Lazarus speaks…

I have had this godawful cold/virus for over a fortnight now and only in the last couple of days have I felt even borderline human (as opposed to the land based kin of a race of spluttering green slime monsters from the depths of the Mindanao trench). Keith’s been fairly poorly as well and between us we have been like the couple in a German musical clock. He has been perky in the mornings when I have been languishing in bed, half dead, and I have tended to perk up steadily in the afternoon even as he has declined and retreated to the fainting sofa. Not feeling overly inclined to dig large holes over this period, I largely eschewed the garden and fiddled and faddled indoors getting some outstanding admin done, sending off some Christmas orders and making a couple of batches of mincemeat and some quince jelly. (The mincemeat might ultimately prove rather reckless as my sense of taste has been a bit weird and I fear that the level of ginger might be on the explosive side.). However, I am finally on the mend and Keith is most definitely back on top form.

I celebrated the first day of 75% breathing function taking Mum on a trip to Auchencrow for a girls’ sleepover with Lachlan. We were expected at 3.30 for a dog walk and pre dinner drinks at the pub so I spent the afternoon in respectable clothes de seeding dried fennel heads to the accompaniment of a good audio book (I’m on the new Robert Galbraith now). As the headphones override text alerts, Mum and I were well en route when Lachlan’s call came through the Mini speakers to complain that I had been ignoring a series of text messages deferring our welcome arrangements till 4.30. Fortunately, the other key point of the missed messages had been a call for wine so we diverted to Chirnside and purchased the best the co-op had to offer (as well as the ever essential vinegar crisps, chocolates, Jakeman’s throat pastilles and a little something for the cats). The diversion rather rattled my location skills and I had to circuit Chirnside twice and perform a U-turn on a mystery road to the wrong place before I finally recognised the right turn off. This was all to the good as we arrived close to the new desired deadline…..Serendipity strikes again! Hester the shy cat was not in evidence (allegedly under a bed) but Mabel the kitten and Lyra, both excited to have visitors, were very much in competition for Dreamies (on special in the co-op) and attention. A lively evening ensued. It turns out this continued all night and, whilst I was sleeping off the red wine and Lachlan’s excellent sourdough pizza, Mum was in a permanent game of tig with Mabel. She may be less keen on future sleepovers…..

The one thing I have managed to keep up the last fortnight (the pilates went to the wall straight away) have been Lyra’s walks. A stroll through the misty woods dodging acorns has actually been the very best thing to distract from the gloom. Everywhere the sun strikes leaves are turning. There’s a thick orange carpet under the chestnuts at the edge of the fields and in the clearings left by Storm Arwen hazels and birches of a bright clear yellow illuminate the green depths. With the weather so mild, grass is still growing in the verges where not suppressed by tractor tyres and walker boots. Two broad stripes of beech leaf orange mark a no stopping zone by the edge of the woods that Mum and I resolutely ignore as we linger to peer in search of deer. No joy so far. Today, for a change, we went around the back lane and down to the fields. The sun was shining and Lyra positively scampered along hoping for “things to chase”. She was much too busy scouting for non existent pheasant to spot the two deer we saw floating off over the next field or the, very hairy, ruby tiger caterpillar pedding across the track as fast as its little legs would carry it.

The garden is now in its autumn shades and the colour is mainly from the trees, though the michaelmas daisies are doing their best to add dashes of blue. The spindles are a glorious pinky red and there’s a young plum opposite adding a creamy yellow to the mix. It was so lovely today I loaded up a barrow with tools and managed a really quite decent shift. I have mostly planted up a nice big space down near the bottom pond which was released by getting rid of an overweening fennel and some rampant hemerocallis and achillea ptarimica. I am trying not to overfill it, but it is very tempting! So far I have used it to rehome a sad peony, surplus early yellow hemerocallis and a spare lupin from the other end of the border, a lilac and a perovskia I grew from cuttings and some oxlips and stachys that were going spare. I think I might just squeak in a chrysanthemum as well before I call it quits. (I’m telling myself the many assorted bulbs I nestled in between all this don’t count….. ). I shall finish it off tomorrow or Friday and then mulch like mad with the last of the wood chip to stop myself adding any more.