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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