dust to mud

took mum to drs. friday,  had  her blood tests done,  which  as  the district nurse had been only 2 weeks before was pretty daft.J the practise nurse  said  mum now  only need have it taken evry 3 months     and  as  the bloody district  nurse  is  useless ( last  time she came           she forgot plaster to put over test puncture !!!!    had  to use one of ours.         oh  deary  me   )     i am taking mum in to surgery  to have it done.        then we went shopping early,as    being a bank holiday    weekend  we were expecting  fakenham to be busy.        glad  we did   Tescos had just had a load of bedding plants in   £3 for 30           2 trays of busy lizzies,       in Morrisons  4  fuschias £1.99          so  all the plants  got.             then   Focus,   for potting compost               and  3 bags  for price  of 2.    shows   you neednt  spend a fortune.        we  were home  by  3pm.

 i unpacked            and  started work in greenhouse         got  few  pots  sorted ready  for summer show,last  year  i was feeling so ill i didnt  have much of a show, at  least  this  year  i  now  KNOW  why  i feel  bad          and  dont  worry  so much about it.   worked  in greenhouse  til 6      

saturday i was up early,  i am afraid  those  pansies i was boasting about last week had got "leggy"  and were getting covered in whitefly,   which is what usually happens with  winter flowering pansies when the weather gets warmer.   so  out they all came,  the  good ones,some  12 or more  have  been used in side boarder in garden  so not  been wasted.  and  the baskets  have now been planted with a fuschia and busy lizzies and petunias.        all the plants  were planted  out          and  my greenhouse has  the baskets and pots  ready for putting outside  end of the month.   even  repaired an  obelisk that stands near my summer house with a clematis montana   climbing  up it        it had  snapped a leg              all done.               so         a nice  day in the garden   as i also sprayed the paths and  around fruit bushes with weedol.             

rightly assume  sunday  i ached  lol          just  cooked  lunch, a yummy  roast  chicken         and  went to bed,      thank god  i finished  those steroids tonight         i eat like a horse on them  lol                   and  putting  on weight        least  chest  feels  lot better.

today      bank holiday monday  has  been  that  rarest  of  things             a  lovely  warm sunny day,  so  i   was up  by 7        we  cancelled  mums carer for today,no need for mum to get up so early,         and  i was out in garden  by  9.30          for  today  was        pond cleaning  day !!!           as  my  mate  not been in touch,and  as  my fish  couldnt be seen          i  cleaned it myself.        i fill an old plastic linen basket        tall solid plastic one  with water        catch fish           and  oh  look     3  newts  and some  tiny  baby  ones               any  insects          etc          and   they  keep in that  until done.         its  a long slow  laborious job,  takes  over  150 buckets  to empty  it         i attach a rope          chuck  bucket  in,pull out              empty  onto  garden        check  nothing  has  been  trapped                 back           oh  hell            suffice  to say,it  took until  5.30  to finish.       i  have  big flints  all round  it         rockery plants  growing,   see pictures.                so   another  job  done,   happy  clean  fish                 and  i ache          lol        

this  is what  it looks like  now          

and  that  big  black hole          was  what  it  looked  like  before  all the   water  and  rocks  went  back         its  about  8  by 6    by  around  4ft 6 deep at  deepest  point.   

and  the pump works.       after  a hard  bang  from a hammer  to free it  lol.       so  job  done.  i   love  my pond,it's  peaceful there.       when  we  moved  here  15 years ago,the garden  was  overgrown,and  there was a rockery  here.       welll,actually   what  i found  it  was,after wondering why  nothing seemed to grow on it ,      was a rubbish  dump.      huge  pile of   fire ash,tins,bottles,a milk crate,         all covered over  with old fertiliser bags          and a inch  of  soil        no  wonder  the poor sempervivums  were  looking  sick  on it  lol         and  a  lot of weeds.  a  good  mate  did  most  of the clearing  and  digging..          just  shows  what  can be done.

finally,        can i just  say thanks  for  kind  comments,   about  my  lovely  friends   dear  brother            she  was  deeply touched               and  thanks jland          take care all