OF MICE AND MEN

This has nothing to do with mice and not much to do with men!

It has to do with stuff oft ganging astray like the weather - yesterday beautiful weather but we had guests and did strenuous things like sit in the garden and drink wine, eat garlic sticks (the crunchy bits out of Bombay Mix). (And talk). I had, that morning, spread pelleted hen manure on the rose bed to give the plants a boost but R's sister B has two hearing dogs (I know, dogs can hear, but B is a bit deaf and she has these dogs (one retired now) to tell her when R rings her up and things), where was I, am I? - Oh! Yes, they proceeded to eat all the hen manure! Now I will have to do the fertilising again.
There is no accounting for taste.

Today I have got up to rain and the remains of a hurricane coming our way.

So, what is the garden like after willowcide - the answer is open. I can now see all the overgrowth and weeds easier.

This is a photograph of the Victoria Plum kneeling under its burden of fruit, not yet ripe and heavy! I did thin out drastically earlier in the year but this tree just loves to go plum crazy. The thing on the left is a plank holding it up.

I cannot wait to reach up and pull off a juicy fruit, brush off the wasps and sink my teeth into the flesh. The sweet syrupy juice will run down my chin and drip to the ground. (This is becoming silly - a bit like soft plum porn.)

Still falls the rain! (Bit of a poetry day today what with this bit of Sitwell and the title from that famous Scottish Jew, Rabbi Burns.)

Here is the cutting bed showing the rudbeckia to the right and sweet Williams sheared and laid in a line for the seed to fall and grow for next year.
What is that wooden edged bay for, you might ask (you might not but you are going to get an answer anyway)?
As the bed is deep front to back, to get to flowers and weed without treading on things this gives me easy access.

 There are some strong colours in the garden at the moment especially the crocosmias (right) and on the banking above this the shrubby clematis (left). This is not a climber but a bush and has deep blue flowers - always welcome in a garden.

 I tried the scythe a couple of days ago on the top banking as the grass was dry but previous rain had flattened and matted it so it was a bit of a struggle. Lesson coming up in four weeks time - I think I might need it.
I may also need to excavate the strimmer from the shed and try and fire it up.

'Tis all go - painters arriving tomorrow to paint the exterior woodwork (of course it will rain). We have a vague date - last week in August - for the ponding. I am to buy butyl liners and other stuff but need R's approval for dimensions.
I suggested 1 metre square but I think 12 by four metres seems more likely.
That part of the garden is a jungle so the thought of the strimmer emerges once more.
Perhaps I should spray everything with total weedkiller and start from scratch but that takes away the joy of backache, sweat on the brow (and pestering flies) - etc etc etc.

Rosey has seen a nuthatch on the feeders and all I get are tits and sparrows plus an occasional woodie.  Such is life!