Great excitement...

Great excitement - have only just discovered that Val McDermid is a woman author, so am back from the local library with some of her crime stories. Usually only read women authors, oops (showing a bit of gender bias here). Thought that Val was a man's name? Pretty silly, me, sometimes...

I've raked up bits of grass underneath my washing line, weeded in front of the woodshed, and tied in all the new replacement rambling rose canes. I've weeded and trimmed the new Lavenders in the little Laundry Garden. I've scooped up all the mess and dumped it on my bonfire. Some beautiful flowers around the Herb Spiral at the moment - lovely.

Haven't seen any cats roaming around today. Winnie the dog has been keeping me company, but I've been a tremendous disappointment to her. I've thrown her tennis ball without looking and landed it on the top of the Olearia hedge. How can her ball be 'lost' when she knows where it is, and can smell it up there? Oh dear.

 Took ages to clean it up.
Underneath the Washing Line

Three hours later...

Have finished, burnt my dry grass mess, and dragged assorted tree branches onto the bonfire. The pesky dandelions have been sprayed - there are so many robust ones, with luscious green leaves. I can't dig them - can't go deep enough to get all the roots out.

Going apres-gardening...

Now I think I allowed to go apres gardening - it's a bit early, but I'll wash my hair and go through my new library books. Yeay! Am happy to read online, but there's nothing quite like a bagful of real books.

Next day...

Drizzle! Not a problem. I have a new 1500 piece jigsaw. And all those books to start reading! Met some friends in the Botanical Gardens for lunch - very autumnal in there. Beds of annuals all cleared and hoed, ready for the next planting, leaves fluttering down.

Gum leaves...

Which reminds me : it isn't fair. Gum leaves from my beautiful big Eucalyptus trees are starting to drop madly, all over the house lawns. Humph. They aren't even autumn leaves, just a visual and physical nuisance. Hey, you guys! You are not deciduous!

 Leaves just starting to change.
The Start of the Autumn Colours

Brrr... Seems to be quite cold as well as drizzly wet. All I've done garden-wise is to spend two hours stacking firewood. Then I went swimming. Came home full of hope, but it's too wet. The dogs are bored and I've been doing my new jigsaw. And, quite honestly, if I sat down in a chair I'd probably snooze off. Who ever thought that doing nothing could be sooooo tiring?