MUD! He offered to help, but then he discovered the booze stash.
It's been pissing with rain all weekend, yet, this being the last weekend before our move, we were out there all day yesterday and I will be out there again today - digging out the (swamp-like, muddy) extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, potting-up the plants we are going to take and throwing out those we are not. The entire Fuchsia collection is binned already [sniff, sniff]; however just about every one of our specimens was eventually ravaged by the dreaded gall mite and would likely still be carrying the bugs, so we decided that replacing them all would be a better option. Our favourite specialist nursery has thousands of cuttings at only about 80p each, and most of them came from there originally so it will be easy to re-stock (and Fuchsias are remarkably quick-growing, so we should be swathed in blooms by August)...
The garden at Dolores Delargo Towers #4 is mainly paved, so container gardening is once again our future. Hence the reason why we cannot accommodate much of our current stock of herbaceous plants, and many (such as Red-Hot Pokers, Delphiniums, Knautia, the poppy, some Dahlias, Centaurea, Fennel, some Montbretia and Geums) are either going to the boys in Essex or straight into bin bags. Sad, but the only practical solution.
However, through the gloom, the mud, the aching muscles - and the continued process of bagging, boxing and cleaning indoors too - we have the prospect of our regular week in the sunshine of Andalusia to look forward to. And it would have been the 95th birthday today of the magnificent "La Faraona" Lola Flores, which is a perfect pretext to play one of her melodramatic Flamenco numbers to cheer ourselves up (as if we ever needed an excuse)!
We fully intend to go out of an evening dressed like that when we're there.
Stop Press: [12.30pm] Now, to add insult to injury, it is SNOWING! I've had to stop digging because it's getting too slippery, and take a tea break...
ON NO! NOT THE Fuchsias!!!!!!!!! You poor dear. I will miss your gardens too. I have always enjoyed your gardening magic in pictures. Now come on in and relax. Can I get you a stiff one?
ReplyDeleteA stiff one would be lovely, dear - but be sure to wash the mud off him first. Jx
DeleteThat's one of the problems with moving house - One can't take the garden along. However, starting again can be very exciting, and, as you mentioned, your fuschia collection will be up-and-running again in no time!
ReplyDeleteYour muddy boy reminds me of a slightly younger Eddie Redmayne (it's the smile, mainly - not the mud. I haven't kept a muddy Eddie in my shed for three-and-a-half weeks once back in 2015, no).
Behind the sheer exhaustion of it all, we are excited at the prospect of conquering a new garden space, of course - and quite a few familiar friends will be accompanying us there - not least our splendid pink Phlox, the gorgeous Rosa Veilchenblau, the ever-present Asarina, all our Salvias, the Lilies, some Dahlias, the Portuguese Squill, the Cyclamen and Snowdrops (and any other bulbs I unearth such as Alliums) - and anything else that is already, or that we think will live comfortably in perpetuity, in pots... Jx
DeletePS I can think of one or two things I wouldn't mind seeing Eddie Redmayne coated with, and mud isn't one of them.