Thursday 21 September 2017

It's not pretty












There isn't much prettiness left in my garden now. The tomatoes are hanging on, dripping with dew or rain depending on the time of day, ripening oh so slowly. The autumn raspberries are small and fidgety. Pears are full and heavy. There's a spider in his web between the fence and the bin. He has until Tuesday when the bins need to go out. He's already done some excellent running repairs, possibly even a whole new web. All those hours of work, I do hate to break a spider's web.

What can I say about this petunia?


It's called Vanilla Raspberry Star. When I bought it it had a few flowers in the deepest purple imaginable. One or two of them had tiny hint of a pale stripe, but they were mostly dark, dark, dark. Fast forward a couple of months and it's absolutely covered in these mad gaudy stripey things. Fine if that was what I had planned, but it's in a pot with a deep red dianthus and a pink geranium (photo above the chillies) and to be honest it's all a bit much. One of those gardening surprises. I'm used to it now, but it's certainly eye-catching.

I was going to do some sort of fancy collage effect to tone down the pictures a bit but it seems that Picmonkey now require money from me for such things. I shall have to look elsewhere. Any suggestions blogging friends?

I have been writing like mad this week, in fact I should really be writing now but you know how it is. The biggest boy peered over my shoulder. 'That's bad grammar, you've started the sentence with a subordinate clause.' Huh? They didn't teach that sort of thing in my day. No idea what one is. I defended myself gamely. 'I'm going for a more colloquial feel.' 'You can't, it's bad grammar. Let me just change it for you.'  Next he told me that wormeries was not a word. I googled it. 'It IS a word, look, "Wriggly wiggler wormeries, Wormeries for sale, Worms suitable for wormeries", IT'S A WORD.' I need a room of my own.

The autumn feel has kicked in properly now. It's all apple crumble, muddy football boots and a damp dog. His short legs mean that his dear little tummy (can you tell he's asleep right now?) gets soaked in the grass every time we go out. I debated putting a warm hot water bottle under his basket to dry him out. I managed not to, but once it gets properly chilly you know I will. I'd get him one of those nice plug-in heat mats if I thought he wouldn't destroy it in five minutes flat.

We are locked in battle over the pond at the moment. Did I tell you about when he fell in at 11.15pm? We'd popped out last thing to look at the grass and as usual the frogs had started plopping in the pond at the sight of us. He was intrigued and thought he'd have a look. I went into the kitchen hoping he'd follow. There was a god-almighty splash. I ran back to the garden. There he was on the grass, dripping pond weed.

It turned out when I looked the next day that in scrambling out he'd knocked some slates into the pond. While I was putting them back I thought I'd might as well clear it out. This is one of my least favourite garden jobs, what with all the Things lurking in the bottom and frogs jumping out all over the place. I took out the iris which had grown huge as well as the water lily and put back small pieces, just two little clumps of iris in fact. Ever since then he has been pulling them out of the pond about five times a day. He was banned from the garden today, but had still managed to get a clump out before 7am. I've cut all the leaves off but it doesn't deter him. He hasn't beaten me yet though. Every time he pulls them out, I put them back in. Who will win? As we used to say in the casino, place your bets please.

21 comments:

  1. I make collages in Picasa, which I have on my laptop. I like it, it's easy to use and you can do a lot of different things with photos. That petunia is beautiful, wow. I've never seen one like it before. I can't believe what your pup is up to! He's so active. Around here, my irises fall victim to squirrels, who dig up the tubers to eat them, and also eat the flowers as soon as they bloom in the spring. I used to have gorgeous iris beds and now, hardly anything. It's depressing to see one lonely iris out there when all the rest have been eaten. Once, I caught a squirrel carrying an intact flower across the yard. It was bigger than he was. I yelled at him, which made me feel slightly better. :)

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  2. Oh, goodness. Some times our lives are so parallel. My daughter calls herself a grammarian (she teaches high school English). She corrects me often and yes, with these 'rules' that I simply don't remember. I mentioned that I bought a book called The Best Punctuation Book Ever. Period. It's chock full of facts and tips. Turns out, in this day and age, there really are no rules...except the basics of course. You can find this on Amazon.

    I used to use PicMonkey and was charged about $9 monthly. I couldn't quite figure it out, so I cancelled. I think this strain of petunia is awesome. You might have mismatched your flowers, but its still gorgeous.

    Your little cutie is doing typical stuff. We are parents all over again, teaching them right from wrong. Have you ever thought of getting him a raincoat? Seriously, they are out there. My little Layla wears a comfy sweater in the winter. She is always shivering, even indoors and trying to burrow under blankets. Do a Google.

    Jane x

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  3. Amazing petunia, although I can see why you might wince when it's paired with your other blooms. Naughty Bertie. I have a pond clearing job to do. Dreading it. I have a privacy screen on the laptop so you can only read it when sitting directly in front. It was an accident (bought as a glare reducer) but it's actually been quite useful. Worth a try? It would prevent grammarians who might be wandering past being tempted to do a spot of back-seat grammaring xx

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  4. I use Photoshop for my collages because but it also costs pennies. Talking of pennies the4e are waterproof dog coats that cover the doggie tummy area. It seems that you have an in house proof reader.

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  5. I scrolled through your photos thinking 'well, these are pretty' until I got to the petunia... :-) Sorry to hear Bertie is being a pain with your pond. I have no helpful suggestions for that (other than put a fence around it!) but I do agree with the other comments about a raincoat. We have one for our dog and she loves wearing it. As someone who edits copy for a living, I can categorically tell you that many grammar 'rules' fly out of the window. I guess schools have to teach the rules so they can test, test, test. CT's screen sounds like a great idea :-) Hope you have a lovely weekend. x

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  6. A nice post and lovely pictures. It may not be as pretty as it was but there's still plenty of colour and interest. Bertie's antics had me smiling, but as to who will win... xx

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  7. Your pup sounds much like ours! She has discovered the stairs. Driving me mad!
    Jillxo

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  8. i'm not really sure about that petunia...i can't help thinking that it's just a breeding experiment gone too far. i'm always a bit suspicious of flowers with stripes like that.

    i'm giggling over the grammar-nazi....i don't even know what a subordinate clause is but i'm sure i use them. i also end sentences with prepositions and over-use adverbs. My crimes are many, my remorse is non-existent. A room of your own, definitely. Also -- fab on the lots-of-writing....any day now, when the weather finally changes....:)

    i'm having a similar battle of wills with one of the hens and my fenced garden. She clearly feels the fence doesn't apply to her and hops her little self over it, or squeezes between two of the boards....she's scratching my straw mulch all over the place.Fortunately for her i haven't got any young plants in, otherwise there'd be Serious Repercussions..as it is, i'm plotting various ways to foil her.

    xoxo

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  9. I got a kick out of this post. First off.. the editing son. I have Dayle edit each of my blog posts and it's pretty funny as sometimes I disagree with his edits by telling it's the way I talk and I'm leaving it that way. There is something to be said for saying things they way you want to as then it's your own voice. I think it's cute that he was trying to help. As for the plants Bertie keeps pulling out of the pond.. how about putting some bricks or rocks on top of them? Good luck!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  10. It sounds as if Bertie would enjoy swimming. The ancient wooded common next to my allotment has a string of stew ponds which we keep the local dogs out of (as you can imagine the common is a dog walkers' paradise) by making the largest dog-friendly with a shelving sandy bank. It is so funny to watch when you get a gang of dogs swimming together and I've often been tempted on a hot day to take a dip myself! Lovely September photos CJ, especially the golden pear.

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  11. I've been 'sans' internet connection for a few days and realised I have missed several of your posts and all your goings on. Loved littlest and his conversation re the home/school agreement - no-one is going to pull the wool over his eyes! And just realised too, that Picmonkey is no longer free. Ah well! I'll let you know if I come across an alternative.

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  12. Your garden may be slowing down but it's still much more productive than the one here. That does sound like a great game you and Bertie have invented. The Boo here just thinks our pond is a huge water bowl. Heaven knows what the fish think when his big pink tongue breaks the surface. Love that you have an in-house proofreader.

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  13. Hey CJ,
    I've seen a t shirt for sale with the slogan "I am silently correcting your grammar" emblazoned across. Perhaps get him one of those? My garden is looking a little ragged, but still lots of colour. It's about now that I feel the urge to clear everything up out there.
    Leanne xx

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  14. I just enjoyed my trip across the pond, as they say, thanks to your writing. It sounds very nice and calming in your neck of the woods despite the surprisingly bright flowers and the determined dog. I'm happy you're getting so much time to write. Your boys are so clever. I love to write, as you know, but my grammar is terrible. Perhaps my girls will correct it someday too. Sending hugs back! Enjoy your fall harvest!

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  15. You've certainly captured the beauty in your garden... and you have to believe you will win (that's coming from someone who is still fighting these battles with an 18 month old 'puppy'). As for the in-house proof reader... I have no advice!

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  16. I've also stopped using picmonkey for the same reason. Try befunky for collages and editing. I think your garden is actually looking rather lovely! X

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  17. This was beautiful and well captured. I too am rather annoyed at PicMonkey but will try Picasa again.
    Toby is over 1yr old now, still very fiesty but not maybe so destructive.
    Hugs

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  18. I've just tried google photos as an alternative to Picmonkey for making collages but it doesn't quite do it for me as there's no choice over placement of photos in the grid (unless I'm missing a trick here). I used photoshop before Picmonkey but it's a much slower process - as if we have those hours to spare anyway!! I guess they have to pay for their servers to host the Picmonkey site but I don't think I'll be using it beyond the free 7 day trial. xx PS I agree about the petunia, would have been much nicer before! :o) x

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  19. Hi there CJ. I know this will seem a bit random as this is an old post and you may have sorted out your collage issue, but I have only recently discovered your blog (through Hygge the British Way) and I am working my way forward from the beginning. I too blog on Blogger at Life of Pottering and I loved Picmonkey and was so frustrated when it became chargeable. I have started using Fotor, which does pretty much the same as Picmonkey and is free. It took a bit of getting used to but it seems to be doing the trick for me. 😃

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