LONGBLOG 2 - THE RETURN OF THE SQUIRREL

Here we go, well not really, it is raining so go nowhere. Swept a few leaves and cleaned the AGA.
Potted up two old amaryllis and potted on some pinks - all in all a potty day.

And the squirrel is back (or squirrels?)(I hope not)(but . . . )

So to cheer myself up here is a pic of sunbeams on sheep in the field in front of the house, albeit monochrome and a view also to Heysham Nuclear Power Station on the other side of the bay.

Sometimes one notices things that should have been done long ago (like all the garden) and today I saw that I had not cut back the lavender. So now it is done - important not to cut back into the old wood but take off the flowering stems and trim the new growth to give a reasonably pleasing shape.

Grey days and lowering clouds, spitting rain and sodden leaves - an English autumn in full flow. The lawns are best left well alone at this time. So go out and have a coffee by the estuary - it is raining there too but then the sun came out for a short burst and we had a rainbow.
This afternoon, if I can steel myself into some Wellies I will do some flowerbed tidying, just something to spruce the place up a bit. Not all the leaves have gone - not off the fig, roses, buddleias and for some reason the apple tree. We have been to the gym (:-(}= (that is an inverse smiley) (a groanie) and now I am going to prepare some Michelin starred lunch - boil 2 eggs, chop with mayonnaise and bung in a sandwich. (And take the shells off.)

It rained all afternoon so I did not go in the garden, in fact the weather is so awful and grey here is a sunny pic to cheer me up.

My thoughts on bees and such have been challenged by R and G in Dublin and I rather agree with them but it was an interesting headline. As I have said to them I suspect bee problems may be related to what the beekeepers (apiarists for the literati) are spraying them with for Varoa mites etc?

Time to make a beeline for lunch.

We had such a wonderful September and now we pay for it. Just cleaned out some of the bird feeders - important as the birds can catch nasties from them - especially greenfinches I think. They are drying on the Aga before being refilled.

To a path problem - the one below the house and top bit of banking that sweeps round to the lawns - as the banking is steep, applied manure, dislodged soil when weeding (and when the pheasants scramble up towards the feeders) rolls down onto the hoggin. Moss grows as do weeds and seedlings. I do not want to use a total path clear type stuff but hand weeding etc is not on. So I have to admit to using a bit of Round Up.

(I hear the organic brigade yelling at me but a mossy path is dangerously slippery for old fogeys).

Then there is the moss that has insinuated itself in the cracks in the paving - well, that stays as R has said she rather likes it. The blue stuff in the pic is self-sown borage, still flowering in November and useful to decorate a gin and tonic - bit late in the year for a Pimms.

So this is Friday,
and what have I done?
Gardening is off
Without any sun!

R........A.......I.......N!

Then sun but am off to get family from Oxenholme station.

So gardening now? - Well, I have developed a bad back - hunchback of Rosside Nook - just managed my socks and shoes - do not know why but very stiff despite Ibuprofen.
I know, excuses, excuses.

So her is a pic of our cherry - our ballerina tree with three branches, two like outstretched arms leaning into the garden on points.
This morning should be digging and such but - coffee in town is all I can manage I think.

Just been up the garden to the wood - loads of sticks down, paths need raking and two new springs pouring water into places I would rather they avoided. One of the pots of paperweight daffs I potted up for Christmas are in bud and about to come out, the rest show no sign of life - have they an aversion to the festive season?

Bad back - praying the 15 white birches do not come now for planting.

Time for linament (and a cuppa).