An FSI for Emma

Arriving home after our walk today, I realised that Emma’s usual honeycomb coloured coat had a few very smelly streaks of black through it. One very tentative sniff told me everything I needed to know: for the first time in her life, Emma had indulged in an FSI. And, typically, she had no idea why she needed a bath when we returned.

Apart from our walk in the park to pick up some foul smelling waste, the day was spent finishing the clearance of Emma’s Jungle in preparation for the wildflower mini-meadow tomorrow. It consisted mainly in mowing strip excavation.

Day-z helped as well, in her own poodle-centric way. In order to fork up the bricks, I sat on the kneeling stool, with my legs crossed. There’s no way I could kneel so sitting is the only way I can get down and dirty with the ground.

It’s a well known fact in our house that Day-z can spot an empty lap without trying…which is amazing given her lousy eyesight. And she found mine easily. There was no way I was going to deny her a bit of comfort while I worked over her. She was a bit irritated when I had to move but, like the tide, quickly returned after I’d resettled. Emma just sat and chewed bits of wood, chased her various balls and sat on the terrace watching, all to varying degrees of interest.

As I worked, I was joined by a couple of very inquisitive and grateful robins. It got to the point where, if I dug up a worm, I would put it on a brick a foot away from me and they’d fly down and take it away. This was with Day-z on my lap though, to be fair, she was fast asleep, lightly snoring and didn’t notice them at all.

Eventually I had to throw Day-z off my lap, the mowing strip having been removed, as I removed a fern and about a dozen bluebells, both of which I put in the Chutney Bed. (As I typed that, I wondered whether we should now call it the Rodney Bed, seeing as Chutney has been dead for ages and Rodney is the new dog living with Dave and Gail. Then again, it’s quite nice to have a name with historic significance which, one day, no-one will have the faintest idea of its derivation.)

It’s difficult photographing the bed from the ground, so I went up on the extension roof to take a photo. I shall do the same when it’s finished.

When I go out the Green Room window onto the roof, both dogs go a bit mental. They try and figure out where I am even when they can see me through the window I’ve just stepped through. They run downstairs, onto the terrace and search everywhere. When I call them, they look up then return to finding out how they can get to me. It’s very funny. And weird. Here’s Emma spotting me.

The rest of my time in the garden today was spent planting the crocosmia from yesterday in the Hot Border and moving a fennel. The fennel had grown right next to the path. It self seeded from a very successful one we had by the fence a few years ago. It had to either go or be moved. Silly me thought I’d move it.

Fennel has a tap root which goes straight down. A very long way. I managed to dig it up, preserving as much root material as possible then dug a very deep hole to put it into, this time by the fence. Who knows if it’ll take but at least it’s in a better spot now.

By the end of the day I was very happy with my progress and rewarded myself with a beer under the gazebo while Emma played on and rubbed her face all over, the new turf. She loves the new turf while Day-z isn’t that bothered, much preferring hard surfaces.

Finally, and following The Archers (there’s still a lot to be done after the flood and Lynda can’t find the May pole), I watered everything and settled in for the night.