Great summer memories...
Winter Crabapple Colour
Hee hee. I'm home, and still enjoying myself immensely. Holidays between the hemispheres are brilliant for contrasts. Great summer memories - gardens, gardens, gardens... Cosy winter treats - warm bed, hot chocolate, log fires...
Friday 5th June
Oh boy - I'm appreciating what I've got at home, too - a grand grand piano, a wonderful dog, cat-company for every occasion, whether at the computer (good morning, ginger Percy), sleeping (aargh! Jerome and Lilli, furry cheeks together, purring in my ear), or out walking in the orchard (Minimus, Fluff-Fluff, Histeria and Percy leaping through the long grass)...
Then there's Tiger, who lurks underneath tables and chairs as life and other cats pass her by. That's when she's not raiding the pantry. And I've forgotten Mugsy - she's old now, and is great couch-reading company.
The new cat-couch has just been installed in front of the log burner, facing the warm flickering flames. Yippee! It looks the perfect place to have coffee and read - when not busy outside digging or zooming around with the dog, that is.
A Chanticleer Pot :- Chanticleer is possibly the very best garden I've ever had the pleasure to visit...
Today in memory of Chanticleer, Pleasure Garden of Pennsylvania (that title makes it sound a bit naughty), I am buying the largest pot I can find for the least amount of money, visiting the smallest number of stores, and taking the shortest time out of my gardening day. A supreme shopping challenge. Then I am doing more digging.
Later...
Aargh! I chickened out of the pot challenge - grocery shopping took precedence. Anyway, I think I'll need a trailer to bring this superpot home. I did my digging though - the vegetable garden is now much bigger and squarer (though not quite finished). It's a better shape, surrounded as it is with straight Olearia hedges. For the time being the proposed paths which will follow the hedge lines will stay as grass.
I had lunch in the little Shrubbery courtyard on one of my rustic benches. This gets the sun nearly all day in winter - what a brilliant design! Like other things that work well in my garden the courtyard was created quite by chance. Ha! Sometimes I do get it right!
Sunday 7th June
Yesterday I dug for a couple more hours - nothing too strenuous. Today I increase my daily winter gardening hours - I'm ready to go, but alas it's only two degrees (Celsius) outside. I think I'll do a reflective hour of piano playing until everything warms up a bit. There's not too much frost and of course I could burn some rubbish...
Green Adirondack Garden Seats
Today's big plan is the digging of the vegetable garden extension - taking a load of lawn out, then replacing it with 'memorial' chook litter from my hen house (nearly cleaned out). Non-Garden Partner has escaped for a day's skiing, so I'll try to surprise him with the finished garden. Then I'll casually mention the pairs (plural) of Adirondack garden seats I'd like him to build... Timing is everything, hee hee...
Yellow Winter Daisy
Much Later...
What a drab, cold day it's been. But I feel very contented - I've finished the digging, I'm clean and warm inside, and I'm home with my animals. Every fireside chair is occupied by a snoozing cat. I love being home!
Rusty the dog and I even have been for a brisk cycle ride around the country block. Brr...
However, a gardener who has done nothing but dig for the last six days has nothing much to write about in her gardening journal. The groovy Brahms piano sonata in F minor (I'm up to page eight), the shepherd's pie being cooked for tea, the sight of Histeria the tabby squashed into Minimus's tiny cat basket - these are inconsequential and jolly well off the topic.
Looking Forward to the New Garden Chairs...
I'm still busy pondering about those summery gardens I visited on holiday - I found another good place to mass plant Alliums (underneath the oak trees by Duck Lawn). In the words of Non-Gardening Partner 'You do dribble on a bit about Chanticleer'. So I won't! Ha! But boy am I looking forward to my new sets of garden chairs!