Marguerite
Active Member
G'day, people.
Weather-wise it's been a bit overcast today with fine misty rain now and then. After church I came home, got into my grotty gear and got on with some gardening. husband & I have a small enclosed courtyard outside our bathroom, the budgies spend their days in our bathroom looking out onto this courtyard. We have a sliding door leading out there, but with the birds in there I can't go in and out that way without risking them getting out, so husband opened the gate for me early this morning (before the birds were out of the cage) so I was weeding, shovelling the garden beds and putting in some new plants. Years ago I paved in there, but a plumber dug a lot of it up a couple of years ago, and I'm having to take my time putting it all back together.
Because of the rain, I was getting wet. I filled a large bucket with "compost soup" and soaked a lot of my pot plants in it, then found some of the pots were breaking up so I had to re-pot those. So I dug out some of the extra sand from the courtyard garden I was working on (made the job easier) and mixed it with our super-strong compost. It took me a few hours in all, I cleaned up some old pots, re-potted an apple tree difficult child 3 & I have grown from seed (he was eating an apple, found the seeds inside were sprouting inside it), soaked some orchids in flower to give them a boosted feed, and got two large potted plants which have been sitting in the courtyard waiting to be used, all emptied out, broken up and spread around the entire garden. We have two large palm trees in there, now they have some lovely bromediads planted around them as well as Moses-in-a-basket (I love the colour, the deep magenta of the underside of the leaves with the deep emerald stripes of the upper surface).
Now we can at last see the paving in the courtyard, after I dug, scraped and swept them clear. I can see where we need to do more, find more plants. By the time I'd done all this I was filthy, soaked to the skin and scraped. So I rinsed off at the tankstand, rinsed offf the tools, sprayed them with oil and then got myself inside to do the same thing.
A few weeks ago I made an exfoliating scrub (recipe in a magazine) so once I got to my bathroom I rubbed this stuff all over my scrapes then showered it all off in a lovely hot shower. I figured I may as well shower and wash my hair - I was soaked through anyhow, some hot water never hurt.
Since then - I've spent the afternoon cooking some comfort food for husband & mother in law (watching movies - husband was busy earlier, mowed the lawn before the rain began) and then difficult child 3, when he got home form his friend's. I've been wrapped up in my comfortable house coat and enjoying watching the rain finish my gardening job for me, by watering in everything.
Because of my cooking, we've all had dinner early tonight, our chores are done and we can relax. Outside it is still raining very lightly. It's still a fairly warm rain, the sort the garden loves. But the breeze this evening is cool, I'm glad to be inside and dry!
Tomorrow they said it should be dry, I'll have other garden work to finish (putting in new seeds, for example) so it should be a productive week.
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.
Marg
Weather-wise it's been a bit overcast today with fine misty rain now and then. After church I came home, got into my grotty gear and got on with some gardening. husband & I have a small enclosed courtyard outside our bathroom, the budgies spend their days in our bathroom looking out onto this courtyard. We have a sliding door leading out there, but with the birds in there I can't go in and out that way without risking them getting out, so husband opened the gate for me early this morning (before the birds were out of the cage) so I was weeding, shovelling the garden beds and putting in some new plants. Years ago I paved in there, but a plumber dug a lot of it up a couple of years ago, and I'm having to take my time putting it all back together.
Because of the rain, I was getting wet. I filled a large bucket with "compost soup" and soaked a lot of my pot plants in it, then found some of the pots were breaking up so I had to re-pot those. So I dug out some of the extra sand from the courtyard garden I was working on (made the job easier) and mixed it with our super-strong compost. It took me a few hours in all, I cleaned up some old pots, re-potted an apple tree difficult child 3 & I have grown from seed (he was eating an apple, found the seeds inside were sprouting inside it), soaked some orchids in flower to give them a boosted feed, and got two large potted plants which have been sitting in the courtyard waiting to be used, all emptied out, broken up and spread around the entire garden. We have two large palm trees in there, now they have some lovely bromediads planted around them as well as Moses-in-a-basket (I love the colour, the deep magenta of the underside of the leaves with the deep emerald stripes of the upper surface).
Now we can at last see the paving in the courtyard, after I dug, scraped and swept them clear. I can see where we need to do more, find more plants. By the time I'd done all this I was filthy, soaked to the skin and scraped. So I rinsed off at the tankstand, rinsed offf the tools, sprayed them with oil and then got myself inside to do the same thing.
A few weeks ago I made an exfoliating scrub (recipe in a magazine) so once I got to my bathroom I rubbed this stuff all over my scrapes then showered it all off in a lovely hot shower. I figured I may as well shower and wash my hair - I was soaked through anyhow, some hot water never hurt.
Since then - I've spent the afternoon cooking some comfort food for husband & mother in law (watching movies - husband was busy earlier, mowed the lawn before the rain began) and then difficult child 3, when he got home form his friend's. I've been wrapped up in my comfortable house coat and enjoying watching the rain finish my gardening job for me, by watering in everything.
Because of my cooking, we've all had dinner early tonight, our chores are done and we can relax. Outside it is still raining very lightly. It's still a fairly warm rain, the sort the garden loves. But the breeze this evening is cool, I'm glad to be inside and dry!
Tomorrow they said it should be dry, I'll have other garden work to finish (putting in new seeds, for example) so it should be a productive week.
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.
Marg