A Little Gardening.

A bit of a grey day today. At least it wasn't raining. I did some pottering about, washed some shelves in the bathroom so that I can store towels on them. There's so little storage space here and of course we have far too much of most things. For example I know I've got sufficient towels for half a dozen people to go surfing and then have showers after. I really ought to sort out a stack of towels to give to one of the local animal rescue places, either the Cats' Protection League, Dogs' Trust or RSPCA. 

These photos are very much the 'before' pictures. I finally gave in and after trying to sort the 3 crates of 'garden stuff' that ended up here rather than in the garage I went out in the garden to do some weeding. I had to be careful as the decking is very slippery. I think that having the spaces between the boards blocked by soil and weeds stopped the water draining away which didn't help so I used an old knife to clear some of the gaps. Once I've done more of the gaps I'll scrub with bleach which should do the job. The pressure washer would do the job but I don't know how deep it is buried in the garage and also our water is metered.

So far only Speedy has ventured out through the cat flap into the  dog crate. I watched Patch sniffing at the way through but then he changed his mind. He did slip out into the garden last night when I had the back door open to air out the conservatory and I spent an anxious few minutes before he came back. Speedy has tried to sneak out of the front door, I think he is getting bored with staying indoors. I bought some little balls with bells inside which he played with for a while but he spend more time batting at one which I hung from the bannister with a long bit of string.

The garden already looks better than the above photo now that most of the weeds are gone from the decking. Apart from the little weeds popping up between the decking the main weeds are my old friends, bramble and bindweed. I think I prefer starting with a garden that is neglected rather than taking over somebody else's neat and tidy creation. While I was working outside I could hear the roar of town traffic with the occasional siren but there were also birds singing and the evening chuck-chuck of a couple of blackbirds.