STILL ALIVE

But not gardening. Watching R weeding and pruning and trimming and planning with help from Sam - yes we have our previous gardener back.

What can I say after a long time? Well I had five discs in my neck trimmed, and the bone - it is a bit like a minor stroke affecting the right side of the body. My grip is dodgy, my balance is poor and I fall over. I still drive but walk using a rollator. Enough of some of my ailments. The garden has been abundant especially fruit - apples, pears, plums, gages and damsons. We lost a branch off the greengage with the weight of fruit. And there are butterflies everywhere.

This is the front and some observations - the box ball on the left is blighted and has been removed. The small maple belongs to my daughter-in-law who is about to present us with a grandson. The buddleia beyond the box has been removed and the dead wisteria in that bed has leaves.

Autumn is already showing its colours in our maple and Euonymus.

This has been a hydrangea summer with the usual Annabelle splendid and here Hydrangea paniculata thriving under the cherry.

What else - more pics - 

And we still have the odd squirrel for R to shout at but rabbits seem to have gone so I wonder if this is a myxomatosis year. The snails and slugs of course slither on.

And so to a photo of the head gardener labouring next to the elephant grass she dislikes.

So not a long blog but at least one done - at the prompting of my daughter.

Now out to lap the house to achieve my number of steps.