome a new baby, the TV couch (oops - over two hours, while outside the sun shone and the birds chirped), then out again for hamburgers and a munch of birthday chocolate cake at my friend's house. I didn't even water anything or even sit down in my garden. Shame, shame...

Regarding Jazzamatazz the choir - we try to keep our audience awake, rather than wallow in the self-indulgent jacuzzi of jazz. We'd love to sing Barry Manilow's Copocabana (great rhythm and harmonies). So just before bed last night I listened to this song. Oh dear. I'd forgotten it told the saddest story, and went to bed feeling quite emotional. Dreams and hopes all lost, a life ruined in a single moment... Aargh!

Beware of men who wear diamonds. And beware of trees in huff'n'puff winds.