It has been a good couple of days. A friend of mine came to visit and after a quick bike ride down the flooded paths of the River Thames and an unnecessary amount food that I cooked for dinner, we made full use of the winter garden and had the first fire of the year in the chimnea.
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| Copyright 2016 Robert Widdowson |
It has been a sunny but cold couple of days and we have had a light frost in the garden for both of the nights, but the fire kept us warm despite the lawn being crisp underfoot and what few stars can be seen from our city location were glinting away. This provided entertainment as well as listening to the passers-by on the busy road outside our house, who always provide some kind of interest to the quiet listener.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
After both of us feeling exhausted from the days pursuit, we were dropping off in our chairs by mid-evening. Some chocolate brownie and custard seemed to revive us and we ended up staying outside until the early hours of the morning.
By early afternoon yesterday, my friend had headed back north and I was left with a little time. I started to clean up the spoils of the night before and when tidying away the garden chairs to the shed on the front, I decided on a whim that it may be just dry enough to give the lawn an early but much needed cut. Despite it being slightly damp I managed to get it done without electrocution and it felt like it was really the beginning of the gardening year.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
The lawn looked better, though not great but this spurred me on to do some further work. I had taken quite a lot of the container plants off the decking when we had the fire so I used the opportunity to reorganise them. I decided to show off the weeping willow which was showing its first signs of life. I gave it a tidy up and removed old dead leaves and trimmed the tips of the falling stems where needed and put it in pride of place on the corner of the decking.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
With that done and the the tree looking great for late winter, I moved on to more trimming and tidying around the garden, preparing it for the early growing season that seems to have arrived despite the recent return of the frost. The honeysuckle in the corner of the decking required some control by tying it to the trellis from which is was making a valiant escape. I am trying to train it into the Buddleia but this is not the most direct path to light but is the ultimately going to be the best for it I hope.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
My partner had been away with work for the night and she was coming home soon. I had managed to spend much more time than I had planned with my initial tidy up but it was great to make some early progress towards the aims of the year. I headed off to the supermarket full of ideas and plans for other little things that need to be done.
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