Breakfast Bach...
Good morning Bach. Am going to plod through a bit of you before we go swimming. Need to use my early morning hours more creatively. The first cup of tea, accompanied by the first Bach English Suite, that sort of thing.
Wednesday 3rd January
Right. The plan was to have THE best day of 2024 in the garden (not too difficult, since it's only day three, oops). So I got my little cricket radio to listen to the Australia Pakistan cricket test while I poked about. I collected three barrow loads of mess and cranked up the bonfire. Directed Non-Gardening Partner who finally appeared (!) with his chainsaw.
![Looking upstream. Looking upstream.](http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/garden-journal-23/24-looking-upstream.jpg)
Standing in the Water Race
Did more Phormium chopping in the water race and carefully pruned the Flower Carpet rose. Ouch - more little cuts on my hands. OK. I could wear gloves, but I kind of like the sensitive touch of real vegetation. Maybe not rose thorns!
![Winnie waiting by the water race. Winnie waiting by the water race.](http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/garden-journal-23/24-winnie-water.jpg)
Throw the Stick!
Threw sticks down the water race for Winnie to retrieve. If one gets lost, then not a problem. Tennis balls are different. I wonder how many of her tennis balls are lurking, soggy, caught in netting by one of the downstream culverts...
![A really tough shrub, this. A really tough shrub, this.](http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/garden-journal-23/24-cluster-hypericum.jpg)
Hypericum Flowering
Thursday 4th January
Am back from a swim. Have said good morning to Bach. I love the finger-feeling of Bach in the mornings - it's like limbering up before gardening.
A different area?
Might spend my first gardening session cleaning up a different area of my garden - the new, open area in the Hump. Yesterday NGP started his part of the development - chainsawing down some scruffy seedling Pittosporums. My plan is to clear the existing path while doing a lot of thinking. Tough shrub thinking. Agapanthus thinking.
Two hours later...
Nope. This area is in full sun mid-morning (I didn't actually know that). So I slunk back over to the water race and made a start chopping down yet another oversized Phormium. It's a species green Cookianum which has split apart and is simply too fat and too wide. About a half of it is deconstructed.
![Flowering near the water race. Flowering near the water race.](http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/garden-journal-23/24-lots-red-daylilies.jpg)
Red Daylilies
Have come inside for a cup of tea, to read my book, and wait for the temperature to cool off. Am loving listening to the cricket and David Warner's possible last test match innings.
And another two hours later...
I don't think I have ever, ever made so much mess in two hours. And I walked away, leaving it all on the lawn.
Phormium Maths...
My Phormium Maths has gone a bit funny - two more hours of cutting and throwing and I still have at least a half of it to go. How does that happen? Bendy time in the garden?