Grass Cuttings And Wild Woodbines

Decking repair

This morning Aaron twice drove himself and me to Mole Country Stores to buy some decking with which he repaired our somewhat decayed structure. The reason for the second outing was that the new lengths were narrower than those being replaced, so we were originally two short.

Sitting in the cab of a working van took me back to my teens and early twenties. As I said to Aaron, it is often the scents of such an enclosed space that stay in the memory. The dominant one in our friend’s vehicle was that of grass cuttings. Dad’s removal van during the 50s and 60s bore the strong aroma of Wild Woodbines, his chosen brand of cigarettes. I worked alongside my father in the school holidays, and later, on Saturday mornings.

Today’s TV rugby fare included matches between Samoa and USA, Wales and Uruguay, and New Zealand and Argentina. In order not to spoil things I will say nothing about them, except that that was a lot of TV.

In the intervals between contests I took the air in the garden, where plants and wildlife continue to benefit from the Indian summer.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus thrives;

Colchicum

the first colchicum or Autumn crocus has emerged from the soil;

Bee on bidens

Bees, like this one on a bidens, still coat their limbs with pollen;

Spider wrapping prey

and a spider wrapped up its prey with which to stock up its larder.

The sunlight enhanced the garden views such as

View from Shady Path across Grass Patch

those from the Shady Path across the Grass Patch,

View from Brick Path across Heligan

and from the Brick Path towards the Heligan one and beyond. Japanese anemones are prominent in each one.

Jackie produced her delicious chicken jalfrezi with egg fried rice for our dinner tonight. Tesco’s meat samosas made good starters. Jackie drank Hoegaarden whilst I finished the malbec.

32 comments

  1. How I envy your trip to the country store! The only time I miss not having a car is when I need to pick up potting mixes and mulches. Fortunately I have friends who oblige now and then. 🙂 Love the bee shot. BTW you can give the new timber an aged look by coating it with a vinegar solution (with rusty steel wool/nails soaked in it).

      1. Decking takes the pounding of traffic off the ground; allows water to seep in and run off naturally and a place for creatures to lurk. That’s why we build board walk. However, they do need more maintenance and eventual replacement. Guess it’s the quickest and easiest way of getting a level path. Anyway, you must bow to the Head Gardener; there can only be one head.

      2. This decking is a platform 9′ X 7′ approx. I fondly imagine hedgehogs curled up asleep under it over the winter. I am more a fan of any raised areas in a garden than decking in particular, and this place set against the east border of the garden, offers a wonderful suntrap in the evening as the sun goes down. I have sat their in the evening with a beer, after a days gardening and I feel so blest.

  2. The garden shots are beautiful Derrick – an Indian Summer feel to me! I agree on the scents thing – there is a whiff of a certain cigarillo that whips me back into the presence of a much loved and admired teacher………… It’s the only regret I hold for losing smoking as a common pastime! 🙂

      1. No – I didn’t ever dream of smoking, though my daughter does – and she likes the smell of cigarettes being smoked whereas I don’t. When I gave up I just needed to keep my hands busy [knitting, crochet etc] and I swapped smoking for eating 🙂 Maybe too much information? 🙂

  3. The autumn crocus looks ethereal as though someone plucked it from the garden just inside heaven’s gate that Bruce wrote about the other day. Beautiful is an inadequate word sometimes.

  4. Your groupies have already said everything I wanted to!

    Tell Jackie I’ve succumbed and found recipes for Chicken Jalfrezi. It looks good, but I wish she was here to cook it for me. 🙂

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