Time To Garden.

It's been a bright day, fairly chilly but not so cold that I couldn't get outside for some gardening. Peter's day started much earlier than mine as he had to be at the boat shed by 7.30 to go rowing on the river. They are now training in earnest and by half-way through the session steam was gently rising from their bodies while the poor cox shivered in a bundle of coats. My first plan today was to begin weeding the heather banks as the winter flowering heathers are starting to be covered in their tiny flowers but I was getting cold in the shade so instead I chased the sun around the little pond as I weeded the circular path.
The effort I put into weeding the path at the end of the summer paid off and for the first time ever I managed to weed the whole circle in one day. I was also able to weed a lot of the planted margin apart from the side that was truly frozen and drag out the grass that was still growing in the water.

I was on such a roll that I then went on to weed the whole of the heather bank that is under the trees to the side of the pond. I cleared this bank some years ago and planted it with heathers. Unfortunately a couple of hot dry spells in the last few years (always during term time), caused about half of the heathers to die off. The bank is 100% clay and the heathers were competing with the mature trees at the top of the bank. I'll put in some more heathers this year and hope that they survive as the other heather banks look really colourful in late winter.

School moment from yesterday - small child telling 'news' to the rest of the class about her Daddy's birthday. "How old is he?" asked another child, " I think he's 98." came the reply. There was an indrawing of breath as most of the rest of the class of 7 year olds realised this was .... unusual. I gently enquired if the girl was sure and her reply was " I think he's actually 96." I wonder how old she thinks I am?