Spring With a Bang!

It took Nell the Poo a LOT of effort to mess up my shepherd’s hut sofa enough for it to suit her settling down needs. There was much digging, scrabbling and kicking involved, like I don’t do enough tidying up after her as it is. Even JB the Bear looks weary. Sigh…

Onwards. The official Spring Equinox certainly arrived with a bang and a clatter yesterday. I was working in the garden - lovely weather AGAIN - and about 10 o’clock I thought, the road is very quiet today. And then, in the distance on the junction that leads into the village, I could see a police van setting out traffic cones and all the traffic coming from the village was being directed away from our road. The result? Lovely peace and quiet. 

About 4 p.m a couple of recovery lorries trundled by, one towing the mangled remains of an articulated lorry cab, and the other, its trailer. There was no mention of the accident in the local news so I can only surmise that the driver escaped unscathed. It looked a right mess, though, and I passed the site of the crash on my way to the supermarket this morning. Looks like the lorry took the bend too fast and careered off the road and into a field where it was stopped by a tree. 

By this time I was giving the greenhouse a good clean out. This was a ‘take a break’ activity from my main task of the day which had been to tackle the heady combination of an ivy ‘n’ hawthorn tangle of a hedge. The hedge was about twelve feet tall in the Summer of last year and both Lord M and I had tried to thin is out because it made the south facing segment of our garden dark, damp and gloomy, although the raspberries didn’t seem to mind, but then they are woodland plants. 

Anyway, the farmer deigned to cut the hedge (the first time in about four years) in early Winter, bringing it down to about eight feet, which was good because it made it feel more manageable for me and my weaponry of loppers and biceps. I am determined to bring it down even further to at least five feet, preferably four, because I want to allow mucho light and warmth into that part of the garden because I have plans for it that don’t include dark, damp and gloom. Wrangling an ivy ‘n’ hawthorn hedge combo is hard work though, so retreating to the greenhouse seemed to be a good thing to do for a bit of variety and to give my poor arms a rest. 

Except, just as I was thinking of cracking on with a bit of seed sowing, one of the panes of roof glass decided to SHATTER into a gazillion pieces. Goodness, it made me jump out of my skin! It took me over half an hour to clear up all the glass. I wasn’t best pleased. In fact, I was so annoyed that I decided to go and wreak more vengeance on the hedge. Release the tension, that sort of thing. And the hedge decided to counter-wreak on me…

    Before you ask, no it didn’t hurt because hawthorn thorns are like assassin’s blades, and I thought at first it was just a light scratch.And then the blood started pinning up and I thought I’d better go and apply some soap and hot water especially as I haven’t had a tetanus jab for 35 years. I shall be stuck with this scratch mark for months now because of my pale and interesting skin. Ah well. I can always say I was in a shark fight or something. 

Today, I mowed all the grass. Mowing grass serves as a meditative process because as I march around the garden I think about changes I want to make. And I can keep an eye on what’s happening, too, like noticing that the hops are starting to sprout which means I need to think about setting up their climbing frame. And I have thought that I shall move the raspberry bed to the far right hand corner of the garden, just in front of the shepherd’s hut. The raspberry canes need replacing anyway, as they are old and past their best now. And this also means that the old raspberry bed, now filled with warmth and light and some of my blood, can become another veg growing area AND I am thinking of putting in some peonies which I have never grown before and they are so glorious! 

I like the idea of having a raspberry bed in my shepherd’s hut garden. Just think, I could be sitting there, writing away and then I could nip out and pick a few raspberries to nibble on whilst I ponder a particularly tricky plot point. Of course, the new raspberry bed will need some hefty preparation work but I can take my time over that this year, no rush. But it feels like I have a starting point for planning the shepherd hut garden now and as Nellibobs and I sat on the top step of the hut today, watching three buzzards wheeling around the sky, I could see it developing before me.