Leaf raking

I’m dripping gently onto the tiles, and my chair, and the desk. That’s pair of trousers number two for the day. And it isn’t over yet.

Rain.

Enough of this stuff. I left wet and damp London behind only to find that it snuck onto the train compartment and showed up here.

I was like the saddest kid with my nose pressed to the glass looking out on a wet scene this morning.

Glum. I’m glum.

There are jobs to do out there and I can’t get to them.

In the end I donned lots of clothes, a rain hat which isn’t waterproof, a waxed jacket that kept off the worst, but seemed to have a wicking system where the wet soaked up the inside of my sleeves and just kept my arms and wrists in a permanent state of wringing wet. And just got on.

The courtyard is the obvious place to start when you need to do something.

So I raked fallen mulberry leaves.

Believe it or not, this is a ‘before’ shot. We must have had a cold snap one night and no wind. The leaves just dropped. It makes raking a doddle (if you don’t count the wet sleeve issue.)

And I barrowed loads and loads over to the Dry Garden where I’m building up the edges in an archeological layer.

Dry grass clippings, random leaf piles, weeds. And more leaves. It’s a sort of interesting layer cake which you can see from the side. (Forgot to snap that shot. I was too busy grumbling, and chanting ‘glum’.)

Don’t worry, they won’t stay glaring yellow for long. They will sink into gloomy brown in no time.

And that was the thrilling content of my outdoor day. Gutters, drains, rills, courtyard. Raked.

That and pouring five inches of water out of the rain gauge.

Happy days.