Needy creatures

For a garden that is acres large, I felt mighty crowded today. It was a phalanx of animals.

Artur started the day pergola surfing (sitting in the sun in the courtyard ten feet up the wooden pergola) and then when I emerged he started howling in that way that pretends he can’t get down except by leaping on my head.

And it has been close quarters all day.  I swear he has not moved ten feet from me.

And as I have been kneeling down weeding the shade garden and then the terrace bank; he thinks this is low enough on the ground for endless lap sitting and purring sessions.

It’s charming of course, but so beguiling.  Yesterday he ignored me utterly. So I can never predict when he wants or needs to turn on the charm.

And then there was the larger needy creature to attend to. In the shape of a horse hanging over the fence.  Ulysse  gets one apple a day, and no amount of mooning at me and the occasional whinny (startlingly loud) will make me relent.

He loves company so having the cat and a human to watch was endlessly fascinating.

But all those juicy weeds I was pulling out didn’t go to him. They were dumped on the compost heap and he wasn’t pleased.

But the garden is more important than the happiness of one horse right now.  And I suspect that Ulysse’s attention span is not that long. He’ll be distracted by something else soon enough.

I did manage to weed the huge shade garden bed today. That was great. But with the words of Andrew ringing in my ears from his last visit ‘it needs editing’. I don’t lavish much love here.

Just step gently in and pull out the obvious weeds.

I did a bit of sneaky moving things round too.  Out came some santolinas that are positively dwarfed by a mirabelle and they went into gaps.

And I accidently uprooted an eragrostis curvula grass, so that had to be put back.

I really ought to add extra mulch here. If I have time. For now it’s weed free and that will have to do.

The one problem with weeding is you see just how many more areas of this huge garden need some work.  I ended the day, on hands and knees (Artur dozing in the toasty potting shed at long last) on the path that’s above the barn garden rocks. Lots of baby brambles trying to take over here.

I’ll collect all the weedings tomorrow and try and finish the last two beds of the terrace bank. Along with a zillion other things on my list.