Green tinted spectacles

I have come indoors for water and sticks.   Strimming work down on the lower terraces is very thirsty work indeed.

And the sticks are my penance for killing so many oak seedlings on Saturday. I have found nine good candidates for nurturing.

They are in the open, not in shadow of their parent tree and look like they might just put on some growth. But will they make it to adulthood? I have to think of what will attack them.

The first enemy, of course, is me. I have to place a little warning sign above each plant in case I absent-mindedly strim the tops off them.   And then once this strimming work is done, try to keep the deer off them.   Tree guards. I must find some tree guards.

Once I get my breath back from the hot slog up hill I shall find some sort of protection.   But at least the tall bamboo sticks stand out.

It’s warm and sunnny here today and I keep finding myself veering into the shadow of trees to work. I shan’t strim much longer lest I get heat stroke.  Â  So one more tank of two stoke more and that should do it. I had hoped to have tackled the upper terrace as well this trip. But that shall have to be put off until June.   If I can find a very cool and cloudy day in June. It’s hot work.   Or get up at dawn and annoy the birds. And the wild animals in the forest. And the neighbours on the other side of the valley.

I am covered so much in green goo from the strimmer that I can barely see out of my glasses.   I’m into the soft stuff now – just thigh high meadow grass.   But I do spare a lot of the flowers, so the effect is not so much scorched eath as dotted odd bits.

After lunch I decided to find some shadier tasks. Clearing out the north cellar isn’t high on the fun gardening stakes, but it was great to actually see the walls and floor of this little room for the first time. It was always full of random bits.

Once I get it properly sorted with shelves, it is going to be the home of the paint the jams, the strimmer and chipper. Why, it could become my second home.

A bit damp perhaps. And only a titchy window.

Best of all after lunch was the news that Leslie was coming over for a visit. Hurrah.   Just time to pot up some cosmos for her. I love how we swap weeds. She gives me asters and I give her cosmos. It’s a perfect swap session.   And I had some successfully grown from seed eryngiums to give her.   Apart from anigozanthos (kangaroo paw) they have been the hardest seeds to germinate. But hopefully they will thrive in her garden.

I was so proud to show her around the jungle. And the roses were putting on such a show. We had dinner outside on the terrace catching up before she went off to choir practise at St Sauveur, and I went back out to dead head yet more roses. This is the life.