Gardening

It was another lovely day today, weather-wise, wasn’t it? We took advantage of it and spent most of the day (except when we were sleeping) out in the garden.

I was very blessed, because my friend, Livia, who knows about roses, said she’d come round and help me prune all the rose bushes I have front and back. Well, when I say, help, I really mean that she did all the work while I watched on. The reality is that, despite Livia having carefully shown me what to do last year, I had no confidence in my cutting capability. Would I cut the wrong branch and kill the whole thing off? She reassured me that no, roses love to be cut back, so not to worry about it.

So we had a lovely morning pottering about among the rose bushes and stopping for a cup of coffee and a chat half-way through. The exercise revealed disease among the plants though, and aphid infestation too, so on strict instructions, I planned to nip to the garden centre this afternoon to buy appropriate potions.

Meanwhile, John was out in the back garden as well, still battling his hedging. A repeat performance of dig a bit, stop a bit, dig a bit, stop a bit was the order of the day. Not only was it tiring work but it was also hot.

After Livia left, her work complete, John and I stopped our pottering about outside and came in to watch a spot of cricket and have a bite to eat. My thoughts were turning to the trip to the garden centre, but I thought I’d have a cuppa first. Then I thought I’d watch a bit more cricket. Then I thought I’d watch a bit of Roland Garros…..then I was fast asleep…. So, too, was John when I woke up a couple of hours later.

Now, I do have an excuse for falling asleep this afternoon. I hadn’t slept well last night as my shoulder was giving me jip. In the end, I had trundled downstairs in the middle of the night to get an ice pack to hold on the injury all night. I must have also been catching flies too, as my mouth felt like sandpaper when I woke up.

Interestingly, John’s excuse for falling asleep was also because he’d had a poor night’s sleep. Bless him, he never has a seamless sleep at night and is very often tired during the day necessitating an afternoon nap.

I did, however, make it to the garden centre in the new car before they closed. *Does a little dance* I armed myself with an appropriate concoction to spray onto the plants and…….ooooh, look! There are some alpines that will go in the rockery……. another impulse buy. Just got to plant the ruddy things now!

We were saved from having to do more work as the evening moved in because it started to rain. Spray the plants? Maybe tomorrow. But, let’s blow the trumpets! John has got all of the hedging in now. How cool is that? He’s done a grand job but not only that, he’s enjoyed it, too.

This evening, it was Quiz Night and another good evening had by all. We missed Malcolm’s company because he’s down helping his son, Martin, refurbish a new house. And, although Caroline joined in, we couldn’t actually see her on Zoom. Just her voice floating into the conversation, as she offered gems of knowledge to answer the questions.

On the COVID front, 4,330 people tested positive for the virus today and 12 people died in the community with it. Six people died in hospitals with the virus on 31 May and 1 June.

Take care everyone. God bless.