Trying not...

I'm trying not to say "Oh blimey, it's Thursday already" but oh blimey, it's Thursday already!

I took a friend of mine out fishing yesterday - to give him an Arctic Fox style introduction to the noble art.....  and although it rained....and it rained.... and we were alright until the wind changed direction and the two of us impersonating drowned rats had to hang onto one of the umbrellas to keep one of us from going all Mary Poppins.......  He loved it!

We had a good day, but it's taken a very hot day and the hours until just now to dry my gear out.

We've pencilled in another trip for Sunday.

Now, back to my gardening.... having just spent a half hour in the company of grass trimming equipment in the exact colour of orange of your dreams....  I do still maintain that I'm a lazy gardener.

My garden's wildlife-centric or so I tell anyone who would care to comment on the strands of sticky willie and buttercups gone to seed.  The crops that grow beneath the bird feeders.  The borders that were once pin sharp are now beyond blurred.... they're positively overflowing.

Occasionally I walk round my garden with some secateurs..... sometimes with a kitchen knife..... I poke at this plant or prod this weed.... in fact, I even go as far as to not call my weeds weeds, because everyone knows weeds are just wild flowers in places they're not meant to be.  I pull something up that looks like it might be choking a more desirable thing..... and I generally just show the living rectangle out front of my house who's boss!

I find it therapeutic right up until the point it starts to resemble work.... and then I go and play computer games or something.

Anyway..... the reason why I'm motivated to write another bloody boring garden blog, is that today, during one of my fist shaking type garden rants, where I am trying to tell it to behave but it's not listening..... I noticed something which simply enforces my "laid back" approach to gardening.....

Now, bearing in mind it's August, and in fact, having just consulted my calender realised it's MID August.....  I noticed a couple of pots in the garden that still have winter bedding plants in them..... and not only are the plants STILL alive..... they're actually starting to do quite well.....  just goes to show.... if you hang onto something for long enough it DOES eventually come back into fashion..... now where's my sheepskin waistcoat?

some sort of pansy or summat

a primula

Tricks

As I get older I begin to wonder at what point a dog becomes too old to be taught new tricks, and in learning new tricks, does this enforce the fact that I'm possibly not TOO old?

It's not something that troubles me a great deal (the thinking about the above statement) but I do love learning things, and unfortunately for those around me (taking after my mother) I am all too keen to share any new found knowledge with anyone who is too afraid to tell me to shut up.

OK, so, I don't know where this came from, but hear me out......

I have some rather scrappy looking rose bushes (I hesitated before typing the word "bushes" because they are far too spindly and scrappy to be given such grand nomenclature) - so I have rose plants in my garden.  I only have a few of these roses, and generally I'm not much of a fan of their gaudy, temperamental and fragile blooms...... but.....

Somewhere down the line, perhaps in an article I might have read in a magazine or a newspaper or from a TV programme or something.... I have it in my head, that, when dead-heading the roses, you shouldn't just take off the failing bloom, but should go back down the stem to the nearest "knuckle" and snap it off there.

Now, I don't do much gardening.... I prefer the garden to be full, even if that means letting the weeds run rampant.... the majority of my gardening is just keeping things moderately in check..... I DO however prune the roses every year, and since I moved in here they have definitely improved with the annual secateur based attention that they receive.

So.....

This year.... apart from cutting a few "suckers" from the roses (a term which loosely refers to "blind" shoots that come from the plant - i.e. non flowering), I've made the effort to apply this new piece of knowledge, about snapping the dying heads off at the first knuckle, to encourage multiplied growth.... 

Snapping the flower heads has been quite simple.... a bit like breaking the woody part of an asparagus spear at its base.....  grab the dead flower head and feel for where the stem wants to break and simply snap it off.....

(note to my cousin Jo - the snapping of the heads from the roses is in no way comparable to the unbridled whacking of red hot poker blooms)

The results.... well.....  I think it's a bit early in their first season to properly call it a success, but look at this:

an example of the "knuckle" at which the heads freely snap off

Even an untidily snapped head has promoted ruby red new growth

They say....

Make hay while the sun shines is what they tell me, and whilst I have no fields, nor do I have grass quite long enough for the purpose of turning into animal feed, it did seem fitting to mow the lawn as the skies darken around me.

In true British fashion, I find myself blogging about weather!  Idiot!

I've mown the lawn and strimmed a little bit around the edges.  I've put a few more stones onto my little dry stone wall in the garden where the tree-that-used-to-be, used to be.  I've pulled up a few buttercups and puled out a load of daffodil and bluebell leaves that were going yellow and rotten.  I've weeded between a particularly overgrown patch of flagstones..... and then sat down and drunk coffee in my garden.

Following on from that..... I took a few photos, and organised some software so that I could make a Hockney-esque photo mosaic or "joiner" as he calls them.... and this small process has taken me the rest of the day - time flies when you're tinkering with computers!!

Anyhoo.......  without further ado..... here's my first effort at creating a joiner..... which also displays the fruits of my hard work in the garden....... see how nicely all that ties together now?

Better....

"..... better get a bucket.... I'm gonna throw up!" - Mr. Creosote!

OK we've had some actually clouds today... white fluffy ones.... and later in the day..... big black ones.

The net result, we've even had an evening downpour.... heavenly.

Cooler temperatures.  Might even get a decent night's kip tonight.

I mowed my lawn.  I've even "strimmed" round the edge, revealing a small border wall, which Dawn never even knew existed.... It is a good few years since last it was visible.

You may, quite rightly, surmise that my gardening is none too fastidious.  I tend to garden out of necessity - when things look TOO wild.  I garden mostly for the benefit of wildlife and apart from not having a pond (a real wildlife winner), I think my garden scores reasonably high on the wildlife friendly scale.

I've got a nice rotten wood pile made entirely from wood gathered in the garden.  I've got garden beds that are full of wild flowers (well, weeds are just wild flowers in the "wrong" place) and I don't generally "weed" much.  I have a wormery and a compost bin.  I put cat and dog hair (that we've brushed from the animals) out for the birds to collect.  There's a cherry tree and a load of shrubs.  It's "cottage" and "rustic".

I trimmed a spiky tree.... pulled up a great load of "stickywilly".... pulled a few dandelions up.... cleaned up a few lawn clippings, which I generally leave around - I don't think it does much good to a lawn to keep it all neat and tidy.  I cleared some space around the few actual "plants" that I've got.... the lavender, the blueberry, the peony and the gooseberry bush...... buttercups everywhere felt my wrath.

I've maintained the strimmer and the mower.... I've even oiled and cleaned a pair of secateurs that were long lost, found during the recent shed renovations.

It's been a nice day.... steady away.... and I've  even managed to sit out and read some of my book..... only one more chapter left and we'll be moving on to pages new.

My new fishing tackle order arrived too..... might even get to fish tomorrow if this temperature keeps down a bit.  I've got a date with some flag stones tomorrow to repay John's assistance at the weekend with my shed..... cue bad back in the not so distant future!

Normal service is slowly being resumed!

Introduction...

Rain, meet Manflu.... Manflu, this is rain.....

Now if I can only persuade them how good they are for each other they might just get it on and piss off into the sunset and leave me the hell alone!

A quick walk round the garden this morning reveals that the last week of continuous rain has rendered my normally slow growing lawn into a veritable green jungle.  Too wet to cut and too long to be of much use to anyone.

My daffodils have just about given up the ghost but my tulips are all starting to come out.... it's truly amazing how much this rain has brought things on in the past week....  I know the gardens really did need it.

I suppose I can thank small mercies in that I've been stuck inside brooding and stewing with a fevered brow and the weather really has not done anything that would suggest I could have been doing anything else but watching films anyway.....  I certainly wouldn't be walking or fishing in THIS stuff, or at least that's what I keep telling myself, knowing full well that I've done both in much worse!

I took a quick drive down Grimescar Road today which is a little back road through a lovely bluebell wood, and I always like to have a look at this time of year..... the sheer quantity of bluebells there does not and in this case DID not disappoint - a real local highlight.  I've even got some "bells" coming out in the garden although I'm inclined to think they are the foreign invaders - probably Spanish - and should be composted really but they add some colour for now!!

So, if this rain would just do one.... and I could shake the tail end of this man flu.... I might actually manage to get out of the house..... do some gardening..... get back onto shanks's pony...... and catch a few fish!

Give us a break, please.

What shall become of me?

Well, it's Friday afternoon.... There's a beer festival that's just started at the Barge and Barrel, and I am sitting at my computer desk drinking pineapple and grapefruit green tea!!

Shame on me.

I haven't even managed to blog this week, and once again, I would put this largely down to the very fact that whilst the sun is shining, you're like to find the fox indulging in some sort of outdoor pursuit.... walking, gardening, dogging..... you know, the usual stuff.

Anyhoo.....

Big big big shout going out to the Pighill Wood volunteers, who, within the last couple of years, have totally turned around the decimated woodland area near Scapegoat Hill. I have been walking across there a couple of times this week, and I'm pleased to say that all their efforts are both appreciated and obvious. Not sure how relevant or up-to-date any of this information is, but if you want to know what I'm on about then it's here anyway. I guess thanks are due to the lottery too.... I must eat my words!!

My pineapple and grapefruit green tea smells very much better than it tastes.

I have bought myself some herbs today (of the legal variety) - some flat leafed parsley, some thyme, some fennel, and some fancy schmancy basil. I also bought myself some Giant Russian sunflower seeds, and a Kniphofia - that's a red-hot poker to anyone else.... a childhood favourite, from which my cousin and I were quite deft at removing the heads with a single swipe of a stick... how my grandma (the legendary Fanny Bush) must have cursed us. She did make up for it by surreptitiously nipping us while our parents' backs were turned.

I've even managed to almost catch up with all the blogs I have to read..... some of you may have received a comment from me, but they've been few and far between because none of your blogs were even worth responding to I've just been so busy. Sorry.

If you expected this post to be done in rhyming couplets, or as a witty sonnet, then I'm sorry to disappoint.

A square pyramidal number.....

.... that lies somewhere between thirteen and fifteen.

I am two weeks into this cruel experiment. I can only imagine you are JUST as bored with it as I am!! A grand total of twenty five days remain. Even the puking cats of Pole Moor have now apparently joined me in protest and gone on hunger strike, flatly refusing to eat their churned up fish flavoured repast.

Gardening and car washing have been the order of the day. It's been a gloriously unseasonal sunny November day, which actually started with the first hard frost of the season - I guess the frost and the sunny weather today are simply symptoms of the clear skies that abound.

I can not tell you the last time I washed my car.... it's quite disturbing when you eventually look closely at the chipped paintwork, the tar-flecked panels, the moss covered crevices, and the insect plastered bumpers, of which my preferred mode of transport comprise.

Wash, rinse, wash, rinse, wash, rinse, dry, wash, dry, buff, spot the bits you missed and start again.... what a pain in the arse. I NOW remember why I never bothered washing my car before!! Still, it's strange the effect that a couple of weeks of puking cats and escaping chickens can have one you.

I'm fairly sure by the end of the week I'll be regaling you with tales of how exciting the new series of "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" is!! If I do, will someone please shoot me?

Thanks.

Flatness.

What is happening to blogging?

I started to use a new "blogreader" yesterday, as I think I have possibly reached the limits of what I can do with Bloglines. I was surprised to find that, sometime ago, I had signed up for, but never utilised, Google Reader.

On first impressions, I am satisfied with Google Reader. It does what I need to do, and it's also a little more reliable and stable than Bloglines. I think as a beginner in the world of "feeds" and "RSS" and all that nonsense, I'd prefer something that actually managed what I wanted to do now, rather than a product that I will never ever "grow into".

So... Google Reader, full steam ahead. All my favourite blogs are eventually subscribed to. Two blogs initially gave me problems, one I managed to resolve, but the other: It's about the vodka, I can't fathom out at all. The latest post I see is February 5th or something silly. Grrrr.

I sit back and wait for one of my twenty three subscriptions to update, and for something to happen. I wait... And I wait... I go to bed... I get up... I wait some more... I ride my bike... I cut my lawn... I cut my neighbour's lawn*... I wait some more...

Not one single person has updated their blog in all that time....

I am either the blogger with the least amount of life or desperately in need of some new blogging pals!! It is hardly any wonder that I only manage to get a paltry three or four comments a day, despite the fact that an average of twenty seven people visit me EVERY DAY!! Oh, this is turning into one of those "lurker" rants, where I expose my sensitive underbelly, and beg for more proof that you were here. I'm so unloved, you're all wolves!!

Anyhoo, moving swiftly on.....

* Random act of kindness: It's a lovely hot day, and I was out in the garden with a pair of secateurs, like you do!! Trim this, hack that, oops didn't mean to snap that in half.... You get the idea. Trimming finished, out comes the mower. Crumbs, I'm sweating... It's dripping down my temples and running off the end of my nose. When I had finished, I threw the mower and power leads over into next door's garden, and mowed his lawn as well. He is out at work, and I like the idea that it might puzzle him how it got done!!

Get off your bums and rake in some karma with a Fox's patented random act of kindness.

Back in the swing.

I was going to write something about my rehabilitation. My return to my own dwelling, after a week of house-sitting. Something about being "back in the swing" of it. Alas, I don't ever think I have been in the swing of anything, and as such, it would be foolish of me to think otherwise.

I have missed certain elements of being at home this last week though.

I am amazed at how much the garden has come along.

The previously stumpy, brown, decayed stands of fern, that will eventually transform my woodland glade into a jurassic park, have begun to shoot and the fronds are unclicking themselves.

The daffodils, some that came early have now finished, but the later ones are in full bloom. I have some gorgeous double daffs, and they're oh so pretty.

Harebells and bluebells are budding and bursting out.

A handful of tulips (all red unfortunately) are unfurling their scarlet petals, to reveal the alien interiors, in a brazen display of floral flashing.

The cherry tree has finally begun to come into leaf, and there are a few unopened blossoms, where it will no doubt fruit, and be ravaged by the birds.

The monumental, frankly oversized ash tree, which is always the last to get its leaves, and the first to lose them, is budding too.

There's a haze about the place, a fuzzy green haze at the peripheral edge of the garden, that hasn't been there until now. Rebirth, regrowth, resplendent. It's the heartening cycle of life that, irrespective of our short encounter with it, will rumble on regardless.

I frikking hate photos of flowers and plants and such, so here are some!!

Green grow the rushes.

Well, not much to report.

I have spent the last two days working in the garden.

Day 1 - Spent most of the day picking up sticks, and general detritus. Pulled up some dead conifers (I hate the living versions of these conifers, so there was much joy to be had in dispatching of dead ones). Filled a few bags of garden waste and took them to my mum's house, and engaged in the manly art of bonfiring.

Day 2 - Just light gardening duties, until I picked up the secateurs!! Within ten minutes of hacking with handheld artillery, I was calling for the big guns. Mum arrived with "loppers" and I was soon dervishly whirling an Edward Scissorhandsesque green typhoon of vegetation. I even got the saw out!! six bags of carnage later, my garden's now completely empty.

And so, with my newly created personal dustbowl, I am left with tattered tools of the trade - my hands! Scratches and scars adorn each digit, and my fingernails... well, let's not go there!!

On a positive note, it's been a delight to spend some time in my garden with my feathered friends. Normally, I watch the birds from behind two layers of glass, and they take flight at the mere sound of a turning doorhandle.

Over the past two days, they have come quite accustomed to my vomings and goings, and are now quite happy to sit within spitting distance of me while I work, or more commonly, smoke a well earned cigarette.

I recently put up a nestbox for the bluetits, and already there have been inquisitive singles, and couples enquiring about availability. Perhaps soon, I might be able to get some nice pics of these little critters too.

I'm disappointed that my stunning collection of minimalist photography, yesterday, yielded only one comment. Thanks Spice, I knew I could count on your opinion.

PS - I hope y'all like the Banjamin Zephaniah music I have provided!!