The speck of sun at the beginning of the month led to an ambitious order of bare root roses in the sale. Needless to say, immediately after the despatch notification pinged onto my phone the weather closed in and returned to unremittingly dreich. Thankfully, a commitment in Edinburgh delayed the inevitable for a day. ForContinue reading “Mud wrestling”
Tag Archives: gardening
CARPE DIEM
Today I confronted mortality at close range. I had positively creaked out of bed with every muscle thrumming most unpleasantly, the inexorable after effect of two days of compost barrowing. Thinking that a few gentle pilates stretches would likely do the business I did the hamstring thing and limbered up to see if there wasContinue reading “CARPE DIEM”
Perking up
The last few days have brought a speck of sun and it has driven the weeks of mud right out of my head. I look around at the green spears of emerging buds and tiny pulmonaria flowers straining up to enjoy a little warmth and wonder why on earth I’ve not weeded all the bordersContinue reading “Perking up”
Hunkering Down
The weather is raw today and, basking in the virtuous glow of having got up early and gone to pilates in the village with Mum, I am now hunkered down in the library, log burner stoked, for the foreseeable. There have been rather too many similar days of late for my liking, and my moral fibreContinue reading “Hunkering Down”
And so it begins..
Gardening proper has started. Just a little bit, but definitely started. Keith and Mum have taken on the orchard pruning. It is like a scene from the operating theatre in General Hospital. Dr Keith surveys the patient then decisively calls out “Loppers”. Nurse Granny passes them up and stands by to mop up twigs. I would be a most unsatisfactory standContinue reading “And so it begins..”
Softly Softly
To my drilled nose (healing nicely thank you – really not that bad at all, just a lingering sore throat and strange “dangly” sensation like a tonsil trying to escape) we must add Keith’s extracted tooth. It is now incumbent on Mum to bite her tongue whilst Lachlan pokes a finger in his eye for theContinue reading “Softly Softly”
An unusual start to the year
In a somewhat unexpected turn of events my first post of the New Year comes to you from ward 17 of the Borders General Hospital. Dry January got off to a convincing start with a 24 hour pre operative alcohol ban and I have been nil by mouth since last night. Take that Christmas weight gain….. Nothing sinister. AContinue reading “An unusual start to the year”
Gifted light
Today was the first solidly dry and sunny day for an age. This was a stroke of luck as I had entirely forgotten that Stuart (the Rat Man) was coming bright and early to spray the carpets against moths (Stuart is a chiel o’ pairts). This entailed chasing out the cats and taking Lyra outContinue reading “Gifted light”
Beautiful bed blockers
The garden is bright now with turning leaves and still dotted the lingering flowers of the nicotiana planted in vast numbers in the spring. I have cleared out a few of the very tall white ones, which took to lurching drunkenly after some strong winds last week. The broken stems (or possibly the seed pods?)Continue reading “Beautiful bed blockers”
Foraging Season
It seems as though we stepped off the plane from Corfu straight into mid autumn. Whilst we were sunning ourselves the brambles and gooseberries had been and gone and the fat Ruthven blackbirds had stripped our rowan of berries. Sloes have also been few and far between this year. And so it was that whenContinue reading “Foraging Season”