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Oooo, wow, it's so nice to see pretty gardens, all nice and tidy, lovely pathways, a little white garden gate. You work in some wonderful gardens and you are so lucky to see greenery and flowers right now. You do beautiful work and those pics make my eyes feel so much better. |
| Growit Posted on Friday, March 07, 2008 - 04:28 am: |   
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Off for the weekend to Centreparcs with the girlies!! Leaving in just over an hour. I so need this break!
http://www.centerparcs.co.uk/villages/longleat/index.jsp
See you Monday!  |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Friday, March 07, 2008 - 03:24 pm: |
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I agree with you DJ. Thanks Moira for sharing all of your photos!
Have a great time this weekend :) |
| Growit Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - 10:24 am: |
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Yes I know and I do choose which to work in. Some I have taken on I have dropped just as quickly. The dreadful words "I just wanted it tidy" send me running for the hills. The other one is "Thats rather a lot to spend on the garden, lets not bother I like looking at the dirt"
Thankyou.  Sometimes I do need to hear that. I can work in a garden all day and yet seem to do such a small area. I sometimes think I am being over zealous but the plants seem to respond to my pampering.
Welcome Lisa.
You no doubt know already that I did have a wonderful weekend.
We normally chuck ourselves down the rapids on Friday after we are all settled in our villa then something scary and outdoors on the Saturday and lots of pampering treatments and the AquaSana on Sunday with maybe one more go down the rapids before we go. This year we were supposed to do horse riding American style but they did not have enough available horses so we did Flexiball instead. My butt cheeks are still aching from that now LOL!! Also we were booked in for treetop walking but because of the possible bad weather we chickened out and cancelled that so nothing scary this year. Last year we did High Ropes and the zipwire and the year before abseiling. So scary to do but such a rush once you have done it. Still I did have a Swedish back, shoulder and neck massage and that was heaven. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 10:16 am: |
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I can only imagine! That sounds like a GREAT time. I did a zipwire before & it was so cool. I did another ride that shoots you way up in the air, then keeps bouncing you back up & down (kind of like a backwards bungee jump?). It was so much fun.
Ooh, it sounds like it. I would say you needed it after all of your adventures! |
 What are you up to, Moira?  I can't tell from reading your journal lately. LOL!  I hope you are doing okay over there. |
| Growit Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008 - 05:04 pm: |
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Hi there DJ. Finally seem to have a few moments to spare.
Our spring was late with snow in April and now we have gone straight into summer! I am sunburnt even after having used factor 35 suntan lotion everyday, and wearing my bush hat....which takes me to another episode...
Last Tues FIL garden.
He is a beekeeper and keeps 4 hives in his back garden. I have had enough years of being around them to know that when the buzz turns to a high pitched whine to run away very fast. They get quite frantic when the weather is hot and this seems to make a few of them very aggressive.
There I was in my long sleeve T and my widebrimmed hat working away clearing a bed to be filled in and taking any plant of any use out and moving it to a bed that a lot of plants have died in. (lack of care since MIL died) As the day warmed up I noticed the increased activity from the hives over the other side of the garden. Occasionally a bee buzzed very close to me when I forgot and walked into the flight path of one heading for a bee hive but for a few hours everything was fine. I was down on my hands and knees wrestling with a very large stinging nettle root when the first high pitched whine started right behind me. I jumped up and legged it into the greenhouse closing the door. The bee flew in to the glass several times trying to follow me. "Haha!" I thought, "Beat you that time". It then dawned on me that a greenhouse was probably not the best place to be shut in when the temps outside were already in the 20s and the greenhouse was an awful lot hotter. Five minutes was about all I could stand as my head had started to pound from the heat and the sun (I would hate to be a tomato plant!) but by then the bee had given up. I came out and went back to attacking the stinging nettle....bee came back! Ran in greenhouse, bee went away, came out of greenhouse gasping for air! This happened 3 times before I finally gave up and moved to the front garden which is bee hive free. I was determined not to get stung just because a bee was having a bad day.
Much better. Shaded by a tree, worked my way around an island bed of heather, nearly finished when my FIL came over and asked why I had moved, laughed at my explanation ( just cos he can get stung and barely notices it anymore) and went off to do some shopping.
That left me home alone. I took my bush hat off, shook my head around for a minute to cool down, stuck it back on and moved over to the next bed to weed. It was incredibly hot and sticky even with the shade of the tree but I diligently carried on like a good DIL should....The back of my right ear started to buzz....A bee in my hat! How?! OMG! I am going to get stung in the head!!!!!!
Complete panic set in. I threw my hat across the garden as I flicked my hair upside down and tore my fingers through it trying to dislodge the bee. The whining rose a pitch or two, meaning bee was getting very upset and was trying very hard to live by trying to sting whatever was attacking it. This made me panic even more. If I could just see where it was instead of blindly raking out handfuls of my hair I may stand a chance of dislodging it before it got me. I raced across the lawn still with my head upside down. Then I noticed the whine had changed position. In that moment I was sure it was heading down the back of my neck and without thinking about it I pulled my T-shirt over my head....carried on running around the side of the house towards the bathroom in my semi-naked state still raking my fingers through my hair and my head as upside down as it could be to still be able to see where I was going. I was just hoping I could see the bee in the mirror pull it out and not get stung again. I had been stung twice in close succession last year by wasps and the second sting had caused quite a major reaction that meant my arm swelled up so much I could have beaten Popeye in a 'largest forearm' competition. I did not know if I would react to a bee sting in the same way and if so how bad and there was no one around seeing as FIL had gone off shopping.
I got to the back door and tried one last thorough rake through my hair, my fingers squished something soft and furry. The whine became a squeak and then stopped and I finally managed to flick it out on to the patio by the back door step....dead. I felt quite sorry for it then and stood looking at it sadly before it slowly dawned on me that I was topless, my FIL would be back any minute and my T-shirt was around the other side of the house!
I crouched low and furtively ran around to the side to retrieve it. I scanned the street and the coast was clear. I grabbed my T flung it over my head and breathed a sigh of relief. How embarrassing would that have been if my FIL had come back or one of his neighbours had seen me?! Barely had I straightened it out when I heard someone shout my name and across the road Mr J from two houses down waved at me as he headed off down the village. Had he seen me? I don't know. Was his wave and grin a little too cheerful or had I just imagined it. Would I be the main topic of conversation at some luncheon the next day? Who knows.
I picked up my hat and noticed the four holes on the sides. obviously these were meant to let your head cool but that must have been where the bee got in. My head was so sore even without a bee sting as I had pulled so much hair out in my efforts. I think I had panicked so much that reason had gone out the window and made me hurt myself more than any bee could.
A while later my FIL came back and I told him a bee had tried to sting me in the head and had got in through the holes in my hat. (I did not mention stripping!) He looked at hat laughed,looked at dead bee and laughed even more.
In his garden he has a bird table. Years ago the beekeeping association got all of its members involved in a campaign to help increase the numbers of Mason bees and gave them each a couple of nesting tubes like these
http://www.wildaboutnature.co.uk/ShowDetails.asp?id=289. These tubes are on the bird table and the bees are now hatching which means new bees can lay so there are a lot of Mason bees in the garden.
The bee in my hat had been a Mason bee. The male does not have a sting, the female does but it is so puny it cannot penetrate human skin very easily. That is why my FIL laughed.
How stupid do I feel? On a scale of 1 to 10 about 100.
I am sure once my head stops hurting I will see the funny side of this but even a week later I wince every time I brush my hair. C'est la vie, I suppose. |
| Valia Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008 - 07:24 pm: |
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Are you sure none of the neighbors had a cell phone with video capabilities? Sounds like a YouTube winner to me!
Seriously, sorry had such a bad experience. Once you've had a strong reaction to a bee sting, it's no joke to be threatened with another.
Anne |
Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry that you were panicked into inflicting such bodily harm on yourself. I can only imagine how freaked out you must have been to go so far as to rip your own hair out. (But all things considered, I have to say that this was the most hilarious telling I've ever heard of such a traumatic experience. You get a "B+". LOL!)
I'm glad you are alright (almost)!! |
| Dee_b Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2008 - 04:00 am: |
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Glad to see your writing in your Journal again Moira.
I love reading about your antics, you have such a way with words, and you write so descriptively, that we can see it all happening in our minds eye. You'll have to consider putting them all in a book sometime!
Hope you've got over your 'hair raising' experience....Happy Gardening! |
| Growit Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 10:42 am: |
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LOL!! Well we well soon find out although I would be incognito as I had hair covering my face...seriously though could you imagine? I would just die of embarrassment! Thanks for the concern over the sting Anne but it is wasps that I have had a reaction to not bees. I am just worried in case a reaction to one causes a reaction to the other. As yet I still don't know.
B+?!!!! Is that all?!!! All that pain for a B+. (insert incredulous smiley) Sounds like I will have to lose a limb or be hospitalised for an A...Death for an A* perhaps? Would be a bit pointless if I was dead as I wouldn't know I had got one lol!!
You are a hard task master DJ but I will do my best to improve and become an A grade gardening accident narrator
Between the two of us (you with your ticks and such) we have probably pushed gardening into the top spot for the most dangerous activity!!
Thats very nice of you to say Dee. I always seem to end up in the funniest predicaments...
why me?! Guess it is the number of hours I spend out in the wilderness lol! As for a book I barely have the time to write stuff on here never mind plan a book. Perhaps once I retire I could write my memoirs. |
| Growit Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 12:01 pm: |
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Monday 19th
Well last weeks heatwave seems to have vanished. Really chilly today and possible frost tonight. C's garden this morning and then my new 94 year old lady this afternoon.
Started her garden a couple of weeks ago. Not my normal thing but she is a sweetie and her garden has not been neglected so I said yes to a couple of hours a week mowing and working on the borders.
Last week was awful. I was taking the mower around the side of the house through an alleyway but there was a cat asleep there. I called to it to wake it up but it didn't move...poor thing had been hit by a car and was dead. I asked M if she knew who it belonged to and she said it was the neighbours. I went round to tell them and the man came to have a look. It was theirs. I offered to carry her round to their house as I had gloves and nobody wants to pick a bloodied cat up that has the beginnings of rigour mortis setting in. As I came around the side of the fence his wife came out asking what he had said about the cat. (She had not heard him say she was dead) She saw me carrying her and I am afraid she saw the front view where the cats head had been smashed on one side....She screamed and burst into tears. I was so upset. I apologised to her though I had not done anything. I wanted to comfort her but I had a dead cat in my hands. The husband just told me to put it down on the grass and he would bury her. I did and went back to work.
Poor woman. They were just a young couple and I don't think they had lost a pet before. I heard him digging later and talked to him over the fence suggesting a little plant to mark the grave. He seemed to like the idea of that and this week I noticed a minature rosebush planted where he had been digging.
C's garden then today. He and his wife had gone up to look at their new house so I was all alone. Dug up a selection of plants for his daughter to plant. She has a shady border that needs filling. There were an awful lot of hellebore seedlings coming up under the row so I dug some up for her and some for Thursdays garden and some for muy friend who has a shady border with gaps in. Also chose a Geranium phaem, Tiarella, a fern that had decided to grow next to the garage and chopped some Astrantia off a big clump. That should be plenty for her.
2 weeks from now they move out and the 'rose' man moves in. I so hope he waits and watches the garden and notices how lovely it is before telling me to dig areas up to plant roses!
I have nothing against roses and there are a fair few there already but it is primarily a woodland garden. They would just look wrong if he goes for the quintessential English rose bed. We will see.
Took some pictures today just because it looks so lovely.
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| Growit Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 12:16 pm: |
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I just have to add one more thing.
I chopped off the next layer of leaves on my palm tree and for the first time in the 10 years since I planted it I can stand underneath it....Hurrah!!!!! 
and it has four flower spikes on it this year, that is two more than last year. |
Well, really, it was a Bee Plus and you're the only one I've ever known to get one of those. Quite an honor, really. LOL!
What a sweet ending to such a tragic story. Still horribly sad, though.
Hooray! That's a great and sunny pic. Hard to imagine you're going to have frost tonight. That's messed up!
Those garden pics are very nice. Love the Clem and Wisteria. I envy anyone who gets them to flower like that. Mine are always disasters. LOL. |
| Valia Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 07:48 pm: |
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I love the shape of the wisteria even more than the flowers. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 08:41 am: |
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Your bee story was too funny--well at least it was to me, I'm sure you thought otherwise. What a day/experience! I am sure 10 mins have past since I've read it and I am still chuckling! I am glad you didn't get stung. I could see something like that happening to me (but I sure hope it doesn't)!
You can do one of three things: laugh, cuss or cry. It is always better when you are able to choose laugh! |
| Growit Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 04:19 am: |
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So I wont forget....
To make a topsy turvy (Dr Seusse) planter
Use a 3/4" electrical conduit for the post, then drill holes in the buckets with a 3/4" wood drill bit.
Large pot at base then three smaller pots above.
I think I have a spare blue glazed. Must see about getting smaller for the top or possibly mix and match with terra...
It was supposed to be my last day with C in his garden today but the weather says NO! It is pouring and blowing a hooly so I will have to just go for a visit and take my alpines for him. They are moving to Dorset. The garden there is warm and sheltered and he wants to spend his more mature years pottering in a gravel bed. I have taken so many pieces from his garden that I thought I would return the favour. I have chopped off some of my Erodium, Pulsatilla, Zauschneria, Campanula garganica 'Dickson's Gold' as the foliage is so much prettier than the plain green, dwarf daphne and Waldsteinia. I was supposed to be going around his garden with him today and chopping plants he wanted to take...Oh well.
DOH! I get it now. You are too clever for me DJ lol!
They are just babies. This is the Wisteria in Wed garden. It is a Floribunda and the racemes are enormous. Even though I attacked it in Feb (had not been pruned for years) it still put on an amazing show this year.
Me too. The foliage is so lush!
Hi Lisa I can see the funny side of it now as my head has stopped hurting. I really did myself some serious damage though. The bone on one side of my skull at the back of my head stuck up. I was beginning to think I had a brain tumour lol! I think I just wrenched my neck quite badly.
Haha! I think I did all three in a very short space of time but not necessarily in that order. |
ICK!! That sounds gruesome! (Not to mention painful.)
That's a new one for me. LOL. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 05:47 am: |
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Eek! I am glad you are okay. |
| Seil Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 09:05 pm: |
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Your another busy bee, Moira. Congrats on your palm tree! I didn't know they were such slow growers. Of course here it'd be a NO grower.
That wisteria is goregeous. I have a friend that has them growing all over her house. I mean litterally house eaters. I would dearly lovely one but for the life of me don't know where I'd put it. |
