Outdoor activity

This may not look all that impressive.

For one thing there’s no before picture. Nor is there any back story.

I started clearing the fir needles and cones from the side of the house before I left for the UK in August. Managed to get more than half the job done, then ran out of steam. A half-filled bin has been sitting at the bottom of the steps ever since. Then last month I got around to sweeping the needles and cones off the roof and cleaned out the gutters, leaving yet more debris at the side of the house.

What don’t you see in the picture? That’s right – no half-filled bin, no piles of needles or cones anywhere. Yesterday I finally got my shit together.

And that wasn’t all.

A trip to the garden shop for bulbs.

Daffs to replace the old ones in pots which no longer produce flowers – just leaves. 

A new batch of mixed crocus bulbs for the window boxes. The only ones that have flowered for the past couple of years have been the white ones. I don’t have anything against white croci, but, come on, where are the purple ones?

And tulips to go in pots on the deck. It’s been safe in the past to put tulips in pots on the table outside by the window, but that was before the fucking deer discovered the deck buffet.

Tulip cages required.

As well as all the outdoor activity, there was a discovery yesterday. Turns out the October sun is not strong enough to dry large towels. I could have given up and put them in the dryer, but that’s not the point. The point was to have the joy of using one last set of towels dried on the line. 

No rain (which we really, really need) forecast for the next few days, so the towels are staying outside until they are dry.