No gardening at all

I fully intended to keep up the good work this weekend and get some more of that mulch on the garden ... but it was just too damn hot. A clear sky and 31 degrees is too melty for me to dig and haul mulch, so I decided to do any jobs that involved the hose. I shampooed the kilim and put it to dry on the trampoline. That was quite fun actually - the internet was quite confident that it wouldn't wreck it and it was right! Felt a bit weird hosing down the rug and putting Garnier fresh and fruity on it, but it came up well. This is the one the rug man in Ankara swore was a decades old Iranian kilim ... I have no idea but it proved to be colourfast and when it was wet it smelt very strongly of woodsmoke. And now it's cleaner than it was.



You can see the grass has died already. We have a few weeks of green and then it's yellow and crackly. This might also be the last useful action of the trampoline. We bought it when number one son was eighteen months old and it's been awesome; but it's just starting to perish beyond help. My husband is going to put it on the kerb with a sign that says "free" and see how long it takes to vanish. He thinks about two days ... I'm saying six months.

The other useful thing I did with the hose was wash the windows. They were very filthy and now we can see out into the garden! This is the kitchen view. It's like being in a green cave in summer. I love it.



And this is the kitchen window from the outside - you can see why I say we like a heavily-planted garden! The grapevine is just ornamental sadly, no grapes, and gets cut back hard in autumn. The roses are just about at the end of the first flush, although we might get another flowering from some of the better established bushes. The rest is a hardy hodge podge of valerian, geraniums, rock roses, snow in summer, oregano, lamandras, may bushes and agapanthus. And some stuff that grew from the bird seed....



The boys are currently putting together the christmas tree (it's a bit complicated, but they are very clever). We had people over for a very relaxed bbq last night, and other than that I haven't left the house! A very laid back weekend for this time of year.  I went to my old work's Christmas party on Friday and had a lovely time catching up with everyone. They are such a nice bunch of people and the Christmas party is always a hoot as everyone winds down and liquors up....