Cack-handed Musings!

Hello!  I am still here, complete with my strapped up arm (courtesy of the tree) which is causing me some (a lot) of frustration, but the good news is I've been to a physio and he's certain he can fix it.  So I haven't been able to do any gardening, or sewing, or knitting, and I'm only allowed to type left handed.  In fact I'm having to do most things left handed which so far has led to several cack-handed incidents including managing to break the front door key by twisting it the wrong way in the lock, fortunately I noticed what was happening just before it severed and managed to remove it from the lock in one piece!

Despite all of this the garden is doing well.  The new dahlias I bought in the spring from Rose Cottage Plants have been flowering for weeks and weeks now.

Dahlia Rip City

Dahlia Waltzing Mathilda

Dahlia Classic Poeme

In the front garden the roses are still blooming as are the clematis.

Rosa Scepter'd Isle

Clematis Gypsy Queen 

 But autumn is marching onward and the anemones are blooming their little socks off.

Those of you who follow me on twitter might have seen that I was quite incensed the other week when a non-gardening colleague of mine described my garden as 'over-grown'.  I suppose to the untrained eye it might appear that way, but I prefer to think of it as abundant and flowing!

Anyway, whatever it is, I like it :-)

Going, Going, Gone.

At the bottom of my garden is my veg garden and beyond the veg garden was a tree.  A beautiful paper bark cherry with coppery peeling bark.

It was here when I moved in and has grown steadily ever since.  It had got big.  Too big.  It was casting shade over the entire veg garden and had reached 1/2 way across my neighbour's garden too.

Sadly I made the decision that it had to go.  It's never easy deciding to get rid of a tree, especially a beautiful tree, but there was no other feasible option.

I started by taking the canopy out and immediately the light flooded back into the garden.

It was at this point that I realised that cutting the canopy out had done some damage to the tendons in my elbow and I was going to need help to finish the job.

Cue handy friend who came round and sawed the rest of it down.

I now have a bench that I can use again as it's not totally shaded, a sunny veg garden and a large pile of logs to deal with - when my arm is better and I can lift them that is.