Until we get our winter garden project done, I’m saving that story. We are in a holding pattern because of weather and holidays. Not our holidays so much as gravel delivery holidays.
Meanwhile, here are some garden moments from December 2019.
10 December, a rose next door and a telephoto bird with Allan’s new and better camera..and Skooter.
17 December
While we were working on our project, our neighbors stopped by so I could pet my good friends Cotah and Bentley. I found out a couple of days ago that they are moving to a house on one of the nearby hills. I’m happy for their people going to a new home but how I will miss having my vicarious dogs next door.
Later, I saw my friends at the treat gate where they got biscuits and apples. I have to admit I wept.
They will be back on occasion as their people are the best of friends with the folks who live in the big house next door but still….I have so enjoyed treating these dogs almost every day.
Birds are loud in their Bogsy Wood gathering these days.
18 December
When Scott, Tony, and Rudy stopped by, my buddies got treats; they were next door while their people moved a load of furniture.
That is the last time I have gotten to treat them. It’s awfully quiet in the garden when them gone. They always used to let me know when they heard me.
22 December
Allan photographed the rain in the Bogsy Wood swale….
…and a billboard on an empty lot on the main route through town.
The dark grey building in the background is our post office. The lot is owned by a fellow who lives on the hill.
Meanwhile, in the garden:
27 December
We enjoyed gingerbread cookies from a mix and cookie cutter gift from Montana Mary. Allan made them, of course.
Skooter enjoyed the last vestiges of Christmas.
30 December
Lezlie and her dog Winston stopped by while running errands. We gathered three big bags of windfall apples for her deer and crow friends. Some of the apples were still so good that she said, “These are lady apples.”
How she makes me laugh and laugh! She brought me a tapestry and some books.
The books will make for good work season reading, when I stop getting library books because I can’t deal with due dates while working. The tapestry is my staycation motto. On rainy days, at least.
31 December
I noticed that a new box of Builders had miraculously arrived.
I’d been down to six bags, barely enough to get us through the rest of the gravel project. Now I have no excuse to delay except for weather and the fact that once we get the gravel dumped (five yards), we won’t be able to get into our garage till it is spread.
Today was so dark, windy, and rainy that Skooter spend most of the day tucked into a sweat shirt.
I started a new book, 1000 pages of Christopher Isherwood. I had learned about his diaries whilst reading The Last Gift of Time.
Jazmin read with me. I adore a good book of diaries so much.
I knew immediately that I would love the book.
Every address where Christopher and his friends lived is given in full, making for some enjoyable Googling.
Allan had checked out the film The Art of Racing in the Rain, which packed a double whammy of the inevitable aging of a companion animal (in this case a golden retriever who looked so much like Monty Don’s Nigel) and formula one auto racing, which was one of my late friend Bryan’s favourite things. Between being reminded of him and of Our Frosty‘s recent death, I barely managed to not howl through the film. (Bryan would not in the least mind being mourned along with a very good cat. Oh, how he loved his cats.)
And yet. Here was a film about death that proposes reincarnation. Bryan was adamantly atheist. (I used to joke that I was an apatheist: I don’t know and I don’t care. But I do care that Bryan–and my grandma and my cats!–are not just gone.) So maybe it was purely cosmic that Allan happened to find that movie at the library.
The year turned into a new decade, depending on whether or not you are a stickler for when a decade finally begins. As far as I am concerned, it is now the 20s.
1 January, 2020
I continue on with Christopher Isherwood (310 pages in now) while my Queen’s Tears blooms.
Thanks for reading and for all the wonderful comments which make blogging so worthwhile.
Oh oh – I think I know what the garden project is!! 😀
Great tapestry, and a book bouquet as well!
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🙂 I just have to get it together to order the damn gravel and stop reading long enough to make the garage assessable by shifting said gravel.
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Tucked into a sweatshirt on a dark and windy day sounds like a good thing! Skooter has the right idea. 🙂
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That’s pretty much my plan for January if we are lucky enough to get lots of non gardening weather.
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I am working on getting more sleep, but it can be hard sometimes. We are starting to get more rain here now, although it is drier than I remember from 16 years ago when we moved here. I do need about a week of good “drier” weather to finish things up here. The days go by too fast.
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Cotah and Bentley will miss you, too! That is sad they are moving. The Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’ looks beautiful against the green sword ferns. I love the mahonia and the Acanthus, too. Allen took some great shots with his new camera. Hope you find some time to do nothing . . . other than read!
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Thanks! Cotah and Bentley are unlikely to find a neighbor who is so fond of them that the sound of their barking is like music to the ears. 🙂
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I hope you get to visit them. Happy New Year to you and Allan!
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Best wishes to you and Allen for the new year. Your blog is a gift.
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I’ll miss reading about/seeing pictures of Cotah and Bentley. Any idea who will live in the house next? Boy, when I saw those cookies–which I’m not allowed to eat–I wanted one in the worst way.
Am completely unfamiliar with Christopher Isherwood bu I do know where Laurel Canyon is. I will Google Christopher Isherwood to see what comes up.
Nice post & Happy 2020!
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Happy new year and new decade. Thank you for sharing your stories, your gardening adventures and your book choices.
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Talk of gravel sounds exciting.
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If only I could get me arse in gear to order it. I kind of lost momentum when I couldn’t order it right away because of places being closed for holidays, and now rain is predicted for several days. It will be most exciting when it happens.
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I too have trouble with arse gearing.
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🙂
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Winston looks something like Rhody!
Why are there several dogs named Bentley (and Harley), but none named Buick?
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Good question!
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