2010
No pictures for this bit.
I had bought a new Suzuki just before I had my hip done at the end of March. It was quite funny that the car's blue almost perfectly matched the lovely blue paint I'd bought for the eaves & gutters the year before. I'd employed a painter to go up a ladder to do the high up stuff, & I painted the shed gutters.
I was not allowed to drive for a couple of months after the hip op., so the car didn't arrive until the 3rd week in June.
I had also painted the stone bays & window-ledges with blue masonry paint, so if anyone was coming, I would say, "you can't miss it, it's the only blue house on the street".
I still do, hehe! ;-p
In July, I also bought a ton of 'white spar' & put it on top of the limestone already down. The limestone had been white originally, but had greyed as the fine dust wore/rained off, & the area ended up with greenish patches as a result of leaves falling on it, especially under the Korean fir.
The big bag was dumped on the drive, & it all got unloaded bucket by bucket. It was the first big job for the new hip!
2011
This bit starts on a sad note:
Ptep passed on July 12th, & this was him in the garden just before the Vet. came.
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| My wonderful boy, Pteppic. I still miss him :-( |
He loved to sleep in the sun & would come & lie on me if I was out there sunbathing.
Mum came round afterwards & brought a lily which I put in a Sauv Blanc bottle with cat paw prints on the neck.
With typical Kiwi humour the wine had been called Cat's Pee On A Gooseberry Bush, & if you look closely, you can see the paw prints.
After I'd buried him ~ surrounded by goose down from a pillow, Kuni came & sat on the purple slate I'd put over the top. I think she was saying her goodbyes? I wrote him a poem in the kitchen afterwards.
We also planted black bamboo & leopard bamboo in the hope that they would grow thick enough to use for tameshikiri, but they never did.
There are no photos of our 'Japanese water feature', but the first 2 bamboo pics are from July '12.
I revamped the rockery as well. Using some nice pieces of slate I bought from garden centres, together with & loads of chunks of slate I had managed to half-inch from Hodge Close over the years, there was enough to have a larger area with a step effect. The Hodge Close slate, together with stuff I actually paid for, meant there were enough flat bits to safely walk on.
It had 1st grown at No.32 & came with us to 171 in April '97.
12 days later, the Acer leaves were going yellow, & the apple blossom was out.
Apple blossom against blue sky is something I can't resist, but these 2 are the only ones I saved.
The others have gone to photo heaven.
I go out every now & then to stick the odd one back down, but most of them are still OK.
There are stones from my Isle of Man walking trip & the Lakes as well.
As you'll (eventually!) see from the NZ, Bessie Ellen & Sicily blogs, I collect stones!
That said, NZ16 is still being written, & the Hebrides & Sicily holiday blogs are a long way off yet (in Spring 2017), so don't hold your breath!
Although I'd put about 20 bags of blue slate & green granite down when I got my ton of green slate back in 2014, it had all settled, & the white I'd put down in 2010 needed renewing.
Happily, Dobbies were doing offers on ornamental stone, so I made a few trips in the car & revamped the blue & green slate areas, & as well as the green granite bit during the summer.
June
Before that, I went online & ordered another ton of the white marble (Thank god for overtime ;-p), & I took a week off to get down to serious gardening jobs.
I emptied the bag of white marble stones in a day - as previously, but kept the bag this time.
This was because Blackpool Borough Council had decided to charge to remove your garden waste, so I used the bag to put leaves, kitchen waste etc in, with the idea it would eventually turn into compost & someone would want it.
I knew there would be heaps & heaps of leaves from the oak felling, plus the usual leaves & apples falling off the trees from August onwards.
Having a Japanese style garden, I didn't really need compost ~ I had virtually no plants, just trees, but my work colleague, Phyllis, had an allotment, & had been coming to empty my green waste bin for her tomatoes! Phyllis brought them into
work for us, & they were totally tasty ;-q
Mother's day had come round again, so I got Mum some flowers:
On Mothers' Day I took this one by the canal at Hebden Bridge with my phone. Mum would have loved that walk, & would have joined me in a paddle ;-).
It's not 171, but it's a nice photo, & I've nowhere else to post it.
April
twisted hazel, but only had a couple of photos of it when it was in leaf.
I had a long weekend off work towards the end of the month, & went to Dobbies on the Saturday & Sunday for their '4 for 3' blue slate offer.
Each day I bought as much as the Suzuki
could carry back to 171 & dumped it around the gaps at the end of the garden.
Come the Monday, I got stuck in with a spade & covered the gaps which had appeared since I first put the blue slate down in 2014.
June
It would've been Mum's 95th this year, & when I got her the usual yellow flowers in June, I realised I had nothing in the garden to commemorate Dad's life.
With typical Kiwi humour the wine had been called Cat's Pee On A Gooseberry Bush, & if you look closely, you can see the paw prints.
After I'd buried him ~ surrounded by goose down from a pillow, Kuni came & sat on the purple slate I'd put over the top. I think she was saying her goodbyes? I wrote him a poem in the kitchen afterwards.
2012
Soon after moving in in 1997, we had decided to have a Japanese style garden . It was less work than traditional English ones, so Rob & his Dad ~ Bob, built a wooden path, Bob made & painted a Tori, & we used the old bath as a water feature, hiding it under rockery.
Bob also made & painted a cute little bridge to span it, & fixed up the waterfall from a tap in the shed.
Once done, my brother, Roy, brought a stone cast Samurai back from a holiay in Ireland & I got it for a birthday present.
He still guards the garden with his drawn sword!
I'd discovered a tiny oak sapling in the front garden, & initially planted it in a tub vacated by the eucalyptus tree which hadn't coped with the seaside weather. Eventually the oak was transplanted to a permanent home by the west fence.
I had also planted a Japanese nishiki acer, a Korean fir, an acer briliantissum & a twisted willow to accompany the 2 apple trees & the laurel we'd inherited with the house. We'd also inherited leylandii, but I got rid of those toute suite, Rodney!
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| The black bamboo after the thinning process |
We also planted black bamboo & leopard bamboo in the hope that they would grow thick enough to use for tameshikiri, but they never did.
There are no photos of our 'Japanese water feature', but the first 2 bamboo pics are from July '12.
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| Before 'wrestling the Leopard'! |
The Leopard bamboo was rampant, even though I'd planted it in a circular pot to stop it running all over the garden. The black bamboo was much more amenable & didn't grow while you watched!
Despite being in a pot, wrestling the Leopard became a chore I did every few weeks during the summer. I could prune it on a Saturday, & on Sunday morning there were shoots already growing!
At least I could eat them ;-q
2013
Initially, we'd had bamboo fencing on the east side which Bob & Rob put in between them, & it had all looked lovely & oriental for a few years. Eventually, despite 2-yearly doshes of preservative, the bamboo fence more or less gave up the ghost, & Julie & Jim replaced their side of it with a concrete/wood panelled fence & a hedge of various shrubs.
Because the hedge wasn't at all in keeping with my Japanese theme, & as I had been growing a honeysuckle up the washing line pole (& as it smelled so nice, & grew so well), I decided to root some & put it down in front of their hedge. David from work advised me how to do this, & it's been reasonably successful. Cheers, mate :-)
Naturally, the rooting didn't happen overnight, & I'm still training honeysuckle along about 8 metres of fence!
Having visited the Edinburgh botanical gardens in November, & seeing black ophiopogon growing there, I decided to get some & put it under the honeysuckle. I have no decent photos, but I got this off Google:
2014
Jan-Mar
I started to buy ophiopogon as soon as the weather improved, but had to shop around as it wasn't common & I needed about 20 plants.
Most of it is still alive & is coping with the salt :-)
May
I usually started wresling the leopard etc in April or May, but I was on the Royal Clipper for 19 days in April, so the first post-winter prune wasn't until the middle of the month when the weather was good enough to sit on the ground for several hours.
By this time the Leopard was a monster :-/
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| The black bambo is pruned in the background, but wrestling the Leopard is the next job on May 11th |
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| The black is done, & Opal & Kuni sit in the sun before Mummy wrestles the Leopard |
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| Another shot of the Leopard awaiting its fate in the background |
June & July
On June 8th, I finally managed to get a decent picture of Opal.
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| Opal ~ age 9 |
As you can see, it was a sunny day, & she sat still on the shed roof in the sun long enough for me to get a photo :-D She usually upped & walked off as soon as I pointed a camera at her, & this remains the only photo I have of her!
Gardenwise, I'd decided to revamp the pathway, & re-design a little ~ losing some of the white marble section on the left, & adding different coloured stone in other places.
The nishiki had gone the way of the eucalyptus - the salt air does for a lot of plants, despite the relatively mild winters. The red Tori & bridge had also sadly succumbed to the Blackpool weather a while back.
Because the tap in the shed leaked, the water was rarely falling into the Japanese water feature (AKA the bath), & it was generally home to frogs & blown rubbish, anyway, so I also got rid of it.
At this point in time I can't remember what on earth I put in the hole!
Also, all the white marble on the east side was difficult to keep white due to the apple, oak & fir trees dropping green leaves all over it & which turned it a murky green colour.
Frequent bleaching helped a bit, but there was still no gleaming white stone as in Japanese cloud gardens.
Replacing the stone would have to wait, though: I wanted more sparkly marble, & I couldn't afford it this year.
The first garden pic shows the initial work on June 29th. The blue slate in bags is ready to go down under the apples, & it shows the new position of the path. It had been quite a jigsaw puzzle trying to make all the angles fit together.
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| This bit was to be covered in green granite |
A few days later I'd bought some bags of green granite, & had had a ton of green slate delivered.
I'd taken a week off to do the garden & other jobs, & - while wielding my bucket & spade, I found a chunk of green slate containing a bit of iron pyrite. It eventually went on Mum's slate - see below.
I also found quite a bit of purple slate, so I put that aside for the rockery in the corner by the twisted willow.
The ton of green slate was all moved in 1 day ~ July 2nd: good job I was strong & fit :-)
tbh, it didn't take that long, but I lost count after 72 bucket-loads!
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| Kuni walks across the bit where the new green slate was to go |
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| All moved bucket by bucket . . . |
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| & I found this bit of iron pyrite ~ which I kept |
The ton of green slate was all moved in 1 day ~ July 2nd: good job I was strong & fit :-)
tbh, it didn't take that long, but I lost count after 72 bucket-loads!
By July 22nd, the blue slate at bottom of the garden was down, & I'd moved the paving slabs across the bottom in front of the apples to either side by the walls (so I didn't have to lug the bloody things to the tip!)
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| Blue slate by the wall, separated from the green slate by a triangular pole & some blue & white river rocks |
I also cut the
laurel right back & ~ as I'd moved the path to the left, there was more green & less white, which was a bit of a mess, but would have to wait.
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| Blue slate foreground, & green slate then granite to left of path |
I revamped the rockery as well. Using some nice pieces of slate I bought from garden centres, together with & loads of chunks of slate I had managed to half-inch from Hodge Close over the years, there was enough to have a larger area with a step effect. The Hodge Close slate, together with stuff I actually paid for, meant there were enough flat bits to safely walk on.
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| At this point Leopard wrestling was still a regular event, & its removal, together with the cotinus, hebe & oak was 3 yrs away |
2015
This is the Acer Brilliamtissimum my Mum bought as a wedding present in August '95.
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| It is a glorious salmon pink in Spring |
It had 1st grown at No.32 & came with us to 171 in April '97.
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| The trunk to the left is the aloe vera, & the oak is on the right |
Acer Brilliantissimum leaves are salmon pink when they first open, then they go pale yellow before looking like a normal tree with green leaves. These 5 salmon pink ones were taken around 1645 on May 4th 2015.
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| Slowly going primrose yellow, |
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| but not yet green like the oak leaves |
The others have gone to photo heaven.
2016
tbh, I didn't do a right lot in the garden over the summer except wrestle the bloody leopard & sunbathe.
However, in the Autumn after Mum had died in July (at the age of 93), Roy asked if I'd have her in the garden. So when Ray & Carol came over in December, we had a little ceremony & laid her in the south-east corner.
Roy used a roof tile to put on top - so the local cats wouldn't do any damage, & we left some flowers for her.
Due to the oak, the fence & next door's leylandii, the acer had grown skewed, & was leaning away from the fence. So the poor thing could get some sun, the oak had to have a major trim.
The cotinus had also been affected by the fence & leylandii over the years, & was growing along the ground for over a metre before going upwards. I decided that had to go, too ~ despite its gorgeous autumn reds, & I spent a fine day when there was no weekend overtime, sawing & chopping.
I also pulled up quite a lot of the hebe Pauline had given me one birthday. It had spread sideways, & covered about 3 square metres beneath the oak, trapping all sorts of blown rubbish like silver fag-foil & plastic bags.
I had been going up to volunteer at Brathay since 2015, & had brought back a significant amount of slate from Hodge Close. The little Suzuki could only take so much at a time, so the slate collecting continued into 2017, & will no doubt continue next I go up (ie in 2018 & 2019).
While I was doing this year's tidying, I used some of the filched slate to line the edges of the path so leaves & stuff wouldn't blow under there, & used pointy 'mountain-shaped' ones separate the green slate & granite.
However, it's still a work in progress, despite 5 Brathay trips.
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| You can see it grows about 20o off vertical |
2017
April
April
In April, there was the usual lovely display by Mum's acer, despite the shade of the oak.
It had been leaning to catch the sun quite a bit, so on a sunny & warmish day during the winter I'd tried to balance it out a bit & removed some branches.
May
Getting rather overrun in the lounge ~ oops ;-p, I decided to use nearly all of the stones I had brought back from NZ in 2014 & 2016, & had collected on Kourion & Fossil Beaches in Cyprus in 2016 to stick on Mum's slate.
I used superglue, & this is what it looked like when I'd finished it in the kitchen:
There are stones from my Isle of Man walking trip & the Lakes as well.
As you'll (eventually!) see from the NZ, Bessie Ellen & Sicily blogs, I collect stones!
That said, NZ16 is still being written, & the Hebrides & Sicily holiday blogs are a long way off yet (in Spring 2017), so don't hold your breath!
Although I'd put about 20 bags of blue slate & green granite down when I got my ton of green slate back in 2014, it had all settled, & the white I'd put down in 2010 needed renewing.
Happily, Dobbies were doing offers on ornamental stone, so I made a few trips in the car & revamped the blue & green slate areas, & as well as the green granite bit during the summer.
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| As before, it was a bucket'n'spade job! Same bucket, same spade |
Before that, I went online & ordered another ton of the white marble (Thank god for overtime ;-p), & I took a week off to get down to serious gardening jobs.
I emptied the bag of white marble stones in a day - as previously, but kept the bag this time.
This was because Blackpool Borough Council had decided to charge to remove your garden waste, so I used the bag to put leaves, kitchen waste etc in, with the idea it would eventually turn into compost & someone would want it.
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| The Korean fir shelters the cat kennel |
Having a Japanese style garden, I didn't really need compost ~ I had virtually no plants, just trees, but my work colleague, Phyllis, had an allotment, & had been coming to empty my green waste bin for her tomatoes! Phyllis brought them into
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| I chopped another couple of branches off the Korean fir, & eventually re-positioned the stones & the Samurai. The honeysuckle hedge is in bloom on the right |
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| At this point the hebe & the oak above it were still there |
Despite last year's lopping, I had sadly come to the conclusion that the oak would need to go: it was way too spindly.
Jim from next door had lopped the top off the previous year, &, in May, David from work had kindly offered to come round to hold the ladder while I attempted to saw off the branches hanging over the acer.
tbh., David had done the majority of the sawing & got his work shirt all messed up. Sorry David, & thanks for all the help!
However, on that week in June, the oak was still standing.
The previous 4 pics were taken on Monday the 19th, but the next 2 were taken on the 23rd, & are the last ones of the oak & hebe:
I was due at Brathay for the 262 on Saturday June 24th, & was due to help out on the Brutal & Belter on the 25th, but by the 23rd, most of the stuff I could do without help was finished.
Mum would have been 94 on June 25th, & although I'd be standing in the road near Coniston marshalling for Brathay that day, these are the flowers I got for her on the 24th just before I drove up.
They looked lovely. Happy 94th, Mum xxxx
Here're few pics of the garden work in progress:
The oak & bamboo work went OK, but he was a bloody awful painter, & left big blobs of blue paint all over the Indian stone path & under the kitchen windows. So far I've been unable to clean it off.
Bugger!
I'll be on my hands & knees in Summer '18 to see if the mess can't be fixed.
Sept/Oct
I'd been away between September 1st & 14th. The 1st bit was a gulet cruise round the Aeolians, & I followed this with a 3-day horse ride round Etna. When I got home, the garden was a mess of rotted apples.
There were still loads of eaters & bakers on the trees, so I climbed up as usual & put as many as I could in bags to take to work & SCD, & to give to various friends & Eileen, my cat sitter.
I also kept a big bucketful for myself & had at least one apple a day until mid-December :-0
All the fallen ones went in my new compost bag on top of the oak leaves.
For years I'd been struggling to use/give away all the eaters & bakers off the 2 trees. Plus, the huge red bakers right at the top where all the sun was were almost impossible to pick ~ even for a monkey like me!
As the garden faces south, most of the branches with the eaters on hung over the wall into the garden at the back, & they never seemed to pick any, so the apples just fell off into their long grass.
What a total waste!
So, I decided to see if the tree could be pruned & then I wouldn'thave to get the long ladder out every year, & wouldn't lose so many over the wall.
I got three quotes.
The 1st pair of blokes who showed up said it would be £120 to do both trees, & that they had a window to do it that day. As they seemed a bit too keen, & I wanted >1 quote, I put them off. I couldn't afford it that month anyway - I had a holiday credit card bill to pay.
Bloke 2 said 80 quid, but he stank of fags & wouldn't look me in the eye, so I wasn't about to give him the job.
Bloke 3, Chad, represented Triangle Tree Services. He was a qualified tree surgeon, & quoted £40. He said it would be better for the trees if they were done once the leaves had fallen (another indication that Pair 1 were cowboys), & was also a dead genuine bloke. Having had a chat with him, I knew he'd do a good job, but given the card bill, I asked him if he could leave it till November. Chad was happy with that as most of the leaves would have dropped by then.
Nov
The 1st game at Murrayfield was on November 11th, the 2nd on the 18th, & in between I E'd Chad & arranged for him to come on the 21st.
I took a day off, & took pictures of the procedure:
2018
February
When I got up on the 27th it had been snowing, so I grabbed a couple of photos before it disappeared.
Jim from next door had lopped the top off the previous year, &, in May, David from work had kindly offered to come round to hold the ladder while I attempted to saw off the branches hanging over the acer.
tbh., David had done the majority of the sawing & got his work shirt all messed up. Sorry David, & thanks for all the help!
However, on that week in June, the oak was still standing.
The previous 4 pics were taken on Monday the 19th, but the next 2 were taken on the 23rd, & are the last ones of the oak & hebe:
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| The hebe under the oak |
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| The twisted willow is in the corner |
I was due at Brathay for the 262 on Saturday June 24th, & was due to help out on the Brutal & Belter on the 25th, but by the 23rd, most of the stuff I could do without help was finished.
Mum would have been 94 on June 25th, & although I'd be standing in the road near Coniston marshalling for Brathay that day, these are the flowers I got for her on the 24th just before I drove up.They looked lovely. Happy 94th, Mum xxxx
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| This one was taken on July 1st. |
August
As well as the garden stuff, the nice blue paint job from a few years back needed redoing, so I asked Eileen's nephew to do it. He wanted work, so offered to cut down the oak as well.
He also dug up both bamboos.Here're few pics of the garden work in progress:
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| Showing the oak tree debris, the lack of Leopard, & the hole where the black bamboo had been |
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| The stump & the debris |
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| I stripped all the leaves off the biggest branches to go inthe granite bag, & put the fatter branches out for next door who have a wood-burner. |
Bugger!
I'll be on my hands & knees in Summer '18 to see if the mess can't be fixed.
Sept/Oct
I'd been away between September 1st & 14th. The 1st bit was a gulet cruise round the Aeolians, & I followed this with a 3-day horse ride round Etna. When I got home, the garden was a mess of rotted apples.
There were still loads of eaters & bakers on the trees, so I climbed up as usual & put as many as I could in bags to take to work & SCD, & to give to various friends & Eileen, my cat sitter.
I also kept a big bucketful for myself & had at least one apple a day until mid-December :-0
All the fallen ones went in my new compost bag on top of the oak leaves.
For years I'd been struggling to use/give away all the eaters & bakers off the 2 trees. Plus, the huge red bakers right at the top where all the sun was were almost impossible to pick ~ even for a monkey like me!
As the garden faces south, most of the branches with the eaters on hung over the wall into the garden at the back, & they never seemed to pick any, so the apples just fell off into their long grass.
What a total waste!
So, I decided to see if the tree could be pruned & then I wouldn'thave to get the long ladder out every year, & wouldn't lose so many over the wall.
I got three quotes.
The 1st pair of blokes who showed up said it would be £120 to do both trees, & that they had a window to do it that day. As they seemed a bit too keen, & I wanted >1 quote, I put them off. I couldn't afford it that month anyway - I had a holiday credit card bill to pay.
Bloke 2 said 80 quid, but he stank of fags & wouldn't look me in the eye, so I wasn't about to give him the job.
Bloke 3, Chad, represented Triangle Tree Services. He was a qualified tree surgeon, & quoted £40. He said it would be better for the trees if they were done once the leaves had fallen (another indication that Pair 1 were cowboys), & was also a dead genuine bloke. Having had a chat with him, I knew he'd do a good job, but given the card bill, I asked him if he could leave it till November. Chad was happy with that as most of the leaves would have dropped by then.
Nov
The 1st game at Murrayfield was on November 11th, the 2nd on the 18th, & in between I E'd Chad & arranged for him to come on the 21st.
I took a day off, & took pictures of the procedure:
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| Chad deciding what would go & what would stay |
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| Chad with big loppers in my oak-less garden |
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| Another monkey up a tree ;-) At least Chad was tied on: I just hung on |
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| The new, slim-line, baker tree, 2 days later. The eater's on the left |
February
When I got up on the 27th it had been snowing, so I grabbed a couple of photos before it disappeared.
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| The Samurai guarding my garden |
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| Blackpool rarely gets much snow. It seldom stays long |
These 2 were taken at half past 10 in the morning, but the snow had gone by lunchtime.
However, for a while my garden was white, & almost looked like a cloud garden!
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| The Ryoanji garden in Kyoto in Spring The monks rake & clear leaves etc. every day. It must be a bugger when the Sakura blossoms & leaves fall |
The rocks are sometimes said to represent mountains rising through the clouds, & I used to have black slate 'mountains'. Unfortunately, I could never keep the white marble free of leaves & other bits, so the mountains went to do another job ;-)
March
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| Yellow roses etc. for Mothers' Day |
 |
| Mum loved yellow |
I was due to be rambling in the Hebden Bridge area on Sunday the 11th, so the pictures of Mum's flowers were taken the day before.
On Mothers' Day I took this one by the canal at Hebden Bridge with my phone. Mum would have loved that walk, & would have joined me in a paddle ;-). It's not 171, but it's a nice photo, & I've nowhere else to post it.
April
As I wrote this, I realised I'd mentioned the
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| The twisted hazel, minus leaves . . . |
 |
| curly & with catkins |
It looks great in Winter & Spring, tho., so I went out in the rain today (2 4 18), & took these two.
Unlike the other trees, this one isn't visible from the kitchen window
At least, most of it isn't, but this year I noticed a catkin poking round the corner of the shed, & a couple sticking up above the roof.
It's best viewed from the path or standing on the rockery when it's showing off its Medusa-like curls & corkscrews.
At some point ~ when its lovely purple cones are out, I'll get one of the Korean fir as well, but that's several months off yet.
At some point ~ when its lovely purple cones are out, I'll get one of the Korean fir as well, but that's several months off yet.
As I said at the top, this blog is unfinished, but there're no more photos, & little left to talk about atm, so until next time ~OAO
OK. It's next time!
It's actually September 2018, & I missed the Korean Fir's purple cones, but here's some more stuff from this year.
Having been up to Brathay, & made (yet) another visit to Hodge Close for some more slate, I had a re-vamp with more green granite from Dobbies & separated that from the green slate with 'slate mountains'.
OK. It's next time!
It's actually September 2018, & I missed the Korean Fir's purple cones, but here's some more stuff from this year.
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| An April photo |
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| Ditto |
Then one sunny morning I saw next door's cat, Tommy, sunbathing in my garden, so I zoomed in on from upstairs.
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| The apple branches & the moon |
On April 30th there was a full moon over the garden, so I got some moon pics.
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| Is the Man In The Moon eating a snack? |
May
Henrietta & William came to sunbathe on the 8th, so I took some more cat pics from the back bedroom.
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| Henrietta L, William R |
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| A bare patch showing the white gravel from pre-2010 |
Come the Monday, I got stuck in with a spade & covered the gaps which had appeared since I first put the blue slate down in 2014.
June
 |
| Full moon above apple blossom |
So I begged a bit of slate from a Roofers, & made him a memorial using a lovely green stone I'd collected in Cyprus & some blue gloss from the house painting.
A couple of days later there was a full moon, so I used the Lumix's 40x zoom to get a few pics as the sky darkened after mid-summer.
July
This brought the 2nd anniversary of Mum's death, so I got some more flowers & left them by her 'stony slate'
Dad's slate is to the right of Mum's.
August
Following Chad's trim of the 2 apple trees last year, the lower branches of both trees were so heavy with apples in August they were touching the ground & I lost loads to bugs & slugs. The compost benefited, at least, & now smells like a cider brewery. All the bakers went to work, friends & SCD, as did some of the 'eaters', but I have another bucketful to go at :-q Yum.
Plus it's good to get home-grown malic acid for arthritis!
I took this pic in August, & today (30 9 18), there are still a few left on the 'eater tree'.
If the sun stays out, I will pick the last ones of 2018, & get my 'apple a day' again until well into December.
November
I noticed the Ginko Biloba was a lovely primrose yellow colour the other day, so as it had not yet featured much in this blog, I took a pic with the mob.
OAO for now.
2019
There was no 'garden in 2019' to speak of, & still no pics of the purple cones from the Korean Fir, although Hazel got some for her woodburner :-)
In late 2018 I discovered they planned to send 2/3 of my job to a team in Newcastle, so - not wanting to do a more boring job with the spare time I would have at work, I decided to retire. My last day as a Civil Servant was to be July 5th 2019.
I had had long-term plans to move to Scotland once I retired, & in between preparing & planning for my extended trip to NZ & Japan in September & October 2019, I started to look at properties online.
The NZ/Japan planning & the 7 week trip meant there was just garden upkeep last year, & not a lot else.
2020
Come February & March 2020 I had started to drive up to Scotland & look at possible houses (a blog is underway for that, but the house-hunting process has been halted by the COVID-19 outbreak). However, once the lockdown happened in late March I was stuck in Blackpool so got a job in Tesco to keep me occupied & help pay for the double whammy conveyancing fees (1 lot for 171 & 1 lot for Scotland: their laws are different).
April-June
April was unseasonably sunny & warm & I spent most of my spare time sunbathing in the garden reading the books I'd withdrawn from the library just before lockdown.
As it was likely this was to be my last spring/summer at 171 & because I couln't take it with me to Scotland, I took some photos of the Acer in its various stages of growth, & here they are:
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| Full moon above chimneys |
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| Not quite centred, but better than last month's pics! |
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| Ditto |
July
This brought the 2nd anniversary of Mum's death, so I got some more flowers & left them by her 'stony slate'Dad's slate is to the right of Mum's.
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| Dad. Shame the pic doesn't show the green stone very well |
August
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| There were so many it was like looking at bunches of grapes. |
Plus it's good to get home-grown malic acid for arthritis!
I took this pic in August, & today (30 9 18), there are still a few left on the 'eater tree'.
If the sun stays out, I will pick the last ones of 2018, & get my 'apple a day' again until well into December.
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| It looks much yellower in real life! |
I noticed the Ginko Biloba was a lovely primrose yellow colour the other day, so as it had not yet featured much in this blog, I took a pic with the mob.
OAO for now.
2019
There was no 'garden in 2019' to speak of, & still no pics of the purple cones from the Korean Fir, although Hazel got some for her woodburner :-)
In late 2018 I discovered they planned to send 2/3 of my job to a team in Newcastle, so - not wanting to do a more boring job with the spare time I would have at work, I decided to retire. My last day as a Civil Servant was to be July 5th 2019.
I had had long-term plans to move to Scotland once I retired, & in between preparing & planning for my extended trip to NZ & Japan in September & October 2019, I started to look at properties online.
The NZ/Japan planning & the 7 week trip meant there was just garden upkeep last year, & not a lot else.
2020
Come February & March 2020 I had started to drive up to Scotland & look at possible houses (a blog is underway for that, but the house-hunting process has been halted by the COVID-19 outbreak). However, once the lockdown happened in late March I was stuck in Blackpool so got a job in Tesco to keep me occupied & help pay for the double whammy conveyancing fees (1 lot for 171 & 1 lot for Scotland: their laws are different).
April-June
April was unseasonably sunny & warm & I spent most of my spare time sunbathing in the garden reading the books I'd withdrawn from the library just before lockdown.
As it was likely this was to be my last spring/summer at 171 & because I couln't take it with me to Scotland, I took some photos of the Acer in its various stages of growth, & here they are:
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| Salmon pink on Apr 13th |
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| Pinky-yellow on May 4th |
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| More yellow on May 13th |
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| Green on June 17th |
Once next door realised my moving plans had got underway, they decided to pay for a more substantial fence between our gardens so their dog couldn't get in. I guess they figured their new neighbours would be a bit like Forrest Gump's 'boxachoklits' & wanted more than a honeysuckle hedge for separation.
So, I had to dig up all the honeysuckle & ophiopogon to make room for the fence, & offered the plants to friends rather than bin them. So many peeps wanted some honeysuckle I attempted to root it (with limited success so far ;-p)
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| The half-stained new fence |
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| The slate sack after 32 bucket loads! |
Working mornings at Tesco, I tried to be disciplined & not read in the sun all afternoon ;-p. I made myself do at least '1 job a day', & did some indoor & outdoor re-glossing, tidied up the garden, stained the new fence, & restained the old ones & the path.
The removal of all the plants had left a large trench, so in mid-May I filled it with debris & (once they eased lockdown a bit) arranged for a delivery of a mega-sack of blue slate. It arrived on the 23rd & I was a bit miffed to see it was more lilac than blue & didn't match the old blue slate at all. Happily, there was enough slate to cover the slate under the apple trees so it didn't look too bad.
Phew!
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| New slate down & 'waves' created |
With no other way to move it from the drive (as with the others above), I carried it, bucket-load by bucket-load into the back.
It was bloody hard work & much harder than I remember it being last time (3 years ago), so I guess age is finally catching up with me ;-p
70-odd buckets later it was done, & I created 'waves' along the fence.
Shades of Hokusai? (maybe not ~ hehehe)
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| Both photos taken in the rain on 22 6 20 |
The white granite had been walked on with muddy boots by the fence men, so the 'waves' acted as kind of 'eye don't see, heart don't grieve over' camouflage!
It looks quite nice & I'm glad I made the effort, but I doubt it will stay that way if next door's cats keep using it as a toilet.
Yuk!
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| Final Acer pic showing pinky leaf buds |
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| My tame seagull & Samantha from next door share the remains of a roast chicken |
I must say I have really enjoyed having a garden during the pandemic lockdown, & really feel for those poor souls without one to enjoy the sunshine in.
I even get daily visits from a seagull who comes & sits on the shed roof when it spots me in the kitchen, knowing I sometimes put out leftovers for the local fauna & cats to eat.
I got the pic of these 2 unlikely diners last Tuesday (June 16th)
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| The remains of the ophiopogon & honeysuckle |
Finally, here is what's left of my hedge.
Eileen's hubby got the 1st lot, Hazel has had some, & this lot's for Jools & Sally once it's rooted properly.
Fingers crossed, anyway!
I may end up with no garden once I've moved to Scotland, but at least I'll always have this blog to remind myself of my lovely garden at 171.
OAO
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