Now where was I?

 finished pathA pot of tea and waiting for the dawn. I love September. It’s going to be 24C today, but the mornings are cool and very autumnal.

Yesterday I picked up where I left off two weeks ago. Finishing off Sarah’s path. I needed to excavate the last four feet of path (which meant about 20 more stones and even more pebbles to add to the pile) and rake it carefully. More small stones.

And then I thought. What do I do with these rocks? I had thought to add them to the little wall just below. But instead I decided to mark the boundary with a little wall just beside the path.

This works better with pictures.

And it meant that I could enlarge the hedge that is right beside this path. I have a few cornus from Teo that need a home. Plus a peche de vigne. A vine peach. One of those odd shaped peaches that looked squished and clinging to the tree like limpets. They sound more handsome in French. hedge extension

So they went into the bulging part of the wall and will hopefully add to the lovely thickening hedge.  And I mulched the entire area with a thick blanket of the strimmings.

People think that you can’t put grass cuttings onto beds as a mulch. And it’s true in parts of the world where the grass is lush.  But this is more like straw in consistency.

looking along pathIt beds down well and doesn’t do much but keep out light and conserve moisture. And if I take the trouble to rake after strimming, I have armfuls of the stuff.

So that’s what I use.

I didn’t start the day hanging off a fork and levering rocks. I had to water first. This will probably be the last deep watering of the trees before winter.

The poor oaks have had a very testing summer with very little rain and plenty of sunshine. I’m just going to have to see how many make it through the winter and come out the other side.   And I have half a dozen little seedlings that can go in the ground.watering oaks

The tricky bit is just looking at my full page of Things To Do This Autumn and prioritise.

You can just see them in this shot looking up the mountain. (I was topping up the lily pond in the courtyard at the time). They’ll never grow up as big and tall as the monsters up in the forest.

They are planted on a large slab o granite.  But if they can attain head height I’ll be happy. Heavens, I’ll just be happy if they are alive next spring.

sulking and proudArtur did a spot of hose supervising as I worked. But he is definitely out of the habit of demanding cuddles and laps.

He does an awful lot of this posing. He will come and sit a few feet away from me, look off in the opposite direction, refuse to come to my pleading call and then maybe come by for a pat. But he is definitely in charge of the situation. Complicated critter.

All I want is to be able to sit down on my chaise longue in the potting shed with a cup of tea, feet up and cat on my lap purring and not biting or scratching. Dream on.

Meanwhile I just get on with lots of watering, picking cabbage, digging paths and admiring the butterflies.

We have these beauties on the sedums at the butterflies on sedummoment. A gorgeous blue. And in abundance.

And the sedums are so lovely this year as it has been so warm and dry. I’m propagating like mad to get even more of these amazing drought tolerant plants.