Articles by Mickey fez

now that summers here. When those words were written I don't think a day like this was expected We are 4 hours into a storm with winds up to 50 mph and torrential rain. A lot of the island is under water,luckily I am on top of a hill but I do wish the storm would go and annoy somebody else.

I had plans to clear the rubbish I had collected from the side of the house and start again today on the bif clean up but things change. I spent yesterday nursing an injured cat. Sooty had got into another of his scrapes and it turns out had bruised his hips. He was in a sorry state and I warned Ellen to be ready for a call to the vet. It was late afternoon before I got himto take some food and water and that perked him up. He steadily relaxed a little as the evening wore on then he took a l…

A lot of places here jn the north have had a months wotyh of rain in two days but once again we missed it but the oncoming beasr seems to have our name on it With that in mid yesterday afternoon I cut the back left hand sive of the garden before the heat and humidity put a stop to it. This morning after my shoppig trip I cutthe front before lunch and feeling refreshed started 0n the rest of the back and cut it all apart from where the planters are' I had been undecided about there final posi…

On A lovely afternoon I suddenly spied a painted ladt,the another and another,all tpld there were 5 om the Buddleia bush. We can get large numbers some summers but of late their numbers have fallen. Yhe migrate from the desertt fringes of fringes of North Africa.The Middle east and Central Asis populating Europe,looks like this year maybe a good one. The have been very camera shy today but I did get a couple of very average snaps.I'll try again tomorrow' The centre is not blurred but it'…

Last night after wok and dinner was finished I went inti the garden and I am fairly happy with the recent work although the planters lool a little too symetrical but I can tweak that' I i sat out last evening my eye kept wandering to the one bush I hadn't planted so much so I got the tools out and finished the days work properly, I don't like unfinished jobs. All this meant another cool shower of course I must be waterlogged So today I promised myselt a rest day and despite the temptation to…

Today is a lot fresher than yesterday so better for work in the garden, I spotted John in his garden so asked his advice which I should plant in the garden.He also named every plant but in latin of course so I'm no wiser.He suggested I replant two,the rest are fine for now. The two he mentioned were a Laurel and a Willow of which there a lots of strains,I should plant against a wall and they should grow between 4 and 5 ft he said. So I planted the first and that was hard work after the exer…

Today has been a good day with wall to wall sunshine all day. I had a good visit with my old Ma with plenty of laughter as normal. On returning home I changed into my sruff for some gardening but first I had 2 bacon baps and then I was ready. The first job was mowing and strimming the front grass,whichh I managed pretty quickly Moving out to the back I decided the big planters are much to heavy to keep moving the to cut grass,instead I placed them in perminent place and strimmed round them b…

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" The first line of the poem To a mouse by Robert Burns paraphrazed as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" This is what happened to me yesterday I decided not to water the new plants until I had strimmed this morning but late yesterday afternoon the weather turnrd ugly,the plants got watered fine but the rain never stopped and the wind picked up. By 11pm we had a full blown storm,the rain stopped overnight but the winds a…

My next door neighbour Allan has been filling his garden with plotted plants for years. It has now got to the stage where it is so packed he can't get to the centre of them. So looking to unload some with help from one of his sons he dumped 7 on me this morning.. The have more than doubled my quota.They appear to be a mix of ornimental grasses and bushes. I thin one of them is similar to one Jenny has which I spent a long time untangling a while back. The others it will just be a waiting game…

Rain has replaced our recent dry spell and for a change I welcome it with the bone being bone dry and the water butt nearly empty,the plants will do well from it as well. There was a partial eclipse of the moon last night but sadly when it reached my part of the sky it was nearly over.

Another lovely day here and after s dood trip to mother's snd Lunch it was into the gardrn with a coffee,just sitting on the ricliner watching the birds. I got restless after a while so continued clear this junk at the side of the house. I cleared jujnk and attacked the borders with the trimmer and that wotled quite well' I tried to make inroads with the mound but no garden tools would go near it so I resorted to a 14lb lump hammer which mage short eork of the little cave Allan had made The…

iNot the sunny day I hoped for just lots of clound and very high humidity but I set to and cleared the flower beds out on the front and after a coffee started clearing more from the side of the house. First up was some bricks from a long forgotten path,this is a few a lot are buried under the mound, I stacked the bricks on the path for now. This is a 3 foot wide heap of debris I raked up. I have managed to clear a path to the mound but still a long way to go. THe old dust bi…

We had a slow start to the day weatherwise but by lunch time the sun won the battle.With the work done yesterday and a shopping day this morning today was a rest day. This is how far on I am,pretty good as the weeds and brambles were almost up the the top of my neighbours dividing wall. As today was a rest day this is as close as I got, There are lots of bricks and stones to clear before I can crack on. I'm off to catch the early evening sun and rest up for tomorrow when before I start on thi…

After an iffy start to the day the afternoon brought sunshine.I sat in the garden for a while before getting restless as always so I decided to do a bit of clearing. Slowly but surely I am getting the patch at the side of the house cleared and today I managed to reach the wall at the front of the house. There is still a lot of rubbish to clear but today I made big inroads getting the large garden waste wheelie half full before my back called full time. Having learned harsh lessons over the ye…

Almost everybody I know has a little corner where there are things stowed away to be sorted at a later date. My cubby is under the stairs where I had stashed these boxes of all thing electrial. There are cables for internet,usb.ttelaphone and kettle leads.There are plugs and adaptors for items long gone, speskers and headphones and a mouse or two. I picked out a few keepers and stowed the rest in clearly labled containers, put a notice in the window telling folk to help themselves of anyt…

After a super day yesterday today we have a blanket of cloud overhead and of course it's a lot cooler. Undetered I set about grass cutting duties,if you saw my bird photos yesterday you would see it really needed doing. I started on the front at 9:30 and by 10:45 all was done front and back. Last night I finished talking to Jenny on Skype and it was such a warm night I decided to sit in the garden and finish my nightly beer. Withh the cats keeping me company I enjoyed it so much I cracked…

A wonderful day here with my meals taken outside. When I sit in the garden it is not long before I find something to do and so it was today' I cleared more rubbish from the side of the house and weeded the planters before picking gooseberries for my neighbour Allan.He has enough there for a couple of pies. I had the third visit of the day from a blackbirId not long after and he headed straight for the gooseberry bush.I had knocked some off as I was picking them and he quickly devoured a coupl…

Ater a little hiccup a few days ago I have spent most of my time outside pottering about in the garden. Isn't it strange as soon as you sit in the garden you find things to do? or is that just me? Most of my meals have consisted of salads with some sort of dead animal but today it's all change again. The sun is hiding behind thick cloud This is a supposedly a sunny summer afternoon in July. Apart from the lack of sun we have a cold n/w wind and a 10c temp drop. No salads today