Tag: Yardening

#1311 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Stonehouse2 Comments

The first Passion Flower of the season.

This blog could go one of two ways or it could just celebrate the first Passion Flower of the season. Passion flower plants were a gift from our builder last May. He gave us three leggy plants to trail over the trellis he had just installed on the top of our wall. They put on a bit of growth last summer and were repotted this Spring. A flower and later in the season edible Passion Fruits is on our wish list.

Not on our wish list was a domestic fatburg. When you buy an old house things like drains are a bit of a dark art. With no warning our kitchen drain failed spectacularly this week. The first sign was when the dishwasher suffered from reflux and bleated pathetically. We did not recognise this as an early symptom of an apocolypse. Dynarod were booked but not for several days. In a very busy week I had planned myself a day of domestica yesterday.

The blocked drain was a bit of a head scratcher. We do not have the modern luxury of an inspection cover or any means of identifying the direction of flow or indeed stasis in our case.

This being an Edwardian house I attempted an Edwardian solution. Boiling water/ Bicarbonate of Soda/ white vinegar. A lava like eruption of gunge bubbled away at the access point of the drain. Probing with a stick revealed standing water to a depth of almost 3 feet, a metre even.

Armed only with a pair of surgical gloves for human examination* and a plunger more serious intervention was required.

  • What I needed was veterinary gauntlets for Cow Gynaecology.

Laying on my belly I plunged my  arm and plunger into the depths and achieved a very good attatchment to something. My plunger resolutely hung on to whatever unseen object I had chanced upon. One hand in the supersoft and slippy water was not enough so another hand had to go in. This is taking moments to write but it was easily two hours of time as I pondered and considered each next move.

After several awkward pulls on my plunger there was a sudden movement and a giant domestic fatburg was delivered at face level. Not a pleasant experience. Dirty water gurgled and then settled, only at a slightly lower water level. I waited a bit, hoping for a miracle but none was forthcoming. So I repeated the plunger experiment. This time things were a little easier. One more two handed pull and a second fatburg was delivered and with that the grungy water disappeared with hollow glugs and the sound of a minor victory.

Dynarod cancelled.

And so back to the Passion Flower, and there is a connection. Firstly the passion flower cheered me up on my many trips back into the house, once to receive a parcel, for a neighbour, that required photo evidence. Not a bit of me was a photo opportunity yesterday.

The colours of the fatburg were very similar to the Passion Flower. Mostly creamy with  evidence of culinary adventures with turmeric, chilli, tomato, beetroot and inexplicably a blueberry colour.

Twin fatburgs and a plunger and a Passion Flower. Quite the Day.

Except in this village in a city, the pavements are littered with quotes from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. This one is entirely appropriate.

P.s On one of the sites where my blog appears Meta offer an analysis. A case of Metapondering perhaps?

#939 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Paintings, Yardening2 Comments

Another day, another paint pot, another direction. I had no idea how to paint one section of the yard walls. Complicated by mixed surfaces and under colours. I decided to use colour blocking , beloved by interior designers. Who knows how that is going to work out.

But the big reveal is the, almost psychedelic, colours that appear when painting white on a west facing wall in the morning. Nothing like that happened when I painted the north facing wall at any time of day. A most odd sensation. I sense the big old chunk of concrete that forms a seat is also going to need painting. Whilst waiting for paint to dry I let the digital tweak make some patterns from my paint pot .

Time to do that next coat.  This blog will grow as the day progresses and I need to let paint dry…

And as it turns out, sunshine and shadows quite like my colour blocking.

“What is the point of doing anything in life, if you know what the exact outcome will be.”

#937 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn PaintingsLeave a comment

Monday of the first week of June and possibly the dullest subject possible for a blog reveals itself. Painting white walls white and then, just to own the cliche, waiting for the paint to dry.

After the excitement of having the slatted trellis extension to the yard wall fitted, we skittered about repotting plants and finding them their happy places in the yard. Skittered is rather a bright word for the backbreaking effort of some of our repotting , but skittered is how I like to think of the process.

This weekend should have been a consolidation phase with simple tinkering but a ‘back of the mind’ irritation had formed last week, and a large pot of white paint was purchased for future white wall painting.

It is, however, impossible to sit in an imperfect white yard when there is a pot of paint winking at me in the corner

I had an hour to spare and a small corner that could be completed. 

Now I have started the job I’ve made a pledge with myself to get the job done by the end of June… Let’s see how that goes.

I once pledged to write a daily blog for 3 months . 4 years later I am still at it, no end in sight. To bring some colour to this endeavour I am going to use the new digital tweak that my camera phone offers.  Simply put  the tweak knows the sort of digital edits that I routinely use and the images that I then save. Yesterday the surface of my white pot of paint was transformed into one of my colour block paintings.

Watching paint dry for the whole of June. You have been warned!

#558 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Stonehouse Lawn Tennis ClubLeave a comment
Spring greens

That was a busy weekend and we still have one day to go. Our geraniums found the sunshine to their liking and have begun their spring/summer showoffery. Blissfully unaware that this year we have had a hosepipe ban imposed already. The ban caught us all by surprise and only half of the yard has been power-hosed. The irony is that the ban was announced with four days notice and for those four days it rained so hard, power- hosing the rest of the yard was impossible.We are going to have to hope that prolonged sunshine bleaches out most of the winter mould and mildew, or spend the summer apologetic for our lurid green paving. May 1st already! Where did April go? A whirl of planning in all sorts of directions. A family house move, an exhibition and lots of social media activity for an upcoming Open Gardens event. Not, you will be pleased to note, our green back yard and the Geraniums, but a Tennis Club where we are members. I signed up to be a big part of the planning of the event in the depth of winter knowing full well that I would not be here for the actual event, but that I could continue to support remotely. The opposite of working from home.

Doing Home Work Away, I suppose.

To that end I have gathered loads of gorgeous photographs to share on Social Media. Instagram and Facebook. Here is the QR code for Instagram should you be interested in an English Garden by the Sea.

Everybody is getting a little excited.

This gorgeous old wheelbarrow was super happy to arch his back and pose like a Silver Fox at a fashion shoot and his drooping tulip friend also took little persuading to look winsomely out to sea.

May the first, one of my favourite months off to a good start.

#410 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Advent+2022, Serendipity, YardeningLeave a comment

Today is almost certainly the last day I will be able to harvest a red tomato 🍅 grown outside in the backyard. This is hugely significant for two reasons, I have never before achieved growing even one red tomato outdoors in any garden during my lifetime. This year our new location and probably the warmest year on record are the factors that have made this possible. Not newly sprouted green fingers on my own fair hands. The warm year had made our yard positively Mediterranean until late October. Since then the yard has grown a velvety carpet of mould. Like the set of Tolkiens’ ‘Middle Earth’ in the Lord of the Rings film franchise, everything is cloaked in green flock. The spring clear-up is almost certainly going to involve a pressure washer but maybe nature or the predicted cold snap will remove the green tinge in the next month or two. Today’s tomato is not a thing of beauty, I already know that, but in the spirit of Advent+2022 I can share a very pretty tomato from November, never before the subject of a pondering.

#182 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Holidays, Home3 Comments

A mobile phone and notebook made me unusually productive yesterday. Not exactly as busy as a bee but close. Apart from the times when I was walking the dogs I was hanging onto a phone line for the passport office. The notebook had significant dates in, that I knew I would need to quote and the phone was on loudspeaker so everyone in hearing distance was subjected to the truly terrible ‘on-hold’ music and the constant message about busy operators and suggestions that I use the on line system.

I will spare you my rage in full, a synopsis is the kinder option.

I have spent almost ten hours in the last two weeks on the phone to the passport office. Most of it listening to their dreadful music, not dreadful because the composer had a bad day but dreadful because the recording is reproduced so badly. The music is constantly interrupted by an announcer who speaks so gently and patronisingly that I wished harm on her.

Nearly two and a half hours on hold, in total, yesterday got most of the days dull jobs done.

Plenty of yardening which is where the illustrations come from.

All the washing done, no need for you to be bored by that. I even managed a small water colour doodle for my art course.

The thing I didn’t achieve was a resolution to the Passport situation. I still dont have one and it seems not even to be on the horizon. The Passport Office, in line with our Conservative Government Guidelines, lie. It seems that after surviving the aural hell that is their phone line queueing system, their overworked operators will tell you any old, plausible guff to get you off the line so they can lie to next person and achieve their lie goals for the day.

I have now entered the complaint system, lets see where that takes me.

Not abroad, that much is certain.

Pandemic Pondering #511

On By theoldmortuary.designIn FireworksLeave a comment

Another day finished off with fireworks at Firestone Bay. The late night dog walk was a little more glamorous than usual. Not so many boats out in the Sound tonight but the sea was still twinkling and bustling as people dropped anchor to enjoy the show.

There was a gorgeous illuminated Jellyfish hanging over Tranquility Bay at one point.

The dogs were transfixed by the spectacle of bright lights in the sky. It is hard to imagine what their canine brains made of it all. They had already had a great morning of running in one of their favourite gardens and then an afternoon of padding about in the yard as I strung lights in the plants.

It was another day of chores, errands and yardening , enlivened by a cherry and almond slice and a good natter with a friend while Hugo and Lola chased imaginary squirrels around her garden. After today I’m pretty much through all of the house moving chores now, so the return of proper summer would be greatly appreciated. One last firework and this little blog is over. If this dull summer continues I’m going to start baking cakes again, my weight has only just recovered from the 2020 Cake season!

Pandemic Pondering #509

On By theoldmortuary.designIn YardeningLeave a comment

It is not often that a cup of coffee makes us sad, but yesterday our coffee was accompanied by a minutes silence to mark the five lives lost in Plymouth recently. The sunshine put in a brief appearance too which added to the mood.

A good long walk around the Stonehouse Peninsular before a morning of yardening kept us busy.

Moving many of the plants from the previous garden into pots and containers has for the most part been a huge success.

The notable exception being an Acer who currently poses as a Georgia O’Keefe painting in her Adobe period.

The one inherited plant from the previous owners is doing its best to show off to its new companions.

The moved plants are still huddling together near the back door. Settling into their new environment with plenty of rain ( Thanks Summer 2021)

6 weeks in and we are starting to plan the changes we need to put in place to make the yard more effective as a growing space. We need to spend some time on You Tube learning bricklaying skills!

Somewhere is needed to let this new person show off these milky white leaves to their best advantage.

This is a first backyard for both of us there seems so much to learn!

Pandemic Pondering#503

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Pandemic ponderingsLeave a comment

Yesterday was all about doing essential tasks but taking the odd moment off to take in the signs of summer. Rolls of straw disappearing into infinity were a good reminder that the summer, which has barely got started weather wise is already on the home run towards autumn. I spent a good part of yesterday harvesting wisdom. Sometimes when I spend too long cogitating on things alone it can be like drinking champagne to share those thoughts with a friend. A moment of someone elses perspective or experience brings light and clarity to a situation that I was making murky by over-thinking. I visited a friend with a new Shepherds Hut yesterday, and in its tiny space and in a few minutes of nattering she quickly gave me a precious nugget of wisdom that solved a situation I had been mulling over for some time.

Even the Shepherds Hut made me think of autumn. Maybe I’m expecting too much, but so far in the summer of 2021 my stand out piece of summer clothing is a lightweight but very effective raincoat. We may have been over excited in buying a big garden parasol for our new back yard, an essential item for safe outdoor socialising in these Covid times. We’ve only needed it twice in a little over 6 weeks of prime-time summer. Earlier in the week we managed a whole morning of yardening untroubled by over zealous sun or blistering heat. Our yard is essentially a bright white box of enclosing stone walls facing west. A perfect sun trap if there was any of it about! The yardening was an exercise in potting and repotting container plants that we had moved from the old house. Just to show off the sun and a little heat made a late appearance yesterday in the yard and warmed the newly potted plants.Which makes all my moaning about a lack of summer sun seem like nonsense.

But stuck in England as I am I would like to have some consistency of sunshine and some sweltering heat so that when autumn does arrive I can fully appreciate the cooler days with occasional showers. Which perversely, of course, is exactly what the whole summer of 2021 has been like here!