The week before Christmas...
The week before Christmas has been full of rain, just light splatterings of cats and dogs. No singing (phew), but lots of piano playing. Am even putting in the fingering with my pencil. This is serious!
Speckles the stray :- Speckles is making up for going missing for ten days.
So it rained all night. About 2am Speckles turned up on the cottage verandah, drenched, and in full battle-cry. HISSSSSSSSS! Nice to see you too, Speckles. Love the fangs! So you'd like some food, yes?
Congratulations, Red Fred
Over in the house, Red Fred's wound looks (and smells) OK. Just as well. He has just won my 2022 Football World Cup Sweepstake, in a penalty shoot-out. Congratulations, you clever cat!
Red Fred
Much later...
What a funny day. The rain sort of stopped, so I collected flax leaves off the lawns and cut them up for the bin (they can't be composted). I did some more edges. The rain came back. I wiped ornaments in the house. Then I did a whole lot of piano playing - Brahms and Bach. Pretty difficult, actually, but fun to listen to. Winnie has a limpy front leg, so haven't taken the dogs for very many walks. The garden is wet and drippy.
Tuesday 20th December
More rain, splattering gently on the cottage roof all night. More puddles on the lawns. Blast! I really wanted to do lots of gardening today. But look on the bright side : I haven't left my camera or my new edging shears outside. Phew!
Red Daylilies
Later, mid-afternoon...
OK. Here's the plan. I go outside and I weed, starting on the path from Willow Bridge. I get thoroughly wet, then I come inside for a hot shower, a hair wash, and warm dry clothes. Easier said than done.
Two hours later...
I did it - worked away until I just got too cold. Achieved quite a lot - the edge of the Dog-Path Garden looks much better. But - oh dear - I just left all my mess on the lawn. Too cold and wet to rake it up. Oops.
Wednesday 21st December
Three things : a) Speckles the stray, after a good breakfast, gave me lots of smooches followed by a full-on hiss and a paws-with-claws attack on my precious hands. Avoided contact. Ungrateful cat. b) Heard a tree frog by the pond whistling and chirping at dawn. Yeay! c) The first mosquitos of the season flew onto Pond Cottage's verandah this morning. Blast.
And now, the gardening day. Will try very hard to clean up all my mess, plant all my remaining flowering annuals, and pull out all remaining weeds. A healthy dose of unrealism. Ha ha!
Five hours later...
A superb session, which I started by making more mess to clean up, hee hee. But I stuck to my plan (see above). Cleared Campion etc. out of the garden by the Pergola and planted some rather floppy Cosmos, Lavatera, and Calendula.
Then attacked the garden around the spiral courtyard. Pulled out loads of forget-me-nots and sticky strands of Cleavers. Such a difference! And I did rake up all my mess. Yeay for me.