Last time it was rugging the cat and digging up the musical past.
Today and yesterday, with the ridiculously lovely weather, a pink moon that wasn’t
And social distancing being re-branded as individual distancing, I carried on the deep spring clean that this place has needed for several springs.
In doing so we found, at the back of the dresser our previous Dog’s ashes.
Blitz was a rescue, like Dog, who died suddenly in the autumn of 2011 of an undiagnosed heart condition. I even tried mouth to mouth on him, so sudden was it but the logistics of that defeated even my determination. Still we’d had eleven good years and when we received his ashes the kids were both away so we kept them for the right moment.
That was yesterday. The kids stood outside the gate and watched as we fed the garden with essence of darling Blitzy. It was all rather lovely even if we couldn’t all take part, there was a shared memory.
It rather put me off the clean, though, so today we spent it in the garden, the Textiliste and me, building three huge tripods for what we intend to be the most spectacular of floral mountains – sweetpeas, black eyed susans and morning glories as centre-pieces for the potager bed we have planned – there will be veg in abundance – peas and beans, courgettes and squash, tomatoes and corn; there will be sunflowers and calendula, poppies and geraniums, oh all sorts. Fitting that Blitzy should be in there helping them grow when he spent a significant part of his life peeing on my lawn and burning holes in it.
And this is what last year’s looked like – hopefully these will be even better..
I wonder what will happen next?
PS, as I wrote this the eagle-eared Textiliste heard a hissing. She tracked it down and, blow me if we don’t have a water leak. My natural inclination to do nothing at the best of times, compounded by the current dilemma had me on the side of ‘let’s leave it till this is over’. The Textiliste, who hates wasting water with the passion of a parched dromedary pointed out that ‘over’ may be weeks off so we now have a Thames water plumber appearing tomorrow. We will all keep our distances and thoroughly clean everywhere but I’d prefer it if this didn’t happen.
Life is a bit of a bugger right enough…
TanGental 
It is indeed a bit of a bugger, and a half, His Geoffleship!
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We rebranded ‘social distancing’ at the get-go. Being aware that we needed to not stop being social, especially now, it has been called what it is ‘physical distancing’ – which is a new form of being social really ……. The whole country has just passed the halfway mark of the initial four week complete lock down…… Your garden will look superb this summer. I hope you will show it, especially for those of us in the depths of winter, along with Derrick and Jackie’s garden, it will be most uplifting to visit virtually.
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Thanks for the mention, Pauline
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Today’s leak is tomorrow’s deluge. Very wise to call the Thames Plumber who used to be a doctor but found he could earn more as a plumber. Good luck with that.
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Major bugger, yes.
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I imagine Major Bugger is in charge of most areas of life these days
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Yip, life is certainly different. I love the English spirit of digging for victory. I have managed to convince my dad to start a vegetable garden too. It will give him an interest other than looking for articles about covid to give to me at lunch and supper time and may prolong his life in that he may survive the lock-down if I don’t kill him for being such an old misery.
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Ohh Robbie, my Mum called yesterday ready to throttle my Dad for over-dosing on the news. Geoff’s planting feels so much better. ❤
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Ha! Yes, I have a MIL who’s inclination is to share the days woes first and last. Do you think there will be sufficient jurisprudence to support a defence to homicide based on over covid sharing?
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The garden is looking beautiful and will look even better. The Thames water plumber well he’ll do his best. Is the leak in the house or garden? Life is tedious right now even the littlest of things. In my experience water is never littlest of things. Be safe 🌈💜
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In the house. Happily he accessed it easily and it’s fixed. Onto the next challenge…
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Which is ?
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Oh don’t…
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😖
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I clearly need you to plan our garden. It looks like someone tried to plant grass over The Sahara.
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Ditto here, Chelsea. We live near the beach on sandy soil, but thankfully we have a few survivors.
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Planning is good Implementing is better… easy for me to say with all children having flown…
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Yes, it is!
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It would have to be even worse for The Head Gardener to squander flower space for veg. Keep up the good work.
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Such a challenge that one…
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The picture of you both planting is just lovely. As is the thought of a family scattering of your beloved companion’s ashes. Good luck with Thames Water and yes, best to call them out now before you have your own lake. It is bugger though….
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A bugger indeed. The workman was the business thankfully. At least that’s sorted… on to the next little flip…
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Lovely story about your dog and looks as though your garden will be lovely as well. Hope you all are hanging in there emotionally. Stay well and healthy, Geoff. ;0)
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Thanks Pam. Keeping the chin high…
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👌👏
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I’m glad to discover I’m not the only one who has a natural inclination to do nothing in such circumstances. It would probably hissed at the same frequency as my tinnitus so would have gone out undetected on my watch anyway.
Glad your do-nothing inclination does not extend to the garden, however. You’re something of an inspiration on that score (as well as on the writing front).
I’ve been digging over raised beds, which is usually an invitation for our cats to use them as giant litter trays. They’re ahead of the curve, this year, though. They’d surreptitiously crapped into the compost so when I was digging it in, I was doing their dirty work for them.
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Yes, bloody cats do that to me too. They choose deliberately to annoy.
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It looks as if even the Textiliste is socially distancing! Clearly your morning glories are a desirable flower. In the west of the U.S. they are an amazingly invasive plant with root systems to outdo the Roman aqueducts. The garden looks great. Do you have rabbits ready to invade as we do?
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The morning glories here put down small roots and happily seed. Bindweed, it’s near cousin on the other hand is as you describe it and I fight a terrible battle to hold back the tendentious spaghetti…
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Yes. I guess each area has its own plant nemesis.
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Yep. We live in horror of japanese knotweed.. makes selling your house difficult
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An invasive plant judging from its name!
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Those sweat peas look amazing! Have I left it too late to sew seeds?
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Not at all. We’re still planning them and will do for a while yet. How’s lock down Scottish style?
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Yes, all good here thanks. I already worked from home so not much has changed for me. The main difference is the kids are now at home but I’ve got them starting an online school next week which should keep them busy.
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Looks like you are using your time wisely. The garden will be splendid.
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It very much is, Geoff. It’s at times like these that these jobs seem to pop up. Why does the boiler never break down in summer? It’s always the winter months.
Good to see you keeping busy with jobs inside and out. I must say that I do like a declutter. It seems to make me feel very good and positive, especially when many items end up at the local charity shop where they go in helping good causes. For now, though, those items have to remain in a bag in the spare bedroom until the charity shops reopen. And decluttering also help bring back many memories we thought were long lost.
Having personally seen and walked around your garden, I can confidently say that it’s a pretty and relaxing place to be. Keep on enjoying it.
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Thanks a Hugh. Yes our spare room will needs it’s own de clutter when this is over…
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Hi Geoffle,
Looks like there’s a lot of digging to be done to transform that patch of dirt into something that’s going to overtake last years’s splendour, which may explain why my garden looks pathetically neglected. It’s because it is.
Geoff’s sister rang today and left a message with Jonathon that she had news. Of course, I was curious. News? I didn’t there there was anything on the horizon which could amount to much. Oh me of little faith. Well, she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer hopefully caught early as she has regular tests and her daughter who is married for some reason kept pregnancy number 2 quiet and only mentioned it if someone asked. Since we didn’t see her, we didn’t ask. So, in the midst of deepest darkest lockdown we have that going on. Geoff’s sister’s husband is a nurse so he’ll be well versed on all of this. Part of me feels like getting on a plane to go and see her, which is totally impossible, but I do feel a bit useless being so far away, even if I’m flat out with the family here.
These are certainly strange times and it’s hard to know quite what they’re going to be like in six months. There will be people who emerge with hardly a scratch or even better off, and those who won’t emerge at all.
Best wishes,
Ro
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Indeed the strangest of times filed with Sunday’s…
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That’s awful. I hope it is as you say.
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Lovely tribute to your dog and a perfect place to scatter his ashes. He’s probably peeing on the lawns in heaven!
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I think some corner of St Peter’s desk is being watered right now
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A fitting tribute to a beloved dog. I yearn to know the English secret though — how in the world do you make such robust flower plots from bare dirt?
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Rain and temperate temperatures. Oh and lots of homemade compost. No vegetable peelings, cut back, rotten apples goes to waste plus shredded paper too.
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