The Garden Club ladies...
Ha! The Garden Club ladies have been and gone. They were absolutely delightful and lovely, and should be hired out to anyone who lacks confidence and is having an open garden. They have left me feeling very happy.
Welcome to Mooseys
Tuesday 14th April
I am feeling sooooooo proud! My waterwheel worked, my hens stayed in the Orchard, the sun shone, the pond water gurgled, and Mugsy the cat faithfully followed everyone around the garden paths - without getting lost! Nobody fell off any of my bridges. Rooster provided rural noises offstage, while on the patio all garden seats were clean and web-free (in the spider sense).
Minimus :- It's really nice having a kitten to look after. The big cats appreciate all those extra little food snacks...
Am I going to do any gardening this afternoon? Nope. My house is relatively spotless, so I'm going to lounge around and enjoy this inner cleanliness while it lasts. Within minutes of the last lady leaving my cats all mooched slowly back into the house - as if they'd been hiding just out of sight underneath chairs and tables. Dear little Minimus the kitten has been cat-kissing my nose. I love you, Minimus!
Love, Love, Love...
And I love my waterwheel, and my stone wall, and my Renga Renga which grows so nicely underneath the gum trees, and my pond, and my beautiful Dogwoods, and all my wiggling paths, and all my spiky grasses, flaxes, and cordylines... Yes, yes, we all get the picture!
The Birthday Mural
And I love my human family, and all my cats, and the dog, and the tree frogs who live in Middle Garden by the water, and the bellbird (who is back), and...
Happy Birthday Mural
Better late than never - finally, unveiled, as it were, for its premiere on the world gardening stage - the Birthday Mural! This is Daughter of Moosey's birthday present for March 2009 - 'mistressminded' by me (her mother) and artistically created by son (her brother).
Corner of the Birthday Mural
It overlooks her Birthday Rose Garden. I hope she likes it. Yippee! I love Daughter of Moosey - and I love her mural. It's not quite finished, though. The gift that keeps on growing? It's going to get some more 'mountains'...
Wednesday 15th April
Reward for good gardening behaviour - I am allowed another whole day off. My hens had better not have strayed into my garden. Yesterday I found all five 'pook pooking' happily in Middle Garden, just minutes before the Garden Club ladies were due to arrive. The two Barred Plymouth Rocks are really tame and nosy, and like to get really close - onto shoes, if possible. This can be quite scary. The gardener (or visitor) stands in a dream, gazing at vistas, then looks down to find a knee-high striped hen attached. Eek!
Hello - Handel? No - Definitely Not Handel...
Later...
Hee hee. No hen dramas. Nothing for me to do except enjoy a quiet walk around the garden with my cats and camera. Many of the climbing roses in the Orchard seem to be blooming again - it's time I made an up-to-date inventory of their names. Handel - I'm really not sure you've got the correct label...
Autumn Archway Roses in the Orchard
The flow in the water race is way down, so my waterwheel has stopped - phew! I'm glad this didn't happen yesterday. My bellbird is chiming, several tree frogs in the flaxes are chirping, and more of the leaves on the deciduous trees are changing colour. It's a calm yet dynamic season - I think I simply mean there's no wind!
Grey Cat News
An official update on Jerome, my old grey cat who lives upstairs. The vet and I have decided to let her limp, drug-free, into the twilight of her very long life. She's in no pain, and X-raying an old happy cat seems rather harsh. The vet suspects arthritis around the pins in her front leg (broken when she was about two years old).
Thursday 16th April
Phew! Writing about pets in journals is a delicate business. One wants to be cheerful, and yet has to be honest - sometimes bad news can't be avoided. But... Yippee! My timid grey cat Lilli-Puss, 'missing' for over 48 hours, is back!
Lilli-Puss :- I worry about Lilli-Puss - she of all the cats I've socialised is the least adapted to busy family life.
Unkindly I'd wondered if the lovely hoards of Garden Club ladies wandering around the garden had pushed her off the edge, so to speak. But no - late last night she arrived on the upstairs balcony, ecstatically happy and smoochy, hungry (yes), nothing wrong. Just Lilli being silly. Oh dear! I hope I've given her enough love and domestic security to counter-balance her feral, wild-cat start in life.
Enough cat news. Rusty, who has been a gardening dog for the last four weeks, is rightly bored, and deserves more. We are off for a cycle ride, and then I might plant my Easter sale Lavenders and start that new path in the Wattle Woods. or I could gaze out my sparkling windows (proper 'housewives' must experience this every day) and read my big library book on Kew Gardens...