Parallel Garden Journals

OK. Parallel journal entries. One half-empty, one half-full. Grump versus grin, sigh versus smile, jolly Jekyll against humphing Hyde. If positive reinforcement is required, please read only the italicised items and look at the pretty pictures.

Saturday 17th October

  1. Blast! My car is dead, I have to buy a new one.
    Wow! The Pond Paddock cherry trees are in blossom. Beautiful.

  2. Grr... My sore knee aches in the middle of the night.
    Wow! The driveway shrubs, all pinks and whites, are flowering together. So pretty.

  3. I have music rehearsals all day and need to be gardening.
    The big irrigation ran last night. My garden loooooved it.

  4. Hmm. Dogs barking at 4:45am. Got them up. Just an emergency poo/pee.
    Amazing! The blossom, viewed from the cottage verandah - at 4:45am.

So am I lucky? I am soooooooo lucky! The good things definitely triumph. The first roses are flowering, like yellow Canary Bird in full yellow splendour. Maigold has a few muddled amber-gold blooms. The deciduous Azaleas are starting.

All the dogwoods are absolutely wonderful. Do you know, the reason I first bought these trees was simply because I loved dogs. Cute reason!

Sunday 18th October

I have rationalised the titivation plans for my garden visitors, who arrive tomorrow morning. Edges edges, edges. That's the secret. Good edges will make my garden look its best. This morning I've been throwing sticks for the dogs and doing edges for three hours, and yes, I am making good progress.

 My three piece dog pack by the pond.
Throw the Stick!

Sorry about this, but I have more parallel journal entries :

  1. My knee is still aching. So annoying when one is trying to be a 65 year-old superwoman.
    A dogwood in the Dog-Path Garden has pink bracts.

  2. The hot dry nor-west wind is blasting away, being horrible and noisy.
    But the big irrigation ran again last night, watering the gardens over the water race.

  3. I think the biggest pink rhododendron in Middle Garden is ailing - that is, dying.
    But the tree peony is flowering, and the All Blacks won their rugby quarter final.

  4. There are visible weeds along the dog paths. Visible weeds! Oh no! Shock horror!
    But the brick koru courtyard appears to have lost its moss. Yippee! My cleaning and scraping has worked.

Look, there are so many groovy colourful things to write about - pretty white rhododendrons flopping all over the rich brown dirt, cheerful orange Calendulas glinting in the sun, Corydalis with its beautiful lacy foliage and the palest watery blue flowers... I could keep on and on.

 Beautiful in flower.
Big Pink Rhododendron

Monday, After the Visitors...

Brilliant! The ladies were wonderful, they didn't find the garden 'exhausting', and they liked my 'naughty' plants. The dogs adored having visitors, and created several doggy diversions. For example, while the ladies relaxed in gentle contemplation by the pond, Escher chased a large fluffy rat next-door. My fortissimo bellowing over the fence contributed to the peace and tranquillity somewhat!

Mid-afternoon Non-Gardening Partner drove us down to Ashburton to look at the wee car I'm buying. It's cute - and blue! My favourite colour, after green. It's being driven up tomorrow. Car-wise, the green Moosey is dead, long live the blue Moosey. And even the knee seems better. What a difference a week makes!