Closing up

Well so much for tile work.   I woke up this morning to find it not only raining but blowing a gale.   Rats.   So instead of useful roof work I was forced to do house work.   And I had to tidy my office.

I tried to put it off by doing a spot of raking of leaves, but I got absolutely drenched in a downpour and had to come in and change clothes.  Â  But the lawn is cleared of leaves so that’s a positive thing.   And I managed to go up to Jean Daniel’s and measure his vegetable garden up for the future asparagus beds we are going to plant in spring.  

I think we can get three rows of 5 metre long beds in between the jostaberries and the raspberries.   I’ve chosen plenty of different varieties from Blackmoors to try and stretch the season: cannover’s colossal, backlim, theilim, gijlin, and purple passion.   That ought to be a fun crop in a year’s time.

And while I was up at that part of the property I mooched about a bit and looked at the top vegetable plot that abutt’s Jean Daniel’s. Weeding needed.   So there’s something for next year.

And next up was closing up the potting shed. That’s not fun. Boy am I going to miss this lovely work room.   It felt odd putting fleeces over plants in such a mild season, but things could turn.

And naturally I had to think about my little potting shed companion.   He was fast asleep in a box today.   He is in one of the wine boxes that I have stacked on the shelf above the sedums for this very purpose.

He loves a nest and he is going to be very, very bored over the next month without me.   But I know he will be fickle about his nesting sites. So I have made him plenty. I’m almost ashamed to say that if I count them up there are seven spots where he can hide and doze and avoid the sound of the hunting dogs and the weather.   And right now he is sleeping on one of my old cashmere sweaters.

Moi? Spoil the elderly gent? Never!

So that’s the last picture of the year. It is appropriate as he has featured mightily over this year’s blog. And on behalf of both of us, I wish you all an early Merry Christmas and a happy new year.