... Where'd Sunday go? Honestly, I really must stop losing days...
Catch-up time.
30th Olympiad Closing Ceremony... "bold, brilliant, bonkers - and British" to quote whoever said that of the Opening Ceremony. Loved it! (Well, except for the fashion sequence, and I think the Annie Lennox bit will be a little too obscure for a lot of people...) The whole event was wonderful - even if it was almost impossible to find anything else to watch for the two weeks (anything worth watching, that is). I have both ceremonies recorded for posterity.
K&K went to Glastonbury on Saturday - and actually managed to climb the Tor.
The view from Glastonbury Tor over the flood-plain of the Somerset Levels, looking north - from left to right, the 'hills' are: Maes Knoll, Steep Holm, and Brean Down.
In the garden: removing the ivy tree has really opened up the meadow, but upset the birds as they used to use it to perch on before feeding. However, with the new tree coming on, the apple tree now accessible, and my plans to prune the greengages to make them more attractive to the birds, I think they'll recover. We'll also be able to grow more native wildflowers without everything being choked, too - a great bonus. There's a lot of work still to do, though - removing inches-thick ivy stumps from the ground, and killing off what's left of the rooted stuff. It's going to take a couple of years at least, and that's without trying to keep the ivy on the wall under control...
Things are doing well in the greenhouse, however. With the late, warmer weather my tomatoes have suddenly exploded and it looks like I'm going to have a pretty good crop (although I'm ripening up a lot of them indoors to be on the safe side). Next year I'm going to try staggering the cucumber growing though, as they both fruited at the same time and I've had to ditch two as we just couldn't eat them in all in time! I'm also going to try cutting back on the cherry toms and growing more peppers - they've worked quite well this year and given the rocketing price of organic peppers...
In the veg bed - my sweetcorn are all at different stages of development, despite all being planted at the same time. [sigh] Anyone know how to hand-pollinate maize?
At the front: I've started poisoning the grass in preparation for actually, finally, after 20-odd years, getting the garden into some sort of order. The Morello cherry is staying (will prune it once the leaves start dropping: I am slowly achieving the 'weeping' shape I want), as is the cotoneaster and the cyclamen and geraniums. But we're going to move the skimmia and the pieris, both of which are being swamped in the back garden, and my two sage plants (which are absolutely huge and swamping everything around them!) to the front to provide colour and interest (and in the case of the sages ground cover that will keep the grass from coming back). I'll keep an eye out for other plants to go out there in my travels to garden centres over the next year - a lavender would be nice to attract bees...
My little prunus (the one Ken bought me very, very cheap as it looked like it was dying and he thought I might be able to revive it) is now far too big for its location and needs to be moved. I'm a little worried about this, as (as I said) it's now quite large, positioned close to the edge of Roeg's Pool, and I am very fond of it. I don't want to lose it. Going to be a ticklish operation. Also, I can't decide where it should go. We have more room at the front - but I'd like to replant it somewhere I can sit and enjoy it as it goes through the seasons, and that means at the back... Hm. Might consider moving the honeyberries, currently not doing very well on the slope at the top, and put it there... Will have a think.
Dialogue from Rescue Bots ep Little White Lies:
Boulder: "Birthday... is that the human celebration with the lit-up tree?"
Blades: "Birddays are when you set the dessert on fire and reassemble a donkey. The lit-up tree is Arbor Day."
Boulder: "Ahhh..."
[bemusedly trying to imagine reassembling a donkey and grinning at the arbor day pun] Delightfully surreal.
I really should be out making a start on clearing up the meadow - but it's raining again. [g] So it's off to make a start on the next Poppy chapter instead...
Labels: celebrations, days out, garden, gardening, greenhouse, The Poppy Tales, time, Transformers Rescue Bots, weather
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 12:45 pm
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