Christmas Week
Merry Christmas from the summery Moosey Menagerie - cats, dogs, chooks, sheep, lovely relatives, lovely Non-Gardening-Partner, and the Head Gardener. Have a very happy Christmas, with lots of warmth, peace and joy.
Merry Christmas
Tuesday December 25th
It's earlyish on Christmas morning. Tired and hoarse from an evening of raucous carol singing, accompanied by a brass band with three (THREE!) tubas... I was woken at dawn by my rooster, sounding alarmingly close to the bedroom window. He wasn't - it was an aural illusion. Then Lilli-Puss the grey catlet arrived and purred her noisy rattling purr. Perhaps Christmas this year is going to be noisy...
Disgraceful Tiger Cat
Merry Christmas to Tiger the disgraceful tortoiseshell, who has just wandered inside to find a snoozing spot. First the pantry, then the TV screen - and this morning some telltale marks inside my grand piano. What a dodgy cat! I'm onto you, Tiger!
Tiger the Piddling Cat
What should I do in the garden today? Some Christmas weeding? Or dead-heading? Trimming the lawn edges and stacking next winter's firewood? Hmm... perhaps I'll just pick some house roses and relax... I think I need to make a strong coffee and tinkle a bit of soothing Brahms. Not Beethoven - he's too much of a drama queen for Christmas morning. Already I've fed the chooks, whistled at the bellbirds, patted Rusty the nearly-naked dog, and talked to my lovely webmaster son, busy 'noelling' somewhere in France.
Histeria
Later (when I've woken up properly) there's the house garden to attend to, the Christmas jigsaw to start - and a wee bit of food to prepare. And I am going to bake my first ever Christmas cake. It's my friend's recipe, with crushed pineapple and all sorts of nuts and fruit. Better late than never...
Cinderella Cat
I've just asked Histeria the tabby if she ever imagined she'd be a much loved Moosey cat, having special steak'n'kidney for Christmas breakfast, and going for country walks in a beautiful garden. After her first two weeks I came close to giving up on her socialisation and returning her to the wild cat colony. It's a Cinderella cat story.
My goodness it's peaceful! The cats have wandered off, and the Moosey men (ha!) are all out on missions. The dog has gone for the car-ride. Just a few twittering birds, the odd zooming buzzy insect, and the quiet hum of the Moosey fridge. Peace on earth, goodwill to all, and please let it last!
Later...
I've done no gardening all day and still feel really tired. NGP has been let off mowing the lawns until tomorrow - seemed fair. What a warm, lazy day I've had! I love all my family and my pets very much - and Brahms and Albeniz and Bach and...
Brother and Sister
Thursday 27th December
Oops. No gardening yesterday - in fact nothing except making (i.e. printing, finding mistakes, printing again, running out of ink, replacing a dreadful pixelated puppy photograph, reprinting) my Christmas present calendars. Aargh! Please remind me again - how exactly do you spell 'April'? Oh - the shame!
Christmas is Still Coming...
Christmas is still to arrive in the Moosey household. We are holding our family celebrations this coming Sunday, when Daughter of Moosey flies in from the tropics to enjoy a real summer, New Zealand style. That means down-filled jacket and Gore-Tex parka hanging by the back door, just in case, a warm jersey (or shawl for the elderly) for inside the house - and socks!
Every cosmetic part of Christmas has delayed - even the opening of presents and the dressing of the pine Christmas tree. Aargh! Don't mention pieces of pine tree! I have been cleaning up such tree mess for weeks.
What a Nicely Mown Lawn!
Out of sympathy I planted our usual, live-in-a-pot Christmas tree in the garden about two weeks ago. Poor little spruce (I think it's a spruce) - someone had forgotten to repot it, the old pot-mix didn't hold any water, and with such a light bottom the tree kept being blown over. I was temporarily out of fresh potting mix, and having trouble thinking ahead...
Today in the Garden
What about today? After two days of garden inactivity I know exactly what will have happened out there. The weeds will be waist high, competing with the lawn grasses. Two hundred roses each with thirty flower-heads will have dropped all their petals and will require instant dead-heading. Aargh! I've just done the maths...
The Side House Lawn
What am I going to do today? First I'll do some gardening, then maybe a spot of gardening - and after lunch I'll probably do some gardening. Yippee!