Damp Squibs

A steaming hot cuppa on a chilly bright autumn day in the garden

I am coming to the end of my week off work. I haven't had any summer holidays this year, so a week off now was to help me chill and do a bit of uninterrupted gardening and decorate (which I don't normally do) the new garage-to-bedrooms conversion.

However, 'the best laid schemes of mice and men' don't always work out right - Robert Burns was so right when he penned that poem in 1786 - nothing changes.

Firstly the weather has conspired against me for doing the gardening, not necessarily because it's been bad unlike some parts of the UK, but simply because it's been so wet, the grass is sodden. You can see from the picture of the leaves that they are wet through due to overnight dews, fog and the odd heavy shower that seem to pass through with annoying frequency. The grass hasn't been cut for about a month, mind you it hasn't grown either, we've had a couple of first frosts already.

However what it has allowed me to do is to compost the flowers which have been very disappointing this year, even the sturdy geraniums have flowered poorly, the heads have rotted very easily and the petunias have been a total waste of time. I know my blogger friend Wheelie has had a number of vegetables rot in the ground this year. The roses, what few I have, have been okay this summer and where there is greenery, that has been okay too. I managed to clear away some pots, clean the big fish pond and net it to stop leaves from falling in it and have a little tidy, so some progress.

Leaves do provide beautiful colours this time of year

That just leaves me with a general cutting down of foliage job which normally takes me a couple of days sometime in November. There is an argument from gardeners that foliage should be left and we should enjoy seeing the decay, colours etc., as stuff dies off. I am not in that camp and think its harder to clean up that way in the spring and there is less opportunity for unwelcome bugs and decaying material to spread disease the way I do it. In fact, I am told that there is a bit of tree disease going around at the moment and good solid frosts will kill some of that disease off. I'm a big believer in nature doing its job.

The second issue that hasn't gone entirely to plan is the conversion from a garage and morning room into two bedrooms and utility/store rooms. The issue has been one of timeliness in that the work has gone on a fortnight longer than it should. The builder who has done the brick work and knocking down and building up has been superb and has grafted so hard. He has been let down by other craftsmen who have not kept promises to turn up and do what they were supposed to do. However, after some complaining and wittering, the main builder in charge of the project finally got some reliable people in and the joiner and new electricians have in turn come in and grafted too and got the project nearly finished albeit late. So, time I put aside for decorating the new build has not taken place. 

The two bedrooms were for two of my younger sons who have tiny bedrooms and are still at home and show no sign of leaving. Having said that, my middle son John is now leaving home to live in a rented place a lot closer to where he works, so rather than an hours journey to work, it will take him twenty minutes. That means that one of the bedrooms will now be a lounge and allow me to have a bit of space for my spiritual work away from her indoors who is not a fan of anything like that at all. That's a story for another blog.

I hope you enjoy your weekend, whether you are working or not.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.