Toil and soil

So many beautiful pictures to post tonight: I don’t know where to start. Perhaps with this exquisite gloaming vision of the forest which I snapped while walking back from the top vegetable bed.

I was actually admiring the strimming work that Nicolas had done on the brambles that infest the rocks on the side of the road, but even I was caught by the evening light.

So struck indeed that I took a few more. My brother would do it better justice as he is such a great photographer, but here is my paltry contribution.   Shan’t bore you as I have much to tell, but here is picture number two:

Earlier I had taken up a bucket of cosmos to Danielle, our neighbour and realised that they have the most amazing view in front of their house. You can finally see autumn colours on the hillside across from our houses.

These cosmos plants are nothing if not tenacious. I’m waiting (rather impatiently) for them to fade so I can collect the seed for next year. Most of them are prone on the ground from last week’s rain, but they are still flowering. Perfect for vases if you don’t look too closely at each and every bloom.

I am impatient in the potager for another reason. Once the cosmos die I can dig them out and dig it over and get sorted for winter. I had an energetic afternoon yesterday digging over two of the lower quadrants. Done, while Nicolas started on the heavy work of digging out the paths.

I had done the earlier spade work (sorry) of measuring and pegging and digging the first spoke of this soon to be four spoke wheel. But I knew that I couldn’t do much more without the aid of extra muscle.   I had to wait until early this morning to show the progress, as every picture I took yesterday afternoon involved my shadow. And some alarming looking dark bits that obscure the soil.

It looks like the Somme right now, but it will improve, truly.

You can see in this picture the planned curve. I need to be able to manoeuvre   (is that how it’s spelt?) the wheelbarrow around this central tub of tulips and wallflowers, so it looks rather wide right now. But I am willing to sacrifice a bit of growing space for some aesthetic merit. There will be more flowers planted next year here as well. That’s my pledge.

Earlier in the day I did a bit of mowing to complete the toil. This is the bank above the lawn. And there’s a project and a pledge. I need to rake it thoroughly and spike it and give it a bit of love.