Collaborative lists...
Gum Tree in WInter
Have discovered something profound. List writing is so much more fun when done together with another gardener, preferably a gently instinctive gardener who is not too bossy. For example, a lovely daughter!
Yeay!
Yeay! Great excitement when I got home from my music rehearsal today - my lovely daughter (sans children) was sitting in one of the breakfast chairs relaxing. Such a nice surprise. So we helped each other write lists. First of all, a list entitled 'Things to Do', limited to five items. Then one sub-list for just one of those items.
The listing spirit...
Getting into the 'listing' spirit, we then each wrote another list of 'Thinks to Think About'. Hee hee. This list was allowed to be longer, because thinking is much more fun, right? Except that mine ended up with items like : 'When am I going to clean up under the gum tree?' Hmm. Thinking about doing sounds rather like a 'doing' item in disguise.
Thursday 6th July
I did two and a half hours work weeding in the Allotment Garden, which was on my list. Rescued five clumps of miniature Agapanthus - what to do with them? Not sure. Dug out lots of creepy grass, and lots of annual grass clumps. Only cleared one small compartment, took ages, very puzzled as to why this was. My new garden hand tools worked well - have collected them all up and placed them in the garage. Well done, me.
And now - blast - I have to carefully brush a whole lot of tangles out of my hair before I wash it. How can tangles possibly get into a plait? Another of life's major puzzles.
Part of The Allotment Garden
Friday 7th July
Got excited re-reading my list, so out I went to knock off (i.e. tick) more items. Oh yes? Crikey, it was cold out there! Retreated back to house with dogs in tow (they, being furry, couldn't see the problem).
Winter Gunnera
Checked the temperature - two degrees Celsius. No way! Even rugged and gloved up I cannot garden in two degrees, no matter how enticing my list is. So am off to the local library, will visit a friend for coffee, and then we'll see. Back soon.
Later...
Spent the first couple of hours distracted by the mess in the gardens by Car Bridge - invasive bamboo (oops), invasive giant reeds (oops), and piles of brown Gunnera leaves that I didn't clean up some weeks ago. Naughty! Cleared it all up. After a quick cup of tea and a bite to eat went back to the Allotment Garden to devote some chilly garden time to the list.
Weeded, dug out the irises and replanted them in a newly weeded patch of garden near the bamboo - hopefully a better, sunnier position. Dug out John Clare and Archduke Joseph roses, pruned them, and potted them up. Raked up four more barrow loads of mess.
Then I lit the bonfire. Everything burnt quite well (lots of gum leaves certainly do the trick), even if my heart wasn't in it. Could barely be bothered poking it with the rake. But Yeay! I can tick a few things off my list.
John Clare and Archduke Joseph
Am clean and warm, the log-burner is blazing, and I am off to the cottage with a new knitted woolly blanket (courtesy of a quick nip into the Op Shop on the way back from the library). I'll take Minimus her evening meal, put my electric blanket and my spangley lights on. I love my new winter down bed quilt. Re-read my list - very happy with the items thereon and my success at ticking them off. Long may this last!