I can...
I can do this. I can. I can do slushy mud-gardening. I can dig planting holes and barrow soil in the drizzle. And I can finish my little stream in the Wattle Woods. Please? Pretty please?
Brilliant Flowering Wattles
Today I'll have to be careful about my indoor-outdoor flow. Once 'out there' I have to stay 'out there'. Flowing indoors will require a complete change of clothes, plus towelling down three wet, muddy dogs.
Aha! Sunday 16th August, Two Hours Later!
I've just come inside to warm up. I've planted a Hebe and a little row of miniature Agapanthus near the little pond. I've thrown Winnie's tennis ball two hundred times. I've tidied up some more of the stream-side Phormiums and shifted stones. And now I await a trailer load of top-soil compost mix which Non-Gardening Partner is getting me. Actually, I'm not so bad dirt-wise (apart from my shoes and knees) but Winnie is filthy with dog-dirt. Oops.
Part of my New Stream
Four More Hours...
I've finished for the day. I've thrown Winnie's tennis ball another two hundred times, trudged back and forth with top-soil for the stream edges, laid lots more stones, and replanted the fat-leafed Agapanthus. I'm now nearly up to the place where the second little curved bridge goes over the stream. But I'm re-designing its path. That's for another day. Everything looks nice and natural. One of the river pumps is fixed and ready for re-immersion. One to go.
Tuesday 18th August
My little stream is taking too long. I spent ages yesterday barrowing in dirt and laying stones. That's all I did - well, actually, I was also cleaning up the gardens either side. This explains why that which should take a day is taking more like a month. This afternoon I'm jolly well going to try and finish it.
Three Hour Later...
Aargh! Almost there, but not quite. The second curved bridge is in place, though, and I've made a start on the winding, connecting path. Something momentous occurs to me. It's more than just a stream. It's a whole garden area, with plants, trees, paths, bridges, and - by the way - a little stream. Holistic, eh?
All in all it's been a peaceful, doggy afternoon. The sun's been shining on the big Camellia shrubs. Escher the brown dog has been chewing a large bone, growling whenever I wander past him. Escher! Manners! I don't want your bone, and I'm the one that gave it to you in the first place. Young Winnie has been dropping her tennis ball in the stream bed for me to throw, over and over and over again. Rusty has been slumped on the lawn barking at the birds.
The photographs I've taken are a little premature. I haven't finished the stream-side plantings as yet. But progress has definitely been made. Yeay for me.