Marmalade torpedo

How quickly things revert. One day you’re traipsing around the beautiful bits of France and the next you’re ankle deep in weeds making up for it. Two weeks neglect is a long time for a weed. Even without rain. Actually, there was a very quick yet ferocious thunderstorm for five minutes while we were away. It pummelled the wild flower patch making it collapse. Either that or a deer has been sleeping on it.

So, not much rain but a lot of sun, made the garden grow. Yesterday, Mirinda spent some time dead heading the roses that we ended up not seeing and we drenched everything with a jolly good hosing. Then, of course, today I spent a lot of time weeding. And mowing.

Today was also Mirinda’s first day back at work so, before I could do anything in the garden, we walked up to the station to meet the 9am into town. I think the best part of Mirinda’s morning was being woken up by the Marmalade Torpedo…as she calls it.

Each morning at the nominated time, I open the bedroom door, yell out ‘INCOMING’ and watch the blur of a little caramel rocket launch itself at its target. A little Exocet missile of cockerpoo sure beats an alarm. Or so it seems. I’ve never experienced it myself.

Possibly the best part of my day was seeing the passionflower. We planted this against the new fence, hoping it would, eventually, cover the wooden panels with glorious flowers and vines. It did little more than wilt for a long time. The fact that the wild flower patch was then planted in front and all around it, probably didn’t help.

Well, it seems that something went right because, as I watered late in the day, I spotted our first passionflower smiling at me as I hosed it.

I guess this is a good time to show off the banana custard as well. This huge solitary spire of yellow flowers is biannual and always surprises me. They self seed as well so we get them popping up all over the place. They are generally quite tall but this one is an obvious record breaker. It is taller than me for a start.

And, of course, the lavender is looking (and smelling) fantastic.

After lunch, I took the pests up to the park where I was entertained by Emma finding another dog that likes to be chased. Emma ran up to this other dog, gave her prepare to play display and started running. The other dog didn’t give chase. Rather, she ran in the opposite direction. Confused, Emma tried again with the same result. The other dog’s owner was laughing as hard as I was. He explained that she likes to be chased. I suggested they’d not get a lot of exercise just running away from each other.

It was then back to the house and a rather grim clean out of the water feature. Then, of course, the mowing.

The weather, meanwhile, continues charming.