Off she went to the jungle.. aka the allotments! And she had to fight to get in for with a little rain and a little sun, the grass and the Forget-Me-Nots had grown so much that it looks.. disasterous!
If she didn't have photographic evidence of how immaculate these four plots used to be.. she'd not believe it! But that was when she worked them hard, at least four days a week, her energy was high and her weigh was low. Being far too heavy, like at least ten kilos over weight, makes you tired.
Rye bread is her downfall.. slurp.. she has to quit eating that in the morning and go back to gardening more often, it makes you fit and keeps you slim and there is MUCH hard work to be done out there, seriously hard work.
However, all is not doom and gloom! For the very hard pruning job that she did on all of the cherry trees has really paid off, especially on the two sour cherry trees. One is a Morello, which has never been a good 'doer', the other is a much younger tree, a Montmorency.
They are covered in blossom. They are also the last to come into blossom, the Stellas and the two French varieties, plus the two 'white', which, in fact, are yellow cherry trees have already blossomed. As have all of the various plum trees.
The mixed variety apple trees are still in bloom, so pretty, it looks.. fingers crossed.. as if it is going to be a crackin' good year for all our fruit trees and bushes, blackcurrant and red current bushes, red and yellow gooseberries and the figs will be wonderful!
She will net all her fruit this year, so it's off to Margie in North End Road Market for odd lengths of net curtaining, this makes brilliant anti-bird nets for fruit bushes and you can use it year after year.
A scaffold pole frame needs to be made for the Cypriot fig and for the group of cherry and plum trees, then she would be able to slide a tent of nylon net over the poles. It would take effort, money and time. But the rewards would be great! No more thieving birds!
She wasn't going to fuss with the strimmer today, it would have just annoyed her, she picked what asparagus she could find (amongst the weeds), dug over four small beds, picked three long stalks of lovage, a handful each of oregano, marjoriam, wild bronze fennel, lemon balm and lots of tall dandelion leaves.
Chopped up onto a plate they made a strong tasting, very healthy base for a pork loin chop, which we have just shared for our late lunch.
All of the peonies are up.. yippee.. and the babies which were planted two years ago are beginning to be a decent height. The original plants are huge this year. Almost up to her shoulder and still growing with an enormous amount of buds.. how she loves them!
Because she knows exactly where they are, she'll cut her way through a briar which has engulfed a bed, inside the briar (!) are three of her most favourite peonies, they're doubles, white with pale pink centres and smell.. ah.. their smell is glorious. They have to be marked with circles of stakes or bamboos.
Last week, quite by accident, she came across a team of three men who do garden clearance and maintenance, she's going to get one of them to come down in his truck to give her a quote to clear the three beastly briar patches, hence the stakes to show the men to be careful in these places, the back bed and terrace of briars and weeds and take all the rubbish clippings away.
They could also mend the back fence, remove a wicked, quick growing and non-flowering jasmine which has gone rogue and reinstall her water tank which fed the shed with water. Don't worry folks.. she knows about these types of 'naughty' folk who quote one figure and then charge another with threatening menace.. she'll get a written detailed quote before she parts with any dosh!
She would have loved to give the work to Jorge, a friend of Rob, but Rob has flown off to Australia and forgotten to pass on the other man's contact details. But perhaps it is for the best, these guys have their truck with the wire back for taking garden waste, so it would just go whoosh.. away away!
They, the powers to be, forecasted rain today! One of the reasons she came back at a reasonable hour was that she was too hot! Boots, thick sweater, vest, thick trousers.. far too hot! And having not yet taken any summer clothes to the shed, there was nothing to change into! Needless to say, it did not rain and in fact, we need rain and a lot of it VERY badly! The soil is far too dry, as hard as an old rock!
So it is past six of the afternoon clock and a glorious evening.. mind you, if she had still been out there, I would be mighty hungry, seeing as I played silly games this morning and did not eat anything, NOT clever!
One of the first things she has to do is work on the terrace, where my cage is, to get it sorted out, she needs to find the chain and padlock, it is somewhere in shed, which locks the cage to the table and locks the cage shut. It never used to be like this, when Dagga Parrot was alive, the two of them would stay in little shed for a week at a time, she knew everyone, everyone felt safe, nobody stole tools or broke into sheds.
She is not going tomorrow.. she's tried to do this trip already this year on a Bank Holiday and it was a fiasco! We'll stay at home and potter, for there is always something to do, is there not! Now we hope the girls in Wiltshire have had a happy birthday day and that they had lots of sunshine?
GeeGee Parrot.
May 3rd, 2015.
If she didn't have photographic evidence of how immaculate these four plots used to be.. she'd not believe it! But that was when she worked them hard, at least four days a week, her energy was high and her weigh was low. Being far too heavy, like at least ten kilos over weight, makes you tired.
Rye bread is her downfall.. slurp.. she has to quit eating that in the morning and go back to gardening more often, it makes you fit and keeps you slim and there is MUCH hard work to be done out there, seriously hard work.
However, all is not doom and gloom! For the very hard pruning job that she did on all of the cherry trees has really paid off, especially on the two sour cherry trees. One is a Morello, which has never been a good 'doer', the other is a much younger tree, a Montmorency.
They are covered in blossom. They are also the last to come into blossom, the Stellas and the two French varieties, plus the two 'white', which, in fact, are yellow cherry trees have already blossomed. As have all of the various plum trees.
The mixed variety apple trees are still in bloom, so pretty, it looks.. fingers crossed.. as if it is going to be a crackin' good year for all our fruit trees and bushes, blackcurrant and red current bushes, red and yellow gooseberries and the figs will be wonderful!
She will net all her fruit this year, so it's off to Margie in North End Road Market for odd lengths of net curtaining, this makes brilliant anti-bird nets for fruit bushes and you can use it year after year.
A scaffold pole frame needs to be made for the Cypriot fig and for the group of cherry and plum trees, then she would be able to slide a tent of nylon net over the poles. It would take effort, money and time. But the rewards would be great! No more thieving birds!
She wasn't going to fuss with the strimmer today, it would have just annoyed her, she picked what asparagus she could find (amongst the weeds), dug over four small beds, picked three long stalks of lovage, a handful each of oregano, marjoriam, wild bronze fennel, lemon balm and lots of tall dandelion leaves.
Chopped up onto a plate they made a strong tasting, very healthy base for a pork loin chop, which we have just shared for our late lunch.
All of the peonies are up.. yippee.. and the babies which were planted two years ago are beginning to be a decent height. The original plants are huge this year. Almost up to her shoulder and still growing with an enormous amount of buds.. how she loves them!
Because she knows exactly where they are, she'll cut her way through a briar which has engulfed a bed, inside the briar (!) are three of her most favourite peonies, they're doubles, white with pale pink centres and smell.. ah.. their smell is glorious. They have to be marked with circles of stakes or bamboos.
Last week, quite by accident, she came across a team of three men who do garden clearance and maintenance, she's going to get one of them to come down in his truck to give her a quote to clear the three beastly briar patches, hence the stakes to show the men to be careful in these places, the back bed and terrace of briars and weeds and take all the rubbish clippings away.
They could also mend the back fence, remove a wicked, quick growing and non-flowering jasmine which has gone rogue and reinstall her water tank which fed the shed with water. Don't worry folks.. she knows about these types of 'naughty' folk who quote one figure and then charge another with threatening menace.. she'll get a written detailed quote before she parts with any dosh!
She would have loved to give the work to Jorge, a friend of Rob, but Rob has flown off to Australia and forgotten to pass on the other man's contact details. But perhaps it is for the best, these guys have their truck with the wire back for taking garden waste, so it would just go whoosh.. away away!
They, the powers to be, forecasted rain today! One of the reasons she came back at a reasonable hour was that she was too hot! Boots, thick sweater, vest, thick trousers.. far too hot! And having not yet taken any summer clothes to the shed, there was nothing to change into! Needless to say, it did not rain and in fact, we need rain and a lot of it VERY badly! The soil is far too dry, as hard as an old rock!
So it is past six of the afternoon clock and a glorious evening.. mind you, if she had still been out there, I would be mighty hungry, seeing as I played silly games this morning and did not eat anything, NOT clever!
One of the first things she has to do is work on the terrace, where my cage is, to get it sorted out, she needs to find the chain and padlock, it is somewhere in shed, which locks the cage to the table and locks the cage shut. It never used to be like this, when Dagga Parrot was alive, the two of them would stay in little shed for a week at a time, she knew everyone, everyone felt safe, nobody stole tools or broke into sheds.
She is not going tomorrow.. she's tried to do this trip already this year on a Bank Holiday and it was a fiasco! We'll stay at home and potter, for there is always something to do, is there not! Now we hope the girls in Wiltshire have had a happy birthday day and that they had lots of sunshine?
GeeGee Parrot.
May 3rd, 2015.
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