BACK TO GARDENING

As opposed to ponding and stuff.

Cut the banking in front of the house - no, not with a scythe, no, not with a strimmer, no, not with shears, no not with a pair of scissors, nor toenail clippers - I used the little mower set on mulch and shoved and pushed and so on. The main problem is waiting for the frogs to get out of the way - they are everywhere.

Speaking of ponds - I have found a boggy area at the upper end so dug a small trench and this is trickling with water - so pipes and stuff to go in.

R has been a-weeding and a-dead-heading but refused point blank to clear the undergrowth below the copper beech hedge - a job she detests.

Fruit, plums just falling off onto the ground now though I have managed to pick most of the damsons.

Ah! Damsons - thereby hangs a tale. We had S for lunch on Tuesday. (The chap with the dog that looks like a sheep (? a wolf in - well you know)) and he had been to the dentist just before he came. R had made a super damson crumble for pud - yes, with custard - and I went and bit on a stone (kernel) and after S had gone, I realised I had broken a tooth. So, on Wednesday, I went to see the same dentist to be patched back together.

Now there is still a lot of colour in then garden - especially with the nasturtiums and montbretia (crocosmia).

The nasturtiums were not deliberately sown but the seeds from last year doing what seeds do and all that.
These are red nasties but we have yellow and orange and a sort of muddy reddish brown as well.
The crocosmia come in everything from Lucifer scarlet to soft yellow.

 At the top we have a pic of the house from the lawn so here is one looking the other way.

Now off to the garden to rake the surface of the bare, post pond areas and then water the garden. It seems such long time since we had any rain of note. This summer has been a good one despite a cold fortnight in August.

I really must clear out the mower shed and chuck out a load of stuff like old keyhole escutcheons and door knobs, screws this size and nails that size, paint tins with a dried up goo in the bottom and so on.

On the other hand have just been to Sprint Mill (http://www.c-art.org.uk/artists/sprint-mill/gallery)(https://www.facebook.com/sprintmilling) to see art in the local C-Art where studios open up their doors here in Cumbria. (http://www.c-art.org.uk). This is where I supposedly learned to scythe.

It is a fascinating place.

(Also, on the way, we just popped into M&S in Kendal so R could take something back - and went there, and Monsoon, and Beales and other dress shops. I bought a novel in Watersons book shop and a WhatCar to read about vehicles I cannot afford. We had lunch by the river (watercress soup (you could have fooled me there was any watercress in it) and a bun or in R's case a cheese scone) and then I went back to the car to wait.

Actually she was very good. (I have to say that) (I mean - I go in a shop - are those trousers? Will they fit more or less, keep me warm, keep me dry, fine I will have them.)

Whoops, shut up lad, thou wilt be in trouble.

So I will.

Shut up I mean.

For now.