Day 2 was hijacked. I started off tremendously, getting up fairly early even though I had sat up late appliquéing legs onto an embroidered sheep (and, with hindsight I should have banked another half hour’s sleep and stopped at two rather than going for the full four as it now looks like a cross between a sheep and an octopus). By ten I had forced at least three drams of sherry into the cakerie and made a batch of potato scones from the left over mash. Seriously, it was top quality Ma Walton activity in the kitchen. By half past we were off to give Danny the joiner “helpful guidance” and stock up on essentials at the coop.
The rot started to set in when we made it to the Hirsel, with mum’s hearth back on track and two bottles of the finest chicken wine in the boot (it’s fish night, Elaine gets up early to drive the van so it’s the least we can do to appreciate her lemon sole with appropriate solemnity). It was simply glorious. The oak trees behind the lake were almost tangerine against a bright blue sky and underneath the bare hazels and birches there was an airy foam of pale yellow currant bushes. Now the bulk of the trees in the undergrowth have lost their leaves you can see clear through to the back of the lake, a tantalising glimpse of blue. We were peering through to try to see what the ducks were making such a racket about (hoping to see the other, which we’ve not spotted this year) and there they were, two young deer, jumping through the brash. So we dawdled the rest of the way, craning our necks hoping to catch them again. With no further deer action we admired the swans and drove home in the stop start manner necessitated by pheasants playing chicken.
Of course this had all given me a taste for the great outdoors so instead of coming in and buckling down to the many outstanding admin chores and Christmas prep, I swapped over my comfy wellies for the big jobs with steel feet and went off to dig things up. I had a notion of moving a very unhappy hydrangea to a nice empty spot. However, to get to it I had to dig up a fairly large suckered lilac. The lilac was perfectly healthy (but the wrong colour for where it had inveigled itself) so I decided to move it down by the back of the bottom pond. I made a space by hoofing out copious nettles (banzai!) and a misshapen hebe. Alas it was immediately clear that a cornus midwinter fire in the same bed, but in the wrong spot and already earmarked for shifting, would be better in the new hole. Fine I thought, the midwinter fire can go in the new hole and the lilac can go where the cornus was. In the course of extracting the cornus I despatched a whole lot more nettle and some invasive yellow lysimachia (double banzai!). At this point it was achingly obvious that this new space was where the second tree peony (which always looked wrong where it was) should be. Sighing, I heaved that out (and yet more nettle). This left no useable spare hole as turns out thee were bulbs underneath. Finally I found a home for the salvaged lilac by digging out a self seeded comfrey. To draw an end to the endless cycle I just binned this. By this stage it was getting gloomy. I shoed in the hydrangea and headed in for a cup of tea as happy as Larry with my epic progress.
To my astonishment it wasn’t even three! The tedious admin was promptly parked and I high tailed it to the garret thinking that there was still ages of time for Christmas project progress. Bizarrely though, at this point time seemed to speed up. I had barely finished my “warm up” bit of sewing when I looked up to find it pitch dark and well after five. Clearly the sun gathers momentum on the downhill slope, hauling the afternoon hours pell mell after her. So, to cut to the chase, I’m afraid I can only claim one finished Christmas project today. I did, however, haul out some moth free yarn, so knitting by the fire has commenced. I’ve not settled on a pattern yet – I’ll maybe get to that after the rib….I prefer freestyle anyway …..
2nd December’s Advent Quiz question is: Who won the French open men’s singles this year?
The answer to yesterday’s is Plum.
