Sunday is a day of rest
Posted on July 30, 2006
Filed Under Summer, Dungarvan, flora, happiness, holiday, nature, photography | Comments Off
| The weather was beautiful when I went to get the newspapers this morning. It was warm and there were very few clouds in the sky. Looking out over the harbour gave me a bit of an uplift. My normal weather barometer is the view from my bedroom window towards the Comeragh mountains. The weather from in the mountains takes about a half hour to get to Dungarvan so it’s a good check on the day. It turned very breezey in the afternoon but I didn’t care because I crawled back into bed with the papers and spent most of the day reading them. Sunday is a day of rest afterall! |
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I don’t think I’ve fully relaxed yet and the mind is still ‘active’ and trying to think. Normally, when I visit Dungarvan, breakfast is usually eaten al fresco but I haven’t put the table together yet! I might schedule some activity for tomorrow, maybe. The second photo is the view from the patio. What’s a patio anyway? Mine is a lump of concrete with a council drain in the corner. You may be wondering about the lurid colour of the wall on the left. Yes, I do have terrible taste but, in my defence, it’s meant to match flowers of the shrubs on the right when they’re in bloom.
I’m probably going to stay here for two weeks so I should do some work. The garden is quite long, maybe 150 metres, and it slopes a fair bit from front to back. My original plan was to divide it into 3 or 4 spaces, with terracing where necessary. The first part is a traditional lawned garden (see above). The second part is more intimate and shaded. It’s really to give some privacy from the neighbours, and the wind and sun. It’s the best place to finish the day, either on your own with a book or in company with food and good wine. The third part may or may not be a vegetable/fruit garden and the final portion will be for wildlife. Having said that, the last bit will be for parking once the council start introducing disc parking on the road outside.
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So, my main aims are:
(1) To install/build the steps down from the first to the middle garden. The main problem with this is that I don’t know how to do it!
(2) I’ve spent a considerable amount of time getting rid of the overgrown hedge and I would like to finish the clearance and replace it with decent, ‘middle-class‘ grisellina hedging. But the bloody thing keeps growing back. But the main problem with this is that I’ll have to build a small wall to stabilise the division between me and my neighour. And I don’t know how to do this! Ironically, my neighbour is a retired labourer but his hips are shot so he doesn’t want to do it.
(3) The last picture on the right should be a photo of my superior garden design skills. Unfortunately it’s not but, in my defence, they do say you learn from your mistakes. The three shrubs are called, I think, Californian Lilacs and their sub-species name (??) is something like Glasnevium. I’m from Glasnevin in Dublin so I thought it would be a clever addition to my country garden. The shrubs are meant to grow to 6ft & stop, to produce vivid blue flowers and attract wildlife like bees into the garden. Unfortunately, the three of them are three entirely different sub-sub species (or something). So the middle one has stopped growing, the one on the left grew to 6ft and died, while the one on the right looks like it’s not going to stop growing. And it’s flowers are miserable tiny little things.
And have they introduced wildlife into the garden? Yes, with unexpected results. I got double-glazing installed last year and it now looks like it wasn’t done properly. Wasps have discovered a hole underneath one of the windows and seem to be setting up home. Thank you Irish tradesmen. They’ll have to die. The wasps, I mean! Looks like the law of unintended consequences has struck again.
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This is my sanctuary. It needs a bit of tidying now but it’s a delightful place to be at the end of the evening. A couple of small trees protect you from the sun and wind while a few plants provide the visual scenery. I’ve also planted a couple of plants that give the air a fragrant quality. I even have a Mexican something or other that smells like curry. Honest. Six people can sit here comfortably but, oops, the house can sleep eight. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. |
Still trouserless! I have to buy a new cooker tomorrow so I may have to wear trousers for that.
