Z in the garden

I went to dig the weeds out of a flowerbed, because I’ve a number of plants needing a home. Alongside the Wall and against the drive, the larger bed is fairly established now but the other one, which is about 20 foot by 6 foot, still needs some planting up. It is, I discovered, incredibly dry for this time of year. A rose bush that had young leaves and flower buds has quietly dried up. I hope it will survive but I’m not at all sure. Irises are doing well and so is a rosemary and a lavender, as well as a clematis and a few other things, but it’s desperately dry overall. I walked down the drive later and took photos of the Ups and Downs on the way back. The new fence has been taking ages, so cattle have not yet been put on. There’s not much point now; the ground is dry and the grass has died off (rain will change that, you don’t kill grass roots that easily).

I’m watering and mulching, but it’s going to be hard on plants unless we have a wet summer, which brings its own disappointment, of course.

I spent some time mending one of the chicken coops, because Scrabble is sitting on a lot of eggs and I haven’t got anywhere suitable for her to go, if and when she hatches any. I knew, but hadn’t taken into account, how incredibly maternal these bantams are, when I decided to raise a few chicks last year. They keep laying away and hiding until the chicks hatch or are nearly ready to – when I haven’t the heart to disappoint the mummy – and I have yet another coop of chicks to look after. Anyway, I’m now nearly prepared for Scrabble’s brood, assuming there is one. I’ll finish getting it ready in the morning.

The other domestic preparation is the massive amount of firewood being cut up. There were a lot of trees near the river that have been neglected for quite a while, with the result that remedial work was required. I’m told that the total will be some 35 tonnes/tons of wood stacked in the barn.

I’d show you pictures, but I keep being told that the images are bigger than this blog allows. They’re just bog-standard phone photos, so I can’t think why, as I used to be able to upload them. Sometimes, I think I should just go back to Blogger – yet I don’t trust Blogger either. Anyway, darlings, imagine it. A workshop that’s at least 12 foot by 9 and around 10 foot tall, full to ceiling height. When we start removing logs, I trust there won’t be a landslide.

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