Allotment Day

This is the image you need to hold in your mind.  Concentrate now.

Glorious poppies (possibly Patty’s Plum, a perennial). And I think these are peonies. I can’t quite tell yet.

Okay, lets pan back and see why.

Yep. The jungle. It has burst into exuberant growth in the month since I said ‘yes’.

But I am not to be deterred. I met Ruth at 1030am this morning and had the ceremonial handing over of the tiny key.

So it’s mine.

Gorgeous kniphofias.

Some pleasing bergenias. These will be useful in providing cover for the toad I almost stepped on when I trod my way across the plot.

I didn’t disgrace myself by falling into the kitchen sink.  The pond is toad home. And that little critter has to work very hard to munch its way through the slug colony I spied.

Now normally you would wonder ‘where on earth do you start?’ But I am under instructions to start at the fence. The Council want to paint the railings some time in the next month. And to do that they have to be able to actually see it.

Right now it is covered in potato vine, about six rambling or climbing roses (I can’t tell yet), a sickly jasmine. And wire. Wire, wire.

I have some shots of what I found back under the rose. I think it is a broken arch or pergola. And the rose has grown through it. So that will be playful.

But the shots are on my phone and I can’t retrieve them as the phone is undergoing a face transplant. (I dropped it on the tiles and shattered the glass.)

I promise to take more. I’m heading back tomorrow afternoon. And this time I will be armed with gauntlets, boots, thick trousers and loppers. The brambles are thicker than my thumb. And a few I chopped back to try and reach the peonies were approaching 15 feet long.

Best of all I will be able to do a session with a clear conscience.  The translation work is done. Done. Done. Never has the ‘send’ button been pressed with so much alacrity and relief. This has been my hardest (and longest) technical translation project so far. Ten thousand words of gnarly fiddly French.

All behind me. And a Project is ahead of me. Joy.