Very Young .... and Very Old.

It didn't rain today! It was overcast in the morning but by the afternoon there was some sunshine. I spent most of the day in the garden, first battling with those garden thugs- brambles and bindweed, which were invading from my neighbour's land. Then as it got warmer I was finally able to do some painting on the outbuildings. I had done the preparation and an initial undercoat right at the beginning of the summer but then rain had stopped work. Finally I did some weeding and clearing up in my scree garden.

The scree garden is supposed to be a place of elegance and form, and is mostly, but I didn't have the heart to pull up these nasturtiums. These seedlings are part of a strip 10ft x 2ft, full of exuberant colour. When this garden was ready to plant, 2 years ago, I grew lots of poppies and nasturtiums, just to provide colour for that year, and the nasturtiums keep coming back. The whole garden is starting to show signs of autumn although many of the summer flowers are still there. The sedums are now coming into their own and are full of butterflies and bees. The house martins, who reared several broods next to out bedroom windows, left a few weeks ago and the swallows who were swooping into the outhouses only last week have also gone on their way to Africa.

When I'm gardening I often take a little break and wander up the drive to say hello to the horses in the adjoining fields so I thought I would show the oldest and the youngest of my neighbour's ponies.

This is Percy (Persephone) at a few days old. She is a Dartmoor pony and is very friendly. Even when she was 2 days old she would come to the fence and suck your fingers. She is now 3 months old and just as friendly. Her mum, Coral is quite used to Percy being petted by every single person who walks past.



This picture was taken in 2007, sadly neither pony is with us now. BUT Sir Echo, the little grey pony was 45 years old ,(that's real years), and Tolly, the palomino was 48 years old! Neither of them had many teeth and they had a special cooked diet. They were out in the field during the day and stabled at night. Note the electric fence that wasn't even switched on. The post is leaning because they would use it as a scratching post, often it fell right over but they still stayed in their field. Although I don't feed horses over the fence, (it makes them bite), I made an exception for these 2 with the occasional handful of raspberries from the garden. My neighbour is very knowledgeable and caring which is why these 2 lived to such an old age.

Oh, and there was a mass break-out today. I looked up to see 3 hens wandering up the drive. Good thing they come when I call . Must get that gate fixed!