Ups & Downs

Well it’s all been happening since my last post! First a blocked loo. Due to the ridiculous way our drains are configured, not helped by someone in the past (not us), building a conservatory over one of the drain covers, it took the wonderful Homeserve team over a week to clear the blockage – a week that felt both stressful and undignified. At each return visit they brought more and more equipment to aid their drain explorations, including two different types of camera and a probe that could navigate pipes by itself!

Then the lovely new fence crew arrived. The first day they dismantled the fence at the bottom of the garden, behind my herbaceous border. It rained all day. They valiantly ploughed on. Their large steel-capped boots reduced my border and the lawn to a pulp. A large area of forget-me-nots was buried under thick clay and my admittedly rotten log roll edging, disappeared into the quagmire. By some miracle my sedums and most of the alliums lived to tell the tale. By the end of Day 1 most of the bottom fence had been replaced and I could already envisage how good it was going to look compared to the old one.

Thankfully the sun came out on Day 2. They removed the side fence and began the complicated task of building a new one up a steep slope. Day 3 included the tricky operation to cut the fence to fit round the thick trunk of our wisteria, which protrudes into next door’s garden. They did an amazing job and some fairies were so impressed they’ve moved in.

No sooner had the fence job been completed than the next one commenced. We’re having some steps built to ease navigation of our black-run drive. Talking of which GR is now on his final ski-ing jaunt of the year.

While he’s been away I’ve been trying to return the back garden to some semblance of order. I’ve planted 72 perennials in the bottom border, replaced the rotten log roll and put trellis up ready for some climbers. My seed growing thus far this year has been a dead loss. You may recall that since smartening up our conservatory, I had taken over the corner of a shelf in our utility room, to grow my seeds. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough light, so growth was tall and spindly, and most of the seedlings withered away. I normally have great success with my courgettes but look at these pathetic specimens! Anyway I’ve chucked the whole lot out and started again. I’ve rearranged the utility room and moved the propagators nearer the windows, so fingers crossed.

Yes, it’s official, the blue tits are exceedingly busy getting their nest ready in the bird box. There’s frenzied tapping coming from inside as they hammer all their little bits of foliage and fluff into a cosy bed ready for their babies. They carry huge amounts of moss in their tiny beaks and then try to stuff it through the small hole in the nest box. Most of it falls down onto our storage box below, but they do gather it up again.

By the way those 4 pots are lavender. It looks like only 2 will survive (do you remember I potted up loads of seedlings from the front drive) – still, two free plants are better than none!

And finally, do you remember my blog about all the palaver involved in getting your poinsettia to produce red bracts in time for Christmas. I was too late to trial the advice, but mine has done it all by itself. Yes, I know, wrong time of year, but who knows, Easter might be the new Christmas where poinsettias are concerned.