The postmas always rings twice....part one

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I have to come back to Wednesday as the day started well enough.

It was my day at the rectory and I had been busy finishing off the summer pruning on the very neglected apple trees, when I spotted a man wearing a helmet and a harness. I was getting very excited, yes, I'm afraid the helmet and harness did it.


The diocese had promised months ago to send a tree surgeon to deal with some awesome yews and frosted palms, so I thought my lucky hour had come. Alas no, the very handsome gentleman was no squirrel with a chainsaw but the service engineer from Sky, coming to repair the faulty dish on the rectory roof.

I got over my disappointment helped along by mugs of tea provided by the vicar and upon sight of further improvements to the winter damaged palms:

all brown and dead at the top

promising new shoots at the base

Similarly the Ceanothus is sporting new shoots up to a foot long all over its framework of previously bare brown stems:

Things went downhill from there. A fortnight ago I started to renovate the lawn by the kitchen garden. It is too bad for words. About half of the area is weeds, mainly daisies, self heal and plantains wirth a bit of clover thrown in for luck I suppose. On top of that, the site is very uneven; workmen have dug to sort out a gas pipe and ever since there are dips.

I applied a weed treatment two weeks ago and despite an excellent forecast it rained a few hours after application so the product has not worked very well. Still, I worked solidly for about three hours with a scarifyer, lawn rake and small fork to lift moss and weeds. It is a thoroughly soul-less job, on the excitement level it surely ranks before watching paint dry and of course it takes hours. If that was not enough, it looks a mess for a long time before it looks any better. No wonder I only do lawn treatments of the extreme kind for very special gardens and even more special clients.

Things improved when I got home though. The postman had rung twice indeed and left ....

a) spring bulbs?
b) a scarf?
c) a bag?
d) a washing machine?
e) an invitiation to a prize giving?
f) a prize?

Happy guessing and musing!