No, she wasn't sitting down with an easel in front of her wearing a pretty hat with a large brim, she was a'bending and a'stretching and using a big brush to paint the trunks and lower branches of her fruit trees.
Why? You might well ask. But having lost a much beloved Seneca plum to sun scorching and those wretched borers, she isn't about to let it happen to the rest of her fruit trees.
She has seen it done on many a tree in Europe and America and occasionally here as well but couldn't find the right pain.. Latex paint. Even B&Q didn't have any and their paint man said he had never heard of it.. grrr.. so it truly was a 'EUREKA' moment when she read on Thursday night an American website that gave her the all-important piece of information.. 'Latex paint is known by our English cousins as Emulsion'.
"Emulsion! Emulsion, there's a 10 litre can of white emulsion sitting with two paint brushes in my hall", she squeaked with joy! She left the house with the can and brushes in WW and returned home at about 7.30pm. Having painted thirteen trees and hard pruned the tips of all the stone fruit trees.
All the fruit trees are covered in blossom and the one that gave her the most pleasure to see like this was the youngest, a Ballerina 'Spartan' apple tree. Her first fruiting year she gave us four apples, last year she gave us twenty but this year! Goodness me, we could have a stall at a Farmer's market! For she is covered in blossom.. pretty pink and white blossom.
And the garlic look as if they're ready to harvest! And.. yippee.. lookielookie.. oh, much joy! You've guessed what caused her great happiness, haven't you? She saw a few asparagus spears, these past few days of sunshine and warmth have prompted the asparagus into sticking its' nose out of the ground. She was mighty tempted to pick them but as they were no more than three inches long, she decided that her greed could wait until Monday!
I'm going with her today, it wasn't possible yesterday as my big traveling cage plus a fully laden WW is a two handed trick and it is not easy dealing with these two getting on and off buses, plus the long flight of steps at the allotments. However, she had an extremely pleasant day, the sun was shining and there is always a breeze there, aka a strong wind in early Spring, late Autumn and Winter.
But saw an alarming thing, when she was painting the greengage tree when she heard the most gruesome noise and looked up to see a road making machine trundling down the track! She shouted at the man and he cut the engine so she could say "what's going on?", his answer was truly MOST alarming.. "we're making a proper road down here, starting on Monday". GRRRR.. making a proper road for about 150 allotment plots.. she doesn't think so!
So she'll contact the estate of the Duke of Devonshire on Monday. For where the plots are is part of a huge piece of land as Duke's Meadows, this was gifted to Hounslow Council by one of the Dukes of Devonshire in the 19th century for agricultural and recreational use.. only. Plus, it is the flood plane for Barnes. She would like to know under what conditions the land was gifted by the Devonshire Estate.
For a lot of land is gifted with a covenant that if the usage of the land is changed, the land has to go back to the estates. And that might stop Hounslow Council thinking about any development of the Chertsey Road Allotment site.
But before that, there are more trees to paint, briars to destroy, seeds and things to plant, grass to cut, bean supports to be erected, hedges to be trimmed, a naughty clematis Montana Mayleen to be cut right back (after she has flowered), what a heavenly perfume this variety has, the bees love it.
A large stone flagged terrace to sort out, an eating table to build, little shed to be cleaned and disinfected. MUCH WORK has to be done and she the one that has to do it! Me? Oh, I just loll about and squeak encouragement whenever I see her slacking.. it's very chirpful watching other people work, don't you agree?
Now, I saw her come in with a mug of Amber Nectar.. aka LapySang, where is it? A big slurp is an extremely good way to make and start my day!
GeeGee Parrot.
May 7th, 2016.
PostScript and Up-Date: Blimey! That was quick. Andrew, a very Dear Reader, who keeps his ear extremely close to the ground, has telephoned to say "Panic not, they're not making a tarmac road, the machines are there to scrape off the middle lumpy bit of the track before multiple tons of 'hardcore' are laid on Wednesday, the hardcore is already on-site at the other end of the site and new gates are being installed".
Why? You might well ask. But having lost a much beloved Seneca plum to sun scorching and those wretched borers, she isn't about to let it happen to the rest of her fruit trees.
She has seen it done on many a tree in Europe and America and occasionally here as well but couldn't find the right pain.. Latex paint. Even B&Q didn't have any and their paint man said he had never heard of it.. grrr.. so it truly was a 'EUREKA' moment when she read on Thursday night an American website that gave her the all-important piece of information.. 'Latex paint is known by our English cousins as Emulsion'.
"Emulsion! Emulsion, there's a 10 litre can of white emulsion sitting with two paint brushes in my hall", she squeaked with joy! She left the house with the can and brushes in WW and returned home at about 7.30pm. Having painted thirteen trees and hard pruned the tips of all the stone fruit trees.
All the fruit trees are covered in blossom and the one that gave her the most pleasure to see like this was the youngest, a Ballerina 'Spartan' apple tree. Her first fruiting year she gave us four apples, last year she gave us twenty but this year! Goodness me, we could have a stall at a Farmer's market! For she is covered in blossom.. pretty pink and white blossom.
And the garlic look as if they're ready to harvest! And.. yippee.. lookielookie.. oh, much joy! You've guessed what caused her great happiness, haven't you? She saw a few asparagus spears, these past few days of sunshine and warmth have prompted the asparagus into sticking its' nose out of the ground. She was mighty tempted to pick them but as they were no more than three inches long, she decided that her greed could wait until Monday!
I'm going with her today, it wasn't possible yesterday as my big traveling cage plus a fully laden WW is a two handed trick and it is not easy dealing with these two getting on and off buses, plus the long flight of steps at the allotments. However, she had an extremely pleasant day, the sun was shining and there is always a breeze there, aka a strong wind in early Spring, late Autumn and Winter.
But saw an alarming thing, when she was painting the greengage tree when she heard the most gruesome noise and looked up to see a road making machine trundling down the track! She shouted at the man and he cut the engine so she could say "what's going on?", his answer was truly MOST alarming.. "we're making a proper road down here, starting on Monday". GRRRR.. making a proper road for about 150 allotment plots.. she doesn't think so!
So she'll contact the estate of the Duke of Devonshire on Monday. For where the plots are is part of a huge piece of land as Duke's Meadows, this was gifted to Hounslow Council by one of the Dukes of Devonshire in the 19th century for agricultural and recreational use.. only. Plus, it is the flood plane for Barnes. She would like to know under what conditions the land was gifted by the Devonshire Estate.
For a lot of land is gifted with a covenant that if the usage of the land is changed, the land has to go back to the estates. And that might stop Hounslow Council thinking about any development of the Chertsey Road Allotment site.
But before that, there are more trees to paint, briars to destroy, seeds and things to plant, grass to cut, bean supports to be erected, hedges to be trimmed, a naughty clematis Montana Mayleen to be cut right back (after she has flowered), what a heavenly perfume this variety has, the bees love it.
A large stone flagged terrace to sort out, an eating table to build, little shed to be cleaned and disinfected. MUCH WORK has to be done and she the one that has to do it! Me? Oh, I just loll about and squeak encouragement whenever I see her slacking.. it's very chirpful watching other people work, don't you agree?
Now, I saw her come in with a mug of Amber Nectar.. aka LapySang, where is it? A big slurp is an extremely good way to make and start my day!
GeeGee Parrot.
May 7th, 2016.
PostScript and Up-Date: Blimey! That was quick. Andrew, a very Dear Reader, who keeps his ear extremely close to the ground, has telephoned to say "Panic not, they're not making a tarmac road, the machines are there to scrape off the middle lumpy bit of the track before multiple tons of 'hardcore' are laid on Wednesday, the hardcore is already on-site at the other end of the site and new gates are being installed".
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