MORE GARDEN WORK

Wed 9 July

Pissed off to wake up to rain, after my hours with the weedkiller yesterday.  The night had been disturbed by dust and stone falling in the room - I don't know if it was just chunks of the wall falling off or some little critter messing about in the loft space.

So, all in all, I wasn't a happy bunny.

Phil and Lyn came around with some irises for me to plant.  There's nowhere ready for flowers so I stuck them in the raised bed for the time being.

In the afternoon I went to the local Recyclerie where you can buy stuff that was donated at the tip.  I was looking for something to use as a kitchen cabinet but there was nothing suitable.   A lovely drive back through the pretty little lanes with the vines all looking glorious.  A very late lunch and a sleep in the caravan in order to make up for lost time last night!  Then a few hours planting the climbers which had arrived while I was out.

I was up to me elbows in compost when Lucien, the stonemason, arrived to arrange a date for the building of the wall.  We decided on 15 August as a starting date.  OK by me.

Garden's not looking bad but large areas need to have a dose of weedkiller!  I sat in the caravan and had a couple of beers in the evening, enjoying the lovely evening but out of the wind.  I am a bit worried that all these plants are going to suffer through the winter, if the wind is this cold in July.  Whatever happened to global warming?????

Rain not forecast til Sunday so maybe tomorrow is the day to tackle those weeds.  The wind has been strong all day but has really got going tonight.  I am trying to decide whether to brave the house tonight with its busy little visitors or whether to stay in the caravan and get a decent night's sleep.
I walked into the bedroom and it just smelled damp so I buggered off to the caravan and passed a peaceful night. [That sounds like a doctor's report!!]

Thurs 10 July

I bravely ordered 60m of hedging.  Doing the ordering isn't brave, planting the bloody things is!

Breakfast was organic strawberries and raspberries [living off the land] and some oat biscuits [living off the larder!].

With no rain forecast [stupidly I believed the meteo] I was out early killing the weeds.  Then took a couple of hours to have a look around some garden places and found some troughs, which I have been looking for so I bought 2, safe in the knowledge that the chap there would load them in the car and Stuart could unload them for me.

Stuart came to cut the grass and I congratulated him again on how he'd looked after it while I was away.  The storm clouds started to gather in the early afternoon.  Crap!

I worked on the produce part of the garden and it was looking OK so a bit of rain would not be a disaster in that area.  I decided to water anyway, to make sure all the new things were well-settled.  I am a bit worried about all the climbers on the arches as the wind is cold at the moment so what will it be like in the winter?

Supper in the evening sun then I sat and thought about tomorrow.   The windows should arrive and there's 60 metres of trench to prepare for the hedge.  The house is dripping in cobwebs and I feel exhausted.  I just don't know where to sleep tonight to get the best night's sleep...........