The sky was the colour of a dark blue topaz, it was 3 degrees and the garden nutter, aka my mother, trotted out of our house at 08.30am.. I tell you, Dear Readers, there's no hope for her or me, for that matter for she is, afterall, my only parent.
We had woken up at the hideous hour of 06.45 and she bribed me to be 'a good girl' by giving me a soft boiled egg with a teaspoonful of labneh together with my own mug of warm, being careful that it wasn't too hot, lapysang tea.
Many layers of clothing were put on! Her, not me. Thick cotton tights, long sleeved thermal vest, cotton t.shirt, her much beloved Scottish winter sweater, corduroy trousers and boots, a scarf round her neck, woollen gloves and an old Barbour tweed jacket.
She filled Constance's thermos with lapysang, put some bags into a basket, kissed Beaky and left for the plots. And the connections all came along as soon as she appeared. The train pulled into the station as she got to the platform, the bus appeared when she got to the stop and she walked down the steps onto the allotments in less than forty minutes after leaving the house. That's a record!
AND.. OH BOY! Old Jack Frost had come in the night to the plots and had scattered his icy wares everywhere! She had two huge Hubbard squash, that on Sunday were alive and in great shape, but naughty old Jack had struck at them last night with his icy wand and now they were dead and her dark crimson dahlias in a huge terracotta pot on the terrace didn't look too happy either!
But now there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining and raking leaves and digging gets you warm in no time!
Soon Corinne appeared and they imbibed fresh coffee and ate fresh homemade Madeleines! Then it was back to work, she pruned all the roses and two of the apples trees. She'll finish them and do the four pear trees on Wednesday.
Time to trundle again.. up and down the track she went fetching more manure to cover the vegetable bed. The frost had worked its' magic on the bed that she'd filled yesterday, the level had dropped dramatically and so another eight wheelbarrow loads were added, yes, that equals a lot of trundling up and down the track.
Wow.. four o'clock! How times flies when you're working hard at something you love. She packed her tools away, picked up a pair of garden scissors and went off to pick flowers. There was lovely things, several dark scarlet Royal William, pink Savoy Hotel roses and lots of delicious clove smelling white carnations.
Shack locked up, she poured herself a cup of tea and stood looking at her plots and thought of how grateful she is for the peace and pleasure that this small piece of land has given her for nearly seventeen years.
Winter is a'coming and last nights frost was a taste of what's to come, the bushes are all laden with berries, she thinks that this winter will be a bitter and very cold one and will be getting a big supply of fat and seed balls for her allotment birds and will make sure their water supply is kept full, she pours a little olive oil into it to help it stop freezing.
Water is vital for birds in wintertime, please make sure that your wild birds have a good, clean supply but not at ground level so that they can perch and drink safely away from cats and dogs. Now.. where's my night-time mug of tea?
GeeGee Parrot.
November 6th, 2017.
We had woken up at the hideous hour of 06.45 and she bribed me to be 'a good girl' by giving me a soft boiled egg with a teaspoonful of labneh together with my own mug of warm, being careful that it wasn't too hot, lapysang tea.
Many layers of clothing were put on! Her, not me. Thick cotton tights, long sleeved thermal vest, cotton t.shirt, her much beloved Scottish winter sweater, corduroy trousers and boots, a scarf round her neck, woollen gloves and an old Barbour tweed jacket.
She filled Constance's thermos with lapysang, put some bags into a basket, kissed Beaky and left for the plots. And the connections all came along as soon as she appeared. The train pulled into the station as she got to the platform, the bus appeared when she got to the stop and she walked down the steps onto the allotments in less than forty minutes after leaving the house. That's a record!
AND.. OH BOY! Old Jack Frost had come in the night to the plots and had scattered his icy wares everywhere! She had two huge Hubbard squash, that on Sunday were alive and in great shape, but naughty old Jack had struck at them last night with his icy wand and now they were dead and her dark crimson dahlias in a huge terracotta pot on the terrace didn't look too happy either!
But now there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining and raking leaves and digging gets you warm in no time!
Soon Corinne appeared and they imbibed fresh coffee and ate fresh homemade Madeleines! Then it was back to work, she pruned all the roses and two of the apples trees. She'll finish them and do the four pear trees on Wednesday.
Time to trundle again.. up and down the track she went fetching more manure to cover the vegetable bed. The frost had worked its' magic on the bed that she'd filled yesterday, the level had dropped dramatically and so another eight wheelbarrow loads were added, yes, that equals a lot of trundling up and down the track.
Wow.. four o'clock! How times flies when you're working hard at something you love. She packed her tools away, picked up a pair of garden scissors and went off to pick flowers. There was lovely things, several dark scarlet Royal William, pink Savoy Hotel roses and lots of delicious clove smelling white carnations.
Shack locked up, she poured herself a cup of tea and stood looking at her plots and thought of how grateful she is for the peace and pleasure that this small piece of land has given her for nearly seventeen years.
Winter is a'coming and last nights frost was a taste of what's to come, the bushes are all laden with berries, she thinks that this winter will be a bitter and very cold one and will be getting a big supply of fat and seed balls for her allotment birds and will make sure their water supply is kept full, she pours a little olive oil into it to help it stop freezing.
Water is vital for birds in wintertime, please make sure that your wild birds have a good, clean supply but not at ground level so that they can perch and drink safely away from cats and dogs. Now.. where's my night-time mug of tea?
GeeGee Parrot.
November 6th, 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment