Sunday and Monday, 28-29th Sept. Blue Parrot?

The Deenery

Well, I forgot to mention this a couple of days ago. I saw a patch of blue at the top of the front garden and on approach I could see a load of very bright blue feathers. Buster's had a parrot, I thought. A Norwegian Blue? (for any Monty Python fans). Then I saw the white stick lying nearby and realised he'd demolished my blue feather duster! He'd pulled out every feather! I bet he had fun while he was doing it.

It does look like he's had a fight with a bird though, doesn't it?









Has anyone seen my Norwegian Blue?

















Yesterday Jim and I had another late start, we keep staying up until about 4am that's the trouble. Must do better. Still, it was a good day, bits of sunshine and cloud. I thought I'd better weed the beds on the arboretum, particularly the acer bed. I don't think it's been done since we planted them earlier this year. The soil there is solid clay so it's a hard job. I did about one third, collected up many of the smaller stones and added them to our road up to the meadow.

Jim decided to carry on with the path that I'd started. Then he thought the best idea was to cut down the willows first, starting with the smaller ones. So that's what he did, then he carried on with the job today, as did I with mine. I've now done about two thirds of the acer bed. If the weather's ok tomorrow, I should finish it. The rain stopped play for a while, that rather horrid drizzle we get. I came in and sat pulling the lavender flowers I had dried from their stalks. What a job! Has anyone any tricks or advice for doing it? It seems to take ages.

Both our cats suffer with ear mites, particularly Sandy and I noticed how bad his ears were when he was sitting on my lap. Out with the water, cotton buds and ear drops. Sandy hates it and fights like a demon. BlackJack moans a bit but puts up with it. They're both going crazy now as I suppose the drops feel a bit odd!

Buster was down the road earlier, visiting our neighbours as usual, when I heard him yelp. Quite a strong yelp and a short time later he came home. I wonder whether he had taken a knock from a tractor, as Martin was up and down with his most of the day. He was certainly not himself and slept in the conservatory for hours. He was shivering so I covered him with a blanket, but now he's just fine. Maybe it'll teach him a lesson. These animals can be a worry.

I've ordered a clock from Rima of The Hermitage. If you haven't seen her blog yet, do go and look. She is a wonderful artist and there's a link to her blog on my favourites. I'm a bit down the list so may have to wait a while, but it's just so exciting. It will go on the wall in our snug when the extension is finished in there. A genuine piece of original art. I'd like to buy one of her paintings too but may not be able to stretch to that. She's going to have a sale soon so it's worth keeping an eye on her blog.

Jim and I have been watching the financial news with trepidation, as have many people, I'm sure. It's all very worrying and you do wonder where best to keep any savings. Under the mattress?

Life's coincidences: Jim came into the snug last night as I was watching television and said 'What are the chances of that?' He had in his hand the card I had bought him 2 years ago for his 60th birthday. It was indeed the exact same card as he bought me for mine. Amazing. He also made me a huge concertina card but had bought the other one as it had a badge on it for me to wear.
Wow. My mother and I once bought each other the same Christmas card. I thought that was weird enough.

We've been chatting about Christmas and as we are having to pay for our extension/building work, things are going to be a bit tight this year, so I've warned relatives that it'll be a 'home made' Christmas this year, which none of them will mind, I know. I love getting home made presents, they're always unique and have taken time and trouble.

I now have the photos I took of the wedding of Russ and Caz and some of my surprise birthday meal, so will do an out of sequence blog of those 2 occasions.

At the same time as I took the flower photos, I took some others of berries, etc, so will leave you with those.
This odd piece of old farm equipment was in our barn. There have been lots of theories as to its purpose. It says on it '50 gallons' and D I ABOLO, presumably the maker. Something obviously sat on the top and it has a handle on the other side. Any ideas?













This lovely clump of fungi is by one of our living willow fences.

















I uncovered this 'cave' when I was clearing away the years of weeds in this area. It's under a huge ash tree. It's just to the left of the area shown on the photo below








This is the other side of the fairy hill. It always gets covered in brambles, ivy and sundry weeds so I've just cleared it up again, the same day as I did the path.









Here is the little stream that runs at the bottom of the drop. You can see the same bunch of fern on the left. The stream only really runs when it's been or is raining
















A very small part of a huge patch of honesty behind the sleeping shed. So many seeds.

















I planted this fern earlier in the year. It's doing ok now, though it's still quite small.




















In fact, Jim bought 3 ferns for me and this is another of them. It's really delicate and doing very well. These are in the grotto.


This is the 3rd one, also doing nicely. To it's right is variegated bugle.









This Ginkgo Bilbao is turning yellow. I love the shape of the leaves.




























We planted a grape vine (2 in fact) earlier in the year and here are our first grapes! I don't think we'll be making much wine vintage 2008.

This orange berried pyracanthus is covered in berries this year. It was here when we bought the cottage.

Huge rose hips