Catching up

A rather wobbly picture of Lucy in happier times . . .


I have had a worrying two weeks with Lucy, who was my mum's little cat. Her mother hit her in the eye, claws well out, and we have been backwards and forwards to the vet, but sadly it resulted in Lucy having to have the eye removed yesterday. She is tucked up in my eldest daughter's wardrobe (which has no door and was the warmest place to be in the middle of the night). I shall spend some time with her this morning, so she can have her buster collar off and eat and drink freely. I didn't sleep well last night because I knew she wasn't even going to try and eat or drink with that collar on and I had to trickle some water into her mouth with a syringe. Poor little girl, she didn't deserve this.

To take my mind off worrying, I have been working hard in the new soft fruit and vegetable plot in the paddock. It gets the sun all day long, and I did have a salad area there about 15 years ago. The side I'm putting the soft fruit in has a lot of tree roots, which make digging difficult, and I had to clear brambles from along the fence line, so have to mattock the roots out as I go, and remove all the tangles of grass roots . . . It is doing my waistline the world of good though!

So far I have planted half a dozen redcurrant bushes and ditto blackcurrants (the latter grown by me from cuttings last year) and I got 10 summer raspberries in yesterday, and also Fall Gold, a yellow autumn raspberry. I have more blackcurrants, raspberries, tayberries and blueberries to put in, and a couple of rhubarb crowns too.

Area cleared and planted up with red and black-currants. Established bushes on right.

The "path" across the middle which we will cover with chippings. Fruit trees either side. Bonfire far left and trash pile, to be cut up for burning, beside it.

We have bought some cheap fruit trees from Lidl and planted them beside the path - 3 Doyenne de Comice pears, two Victoria plums and a Cox's Orange Pippin apple tree. We probably won't reap the benefits with the planned downsize (now postponed for a year to let the market settle), but hopefully it will paint the "Good Life" picture for prospective buyers. Should we not sell next year, then we will enjoy the fruits of our labours . . .

Close up of new currant bushes.

I started off several lots of tomato seedlings yesterday - Brandywine, Sub Arctic (in case we have another cold wet summer), and Pomodoro (an outdoor type too). I also have Tigerella lurking in the long grass somewhere in my basket of seeds so I will look those out today. I have them under glass and in a flip-top plastic tray that held Iced Donuts (nothing gets wasted in this house!) on a warm windowsill.

I took myself off for a brisk walk up the hill yesterday afternoon, to take my mind off worrying about Lucy. It's a walk I do so often that I thought I would leave the camera behind. I should have known better - the first Primroses were out (their perfume is so delicate) and the sky was amazing. It looked like a water colour painting, with layers of grey from slate grey to lilac, palest as it sunk behind the horizon, all the colours bleeding into one another.



I just wish I could shed the worry over Lucy. I'm in my third week of it now and it drags me down. I only started worrying like this when I hit 50 - the Menopause has a lot to answer for . . .