Busy, Busy Day

Yesterday would have been my Dad's 86th Birthday, bless him and today would have been my Nan's birthday. She was born in 1908 I still think of them both on a regular basis and often think of the happy times that we spent as a family.  We are a long time without our loved ones but my Dad and Nan, they were both of the opinion that life was too short to be maudlin and that life was for living and there was an expectation for us to pick ourselves up and start all over again even in the face of mishap.

Today has been a lovely hot day but there has been a nice breeze.  The sun has been very hot and I managed to get up early and get into the garden before the heat rose a bit.  I managed to cut up with my new secateurs all the Ivy I had pulled out the other day and now have about eight bin liners stuffed to the gunnells and full of Ivy.  There will be loads more before I have finished.

I have then started on the root pulling and the digging up.  Now that has been hard.  I have ended up on my bottom a couple of times, pulling at the darned things, on top of that hidden amongst the Ivy has been brambles and I have managed to get a couple of thorns in my hands despite wearing gloves.  Will soak them later.   I also managed to break the shaft on my small digging fork and the head of the rake has fallen off.  I have made progress and it has been very slow, some of the roots have been horrendous.  I have another big pile to set about in the morning.  It is an ideal job to do in the initial cool of the morning.

My Robin friend joined me today; he does not seem spooked by me at all and is coming quite close unless I move too quickly.

One of the problems I have is OH left a big reel of garden wire on the garden and the Ivy has grown through it.  I am slowly releasing it and it is better than it was but it is going to take a bit more concerted effort from me to free it.  Then it will be back to the root removal again.  Some of it has just been surface cover and not really attached to the ground which has made it a little easier.  I am being meticulous about this as my two greenhouses which OH bought me for my birthday are going in this area to start with and I don't want any additional plants in the greenhouses apart from what I want to grow.  Perhaps I have bit off a bit more than I can chew but at the end of the day, I want to garden more and a bit of effort now will save me a lot of time later on.  It is tiring, but a lot of that I put down to being out in the fresh air which I am absolutely loving. I am finding it very healing and calming despite the tug of war with the Ivy.

My Broad Beans are starting to come through and I now have three green Courgettes.  Still no sign of the yellow ones.  I am sure that they have made a detour via Australia.

I did manage to buy some yellow Courgettes at the weekend from the Butchers and so they will be finding their way into the freezer to use in stir-fries and under a roast pork joint (where they go all caramelised and gooey).  With a bit of luck will get these out of the way with tomorrow.

I have also had a lot of washing to do; big quilts, blankets and throws, some of which I have managed to get out and dried on the line.  Always love bedding that has been out in the air, smells wonderful and for me is akin to the smell of fresh baked bread which I love also.

Right had better start getting organised for tomorrow.

Hope everyone is well and keeping safe.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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