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Friday Night Wurble #2

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That’s another week flown by. At first glance I don’t seem to have achieved very much, but isn’t that alway the way with gardening? For hours, or even days, sometimes, you struggle (well, I do) and toil, and then some clown comes along and asks you what you’ve been doing. The killer instinct isn’t buried so deep it can’t be woken. Okay, there are occasions when there isn’t much to show for your efforts. It’s all gone on underneath or behind, where nobody sees. It’s only when a neighbour stops by the gate and says " Your garden’s looking nice." that you think ‘Yes!!’ and you know it’s all been worth it.
The catalogues have started arriving. Time to drool, dream, and gaze covetously at this (sorry, next) year’s ‘must haves’. Although, as far as my garden is concerned, most of those ‘must haves’ just wouldn’t fit in.
More than once I’ve let my heart rule my head ( we’re talking gardening here dear, not romance) and regretted it later. I can hear somebody cry “But gardening IS a romance!” I quite agree, and if you want it to flourish, you have to work at it.
Enough with the philosophising, already!
One of the catalogues that dropped on my mat this week was from Marshalls. I don’t use them all that often, but I’ve had some good stuff from them over the years. Now, despite what I was saying, they DO have a ‘must have’ for me. A purple fruited, spine-free raspberry called ‘Glencoe’. Verticillium resistant, all the canes grow in one clump instead of volunteering all over the place like Autumn Bliss and the like. Grizzly Anna will have to go. (I’ll tell you next week, if you haven’t figured it out by then.) Of course, once she’s out of the way, I’ll have room for a cherry or perhaps a greengage tree, too. She’s a big girl is Grizzly Anna.
In the same catalogue are seeds for a dumpy little round carrot for container growing. Just the job. I love carrots, although my eyesight wouldn’t exactly bear witness to that. I sowed carrots last year, in the veg. garden. I didn’t even have chance to close the drills before black ants started carting off the seeds! I was so fascinated watching these ants, the seeds were all but gone before I regained contact with reality.
Amazing creatures, ants. They even made a nest in a little cupboard in my shed, a couple of years ago. I don’t really know how to describe it, except to say it was a terrific feat of engineering. It was like a miniature block of flats made from dark brown papier mache. They’d even chewed up the instruction sheet for my greenhouse. When you consider the average thickness of that type of paper, compared to the size of an ant’s jaws, the p.p.s.i required just to remove a tiny piece, must be enormous. I was duly impressed. There were ramps and tunnels, and little apartments, all the surfaces perfectly smooth.
It looked alot like well risen filo pastry.( Sorry. You’re not eating, are you?)
Anyway, the ants either left or got killed off that winter, and I was able to remove the nest. (Not easy. They should patent the glue they use.) I kept that neat little formicary for a while, as a talking point, but atmosphere got to it, and eventually it crumbled. I wish now that I’d taken a photo of it.
Well, it doesn’t look as though ‘June drop’ is going to be a problem this year. My Malus ‘John Downie’ has very little fruit on it, so no crab apple jelly with the turkey this Christmas. Last year, the tree was loaded. I gathered enough fruit to make 7 lbs of jelly. No, of course there isn’t any left. Don’t be silly!
I didn’t get the horse manure, after all.They phoned me the following day to arrange for delivery this morning. Then they phoned again to say someone had bought the lot before mine was even bagged! I hadn’t paid for it or left a deposit (the horses did that) so there wasn’t much I could do. Yes, I WAS going to put some on my rhubarb, and yes, I KNOW it tastes better with custard. The old ones are the best.
Cookie was trying to catch a magpie this afternoon. She ran, she leaped, she miaowed, all to no avail. Eventually the pint sized penguin settled on the ridge of the greenhouse and chattered at her. She sat looking up at it, her jaw quivering, making little mewing noises. By the time I’d fetched the camera it was all over and Cookie was sprawled out on top of the wormery, recovering from her exertions.
I’d like to say thankyou (maer ras) to everyone who’s said they enjoy my blogs. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I have writing them.
Have you ever heard or read something that sticks in your mind for days and days? Well, a comment made by Wagger on one of my blogs, started me thinking. (Quite an achievement, Wagger!) I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I decided to do something about it. Wagger said "…created magical pictures in my mind of a Bbb flying through the air trailing 22 feet (and 7 inches) of bindweed behind her. Here’s the result. I don’t claim to be an artist, but
perhaps it’ll make you smile.
That’s it for now.
Bye bye. Me gone

Peel me a grape!

Bumblebee Dilemma

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Comments

 

I love reading your blogs, it just about sums up working progress in my garden, it looks like you have acheived nothing for ages just keep beavering away,until it all adds up

and your picture is brilliant,

x x x

12 Jun, 2009

 

Love your blog! I asked after one of your early blogs when we can expect the novel to be published - I wasn't joking. You have a fine way of writing - have you ever put anything to print? If not, you should give it a go. Your writing has a way of grabbing the reader's interest. I look forward to further blogs - and that novel! :o)

13 Jun, 2009

 

Didn't make me smile! Made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. 10 out of 10 for the artistic endeavour and I agree with Nariz - get writing!

13 Jun, 2009

 

Thanks Nariz; thanks Wagger. The novel is coming along, steadily. It is actually a trilogy. At present I'm revising Book 1, Book 2 is complete and I'm into the last chapters of Book 3. It is very difficult to get published if you are a new, previously unpublished writer.
I did have an article on Hemerocallis accepted a couple of years ago for a local gardening newsheet, but unfortunately they went bust before I got into print. It's still on file if you'd like me to blog it sometime.
Bbb

13 Jun, 2009

 

Yes please.

13 Jun, 2009

 

Brilliant blog. thanks.

13 Jun, 2009

 

Brill blog

13 Jun, 2009

 

Thanks Bbb you had me enthralled yet again, I'm still playing catch-up on GoY, and I realised I had missed a couple of your wonderful blogs. Yes please do blog your article I would love to read that, the ant's saliva, I do believe, is the glue that they use to build their antopia's they are wonderful structures ar'nt they?

29 Jun, 2009

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