Products

To bookend the summer, here's a picture of the renovated Tain front garden. We started "the summer" on 24 May, with allium. We've come a long way since then and for sure the weather is considerably warmer (and has been generally drier in the last month or so). Mr A has been here continuously since then, but as of tomorrow he is "visiting" Edinburgh for a few days. I have to wait a little longer before I'm back, but the plans are all in place.

I woke up to a message from M saying that she couldn't make this morning's planned swim. L and I decided not to go swimming, and I think that was - for me - very much the right decision. I needed that time in the garden, doing some hard(ish) labour with Mr A. I was also feeling pretty tired this morning. I couldn't get to sleep (this is not a common problem in Tain...I guess I was feeling a bit tense and disturbed) so I spent most of the night finishing my current book.

The main thing we achieved was moving a wooden trough around the house to the back, which we have refilled with strawberry plants. We started with just four strawberry plants at Easter which we were gifted by meles and DaveH. While not providing that many fruits this year, as plants they've gone bonkers, so we now have at least a dozen plants that have rooted. In addition to the wooden trough, we also filled a zinc trough with some more strawberry plants, plus we put a few "emerging" plants into the bed we use for "special measures" at the back. These will need to go in another zinc trough assuming they "take". Immediately after transplantation, many of the plants were not looking especially happy, but we can see in a week or so how they have settled down. In their own beds, it will be much easier to protect the strawberry fruits next year. 

Aside from that, I cleaned up the corner in the front where the trough had been stored during the patio works, and also between us we removed quite a lot of next door's overhanging vegetation which was reaching our roof. The magical refilling brown bin has magically refilled again. Then I cleaned up the front patio, using the outdoor vacuum cleaner. It was all a bit exhausting, so after finishing that I sat out for a while with my lunch. Just to show the difference, I often like to draw attention to the extras added to this entry, showing the "before, before" and the "last year" state.

L came round later on, bringing Cosmo, so we could discuss the arrangements for tomorrow. Again, we sat out in the front with a coffee. In the early afternoon, the front is a real sun trap. Our sitting out escapades were concluded later on with a couple of beers out the back, where we thought about the plans we have for developing the garden next summer, which mainly focus on the back garden. However, a sign of the amount of work done is that without leaving the premises (the furthest I have been is the garage), I've done 12k steps today.

I think the garden is now in a state where it will be easy to leave for a week or so without any disasters. However, the pots will definitely need watering when Mr A is back!