10.03.2025 Bramble progress.

 ~o~

 Monday 10th. A sunny but cooler day is offered. 

 Up at 5.30 after a formerly quiet night. When I suddenly hit a new well of unhappy memories to dredge from my youth. Which I hadn't thought about for years. Still sweating profusely from the flu.

 6.30 37F/3C. A pinkish sky in the east. 67F/19C in the room. I don't feel like breakfast. I'll sort out my tablets for the week. Though I've run out of two kinds.

7.00 I am going to try a walk. See how I get on.

7.45 Returned from a very slow loop of the neighbour's parallel drives. Past all the debris and detritus. Of a hoarder like myself. Though one with far more space and resources. I had no energy. Walking in slow motion. At the turn I was greeted by a bloody sun. Coming over the hill at my back. I was avoiding the larger lumps of the overfilled potholes. It looked like road scrapings. I am not complaining. It should last for a while. 

 There was still a white frost. Birds everywhere. A Goldfinch was busy attacking the larch seeds. In the absent neighbour's foolishly overgrown hedge. The one we planted for the first of several neighbours. All those many years ago.

 The ex-observatory is a sorry sight. As is the rest of the garden. I'll have breakfast now. Gather my strength for the day ahead. I have to paint more lipstick. On the arse of my ugly pig of a house.

 9.15. Woke from a 40 minute nap. 

 Morning largely wasted on YT.

 11.50 48F. Sunny and the house is being warmed by the greenhouse. It was horribly cold outside in the wind and the shade. So I put on a jacket and tried to clear more of my wife's flower bed. Using a hooked rake I gently de-thatched most of the area. 

 There are three buddleias in leaf. Survivors of my failure to plant them out. A few woody stems of unknown species look like shrubs. I left then to fend for themselves until proven guilty. I pulled up every thistle I could find. Easily recognizable from the dried skeletons from last year. I must have lifted most of the rosebay willowherb by now.

 A  few leaders of brambles are invading from the west. Climbing over her non-flowering rose hedge. I am collecting a lot of dried material. Which might make a decent fire over the major bramble invasion around the site of the old Horse chestnut.

 I am not sure I want to invest in a heavier version of my DeWalt line strimmer. A gutless waste of money. As confirmed in YT comparison reviews. It needs something I don't have to make any impact on the brambles. The tri-blade I bought is for heavier duty DeWalt strimmers. It will have to go back for a refund. £200 minimum [equivalent] to move up in the range.

 I have tried several electric hedge clippers but none can match the bramble stems at the ground. Reaching the stems is a stretch if I want to avoid being scratched to death. The spines are hooked, needle sharp and vicious.

 Further online research suggests loppers for the arching stems. The bases can be attacked once the aerial stems are cleared. I have loppers but they are getting old and worn out. The blades are too thin and twist on thinner hardwood stems.  

 13.45 51F/11C. I've been doing it all wrong. After lunch I went back out again. By repeatedly snipping the aerial stems back by only a foot or more. Then letting them fall to the ground. 

 I was able to remove a couple of square meters of chest high growth in only fifteen minutes. Patience and a sharp air of lightweight, oiled loppers is all it needs. The stems cut very easily. Previously I had been trying to drag long stems out of the thicket. Which was slow and exhausting.

 My back didn't like the weight of the present pair of loppers. They also became increasingly blunt. Perhaps due to juices in the bramble stems working with the rust on the blades. They began to grab instead of cutting cleanly. Which they had at first. Even length isn't a major factor. I made no effort to reach. Just snipped away at every stem in front of me. I am afraid I need a rest now. I am far from recovered from the flu.

  I had another nap. Woke to the phone alarm then fell asleep again. I have been feeling very tired today.

 I could not face any dinner. So consumed my last tin of Heinz tomato soup and a buttered bread roll. 

 The evening was spent dozing off repeatedly to Netflix. Interrupted only by a chat with my English friend. I woke again at 10.15 feeling cold. Because I had not been aware of the stove going out without it having caught. It is only 67F/19.4C but it will have to do. I can't stay awake to light it again.

  ~o~