In the garden...

The forecasters got it right today that the weather was going to be marginally cooler than of late.  This is because we are getting the tail end of the storm in the Eastern Med.  That being the case I had earmarked today to be one spent in the garden doing some tidying and cutting back as a start to bedding it down for the Winter.  It is too early to do it all now and the garden would look bald but the Bougainvillea, Passion Flower and Clock Vine are all shedding their blooms and it is beginning to look messy.  There was also evidence of a poo machine in the vine above the dining table which neither John nor I was able to spot initially.

I worked methodically from the woodstore outside the back door (which is in fact our front door) in a horseshoe shape along the back wall and round to the spare bedroom.  This is what I like to call a Bobster attack where I get on my hands and knees and try and pick up as much detritus as I can, knowing full well that come tomorrow it will no long look as pristine as it did today when I finished.

I only managed to get the back garden sorted - starting at 9.00am so time later I asked John what the time was and he said quarter to four when I thought it was about 1.00pm!!!  Still it was a job well done and the garden looked all the better for it.  There is far less at the front so I will tackle that later in the week.

To me it always seems a shame when something seems to be looking healthy to cut it back but I know, to my cost, that letting plants go too long and getting woody is not good for them so all the osteospurmum got a good haircut along with Hadge's rose which was flowering again but in desperate need of a reshape.

Although cooler today I could feel that I had caught the sun on my arms as my skin began to feel tight and when I finally finished and jumped into the pool it felt bloody freezing even though it was still about 28 degrees!!!  Hopefully after all that exertion I will sleep well tonight - I plan on disappearing early as the Mighty Blades are playing at Aston Villa - a wise decision as it turns out because they lost and there were a whole host of dodgy and contentious decisions which contributed to their demise.

The poo machine was located eventually.  This was neither the bright green colour I was expecting or the darker brown colour they have been of late - this was more of a pinky green and therefore much more difficult to spot.  John was on the phone to his Mum as the time so we showed her what the little poo machine looked like.

I removed a couple more leaves and moved the PM to another spot where it could carry on munching without leaving a deposit on our table as we were planning to grab a sandwich and didn't want any extras.

I wonder if this PM is just in a different stage of its life-cycle than the others or whether it is the young of another type of Hawk Moth.  When you start looking these things up on tintyweb you realise that there are blooming loads of them - in fact about 1450 species!!!  Who would have thought!

Anyway it was good to have found him and moved him (or her) to somewhere safer for him/her and us!

I had planned such a lovely romantic meal for John and I on his birthday and I was poorly so it never happened, after Mum had gone home having spent lunch with us I was pretty much fit for nothing.  As a result the red velvet cake that I had bought had been languishing in the fridge ever since.  We didn't even know if it was still ok to eat so decided we would sample it today.  Actually is was absolutely fine, in fact more than fine - it was blooming lush!!!

This week's new challenge is 'Afternoon Tea' - I shall be submitting a picture of the Red Velvet Cake and one with my lovely Tea and Toast ensemble with some of the Clock Vine Flowers I snipped off.  That would make a good subject for a picture if I had time and the pastel pencils but that is beyond me with the watercolours.  Lord knows what I will cobble together using that medium!!