At the end of an uncharacteristically hot sunny weekend, my F human looked a bit weary. As discussed I didn’t go and supervise Repair Café, but she reported that it was quiet, the sunny day might have sent people running to the beach. That’s understandable; why hang around an old hall getting stuff repaired when you could be out making Vitamin D.
On her return, F swapped repair gear for gardening gear and
disappeared up to the allotment (again without me) and didn’t come back for
nearly 6 hours. She reported that while she was tackling 1/6th of the
infestation of bindweed, a young man was investing a lot of sweat and hard work
clearing and digging a couple of decent sized seedbeds in the adjoining ‘festival
of junk’ allotment. He has done a
remarkable job but it remains to be seen whether he will come back and use the finely
raked grow space he has carved out of the junk piles. It never ceases to amaze F when someone can create
such a fine tilth out of the soil at these allotments without using a rotavator. She has never managed to achieve it no matter
how long and hard she bashes away at the clods of heavy soil. Yet, quite a few
of the neighbouring allotments have achieved that super-groomed look. (She might be slightly jealous truth be
told.) Her own net result of an
afternoon of digging was a wheelbarrow full of bindweed (all bagged up and left
to suffocate – if indeed it is possible to suffocate bindweed), and about twice
as much yet to go.
Mr B had been away sailing all day.
For some reason I can’t entirely fathom the humans are
sleeping in my bedroom – the one I let the guests use. I saw Mr B take the big
sheepskin underlay from their bed away before they moved into my space. In my room, the sunrise wakes them up which
might not be a good thing. It gets light
around 4am and the sun rises at about 10 minutes to 5am, so on Sunday F was up
early and from my top floor window I saw her set off again with gardening
tools. The word obsession comes to mind.
The reason for her gardening fix being an early morning one
became apparent around midday when Mr B erected a gazebo on the lawn, F put out
some chairs, the BBQ was moved to the top of the garden and Mr B’s Mum and Dad
and Sister arrived. The afternoon was
spent ‘doing food’. I watched them from my
Tigger Shelf in the shed. I was invited
to join them, and offered freshly bbq’d chicken but I declined.
F is worried about me.
Sometimes one just doesn’t feel like eating. OK?
My Nana B is getting a bit forgetful; she didn’t know who F was. However, while F pottered about, the other 4
had a family reminisce which might be one of the last times that they can all dig around in and share old memories together.
It seems they mostly swapped stories about times they had tried to ‘kill
off’ Mr B’s sister – lost her, dropped her, left her behind, even shot her
(with a toy gun). She is also fairly accident
prone and has even made several unintended attempts on her own life. Fortunately she seems to be harder to kill
than a cockroach!
Not everything about aging is fun but there is still fun to
have, and lots of loving and some laughs, and stuff to enjoy. We all enjoyed sunshine and warmth and a
family gathering and food to share - even me.
That's the trick -- enjoy what you can when you can!
ReplyDeleteTaking a leaf out of your book Boud-Aunty. xxx mr T
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteOMC, Tigger, it's all go at your castle!!! I did think things must be busy as it has been quite some time since you repawted. Crikey, though, six hours in the heat at the allottment? I bet F was in need of some of that voltycream after that!!! I have been struggling a wee bit getting the insulation into The Grey - cuz it has been like working inside an oven. Until the insul is in, it will be that way! I am just doing only as much as my back and hips will permit, then I am back ordering stuff required, planning other stuff and also learning how to make videos on new software. My first video is up - but it too a six and half hour chunk out of my day to get it there! (Nearly as tiresome as digging clods... with a few choice words to go fertilise it...) Anyhoo - glad you enjoyed your company and I hope that you managed some chook a bit later on. Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Dear Yam-Aunty - your photos of the allotment recorded a sad state of neglect....and F is remedying that. She doesn't want to put out any more plants until she has had a really good go at decimating the bindweed infestation. It really is rife. Once small veges are trying to get established digging up the bindweed is no longer an option.... and as you know there are lots of small veges waiting for a place in the garden. I think the kale is going in next. Then the rest of the pumpkins. We didn't realize you were set on doing all that lifting and van-fitting yourself. Do takea break from time to time - F does when she has to go to paid work. xxx Mr T
DeleteSix hours of gardening? Wow, I am very impressed. I would die after 3, lol.
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't work hard - just potters around enjoying being outdoors and contemplating stuff. Part of the time was spent bailing out the water trough and scooping out a 4 inch layer of muddy sediment from the bottom. Some people must have been washing their veges in the trough. The trough at our old allotment had leeches in it (which creeped F out) and she didn't want any creepies hiding in the mud layer in the bottom of this one. There weren't and there is nowhere to hide now that it is all clean.
DeleteThe older we grow, the more precious those family get-togethers become. Time passes all too quickly sometimes :)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it just. F became acutely aware of that on the visit 'home'.
DeleteSieving soil achieves great friable and fine soil Tigger. I'm watering twice a day/night in the polytunnel.
ReplyDeleteIn our allotments the soil is either potter's clay or concrete. Sieving is not an option and sounds too much like hard work in any event. At present a potter's clay mill might be necessary. An area that F turned over in winter and dug again in spring to get all the grass clumps out, and then dug a third time to bury compostibles, has turned to concrete on top. When she went to stick the fork in the other day to weed it, she thought she had hit a previously undetected brick! No wonder the beans that were planted in it are not thriving...
DeleteSounds like the allotment will br in full production soon.
ReplyDeleteI always say old age isn’t for the faint hearted. But it does have its rewards. And it’s better than the alternative I guess
Full production - we wish. F has had to research which vegetables she can sow during summer to make up for the losses of the spring. So far we have produced precisely nothing, but we do have onions coming along and the gigantes are beginning to flower even though they still look like babies. The parsnip strike was patchy but we won't have to thin them and will probably have enough for the humans' own use this winter. We won't be giving much away this year. xxx Mr T
DeleteI am impressed at the 6 hours of gardening, when Bob and I were cleaning up from hurricane Ian, we worked 4 hours and we were both maxed out.. had to start again the next day. so glad to hear family arrived and spent quality time in the past memories. I teared up when F said you would not eat, I am watching Beau change every day, he is eating but he is slowly slowing down as he approaches his 80th birthday. big dogs it is 8 years per 1 canine year. Love you Tigger and so enjoy reading about you and seeing you.. I wish I had just a portion of F's energy
ReplyDeleteShe wasn't digging for a full 6 hours - some of it was spent sat on her backside pulling little weeds out of the parsnips and the parsley, and some spent raking up hay to use as mulch (to try and stop the soil from drying out completely). It is a range of activities and not all energetic ones.
DeleteKeep on keeping on, Tigger - it's the only way.
ReplyDeleteSix hours of gardening seems rather too much in the sun. Then preparing a barbecue. I think F must have access to some energy pills . . .
Gardening doesn't have to be energetic or hard work - some of it can be contemplating the new growth on the pumpkins, or the flowers on the lupins. It is just pottering about mostly.
DeleteFamily times are the best... sometimes.
ReplyDeleteWhen P digs over our garden to try to achieve a fine tilth, all he achieves is a giant outdoor kitty litter tray
It wouldn't be me JayCee - even if I was your neighbour. I prefer private toileting these days.
DeleteI bet you had your mouth half open when you ‘sniffed’ the stuff in the barrow. Did you discover who’d been there before you. Tigger, just remember the old saying about curiosity and the cat when you ‘look into things’ though
ReplyDeleteI do need to check up on who or what has passed this way. There is a blotched tabby that has started hanging about and trying to make himself at home in my space. He doesn't do 'chased away' either even when Mr B yells at him. F tells him politely that this is Tigger's home and he must go and entertain his own humans, but that doesn't really work either. He sits on the kitchen windowsill like I used to before I adopted these humans.
DeleteIf F was trying to achieve a 'look' we have no idea what it might have been. Stuff grows. She takes exception to some stuff and pulls it out, and cuts bits off other stuff, and hates the sight of bare soil so covers it up with 'stuff'. At the moment the coverings are hay raked off the common space after the council mowed it, all the soft suckerings from round the base of our lime tree, bags of farmyard manure/streaw/sawdust mix, and some woodchippings that we made in the winter time when we cut back some overshady trees. Seaweed is on the list for collection next time she and Mr B are both at home on a weekend. She has also found a place that comfrey grows wild so might be sneakily harvesting some of that to use as well. Our place is anything but groomed!
ReplyDeleteI hope Tigger inspected the garden once F had been weeding it, but gotta say I'm sure F found it satisfying
ReplyDelete