10.02.2023 Mechanical gardening.

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  Friday 10th 2C/36F. Dark overcast to start but becoming much lighter now. [08.00] Up at 6.40. I am struggling for comfort. While dressed in long underwear under my summer duvet. It is difficult to judge the likely overnight temperatures. The underwear grips the lighter duvet like Velcro and throws it off as I spin like a top.

 8.10. Stove lit. Time for a walk. I need a change of scenery from my habitual walk to the lanes. So I had better go "the wrong way."

 10.25 4C/40F. I headed south along the busy road. Instead of my usual north. It was no fun walking against the speeding traffic. With the roads being so wet. Several route options presented themselves. I chose to climb up to the woods from the next village. It was a day for persistent vapour trails. 

 The fields were sticky enough to bog me down within a few paces. So I stuck to the rather rough "verge" between the prickly hedge and the first ploughed rut. Managing a direct descent of the shoulder of the prairie. Down to the main track and back to the next village to the north of home. 

 This meant covering some of my familiar route. As I passed the junction to the lanes on the last leg. I was gone for an hour and half.  It felt too warm for my gloves for much of the time. With just a cool SW breeze noticeable at intervals.  Earlier brightness and even some weak sunshine has returned to overcast. 

 I took a heavy duty hedge clipper to my wife's rose hedge. It was taller than me but did not flower last year. So it badly needed a boost. I brought it down to a uniform 60cm/2' high. Along with the massive stems of the single red rose guarding the outer end of the hedge. This neded hedge clippers and a long reach. It is viciously thorny on red stems! Then I ran the hedge clipper over the woody remains of my wife's flower garden. This was precisely how I remember her favourite TV gardener. Showing the way half a century ago. 

 There are ornamental grasses growing in a row but almost hidden by the rose hedge and overhanging fruit trees. These grasses ought to be dug up, divided and used more usefully and decoratively elsewhere.

 After that I set up a mole trap. Dark mounds were steadily advancing across the lawn. And everywhere else!! After digging foolishly deep it seemed the tunnels were actually quite shallow. I found a box of different traps hidden in the shed. Some of these will be used in the annual battle with nature. 

 My wife was regularly reporting having caught another of the little monsters. She always attached a cord and anchor. To stop them running away with the trap. If they were caught but not killed outright. More memories to haunt my dreams! 

 18.45 5C/41F.  I haven't a clue what I am having for dinner. Is a chicken curry every week one too many? If not, then I had better get the rice on. Failing that it's toast. Again. Cheese and tomato on toast? Decisions-decisions! I had cheese on toast only a couple of days ago! No tomatoes then. Does that count? I'll wash the rice.

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