Odd weather today. At first it looked as if it was going to rain, then didn't. Got cold and then became very hot in the afternoon.
This morning we saw the builders' van pull up but after a bit they drove off again. We think they must have been checking to see how the render was drying.
I spent the whole afternoon weeding at the zoo. After an absence of eight weeks the weeds had taken over the woodchip play areas and the gravelled areas. It was hard to know where to start as everything looked urgent with many of the weeds in flower.
In the end I began with the gravel by the wolf dogs as I was interested to know which of the plants I'd put in, if any, had survived two heatwaves and torrential rain. The self seeded lemon balm was flourishing and there was so much of it that I moved some to the other end of the gravel and some to fill in the gaps in a narrow border by one of the paths. The pheasant grass, linaria and ground cover sedum were doing well but I only found a couple of the thrift and a single santolina. That's better than I expected and today I added more sedum and a rooted stachys.
Once that was tidied up I weeded the whole of the small play area as there were nettles and brambles growing which are not the best for small children. My last complete weed was inside the barrier by the guinea fowl as the weeds there were tall and about to go to seed. I meant to stop there but cleared part of the gravel patch there before realising that my back had had enough.
Afterwards I went and spent some time with the pigs. Even though they had been fast asleep in their shelter as soon as I opened the gate and called 'piggy, piggy, piggies' in a high voice they came running over for tummy scratches. They've grown a lot in the past eight weeks. When they first came they were about the size of a corgi but now they're more like a large and chunky labrador with very short legs. I suspect they may get even larger.
It was quite late when I got home but I still had time to put up the wood in the utility room and add a row of cup hooks to store small items. And then since it was warm and dry outside I used the rest of the mastic in the tube to seal up the cracks around the back door so that it will be ready for when I get round to painting it.
1 comment:
It's amazing how fast weeds grow!!!
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