Travelling On

StrawberrySuze

Karmacat said:

Thank you both!  The walk was amazing - wow, we really took for granted the good summer weather, didn't we?  I did, anyway.  I didn't do anything else I mentioned, oops - had to chat with my sister, and I'm going to stay with her again on a medically-exempt stay, sadly.  Necessary.  But it will also be adorable, because she's looking after cats, and they know me - they're *very* timid, being elderly rescue cats, but they might come out to be stroked

Otherwise, carrying on with what I've *actually* been doing - clearing the patio, leaves, used flowerpots, overgrown grass, ivy, slate chips, that sort of thing.  It sounds odd to say, but clearing the patio strongly increases my standard of living, as I'm not surrounded by a tip any more ...

Hi Karma 👋
I agree that clearing things increases the standard of living, it clears out a bit of headspace and is good for your mental health
I had a pile of 'stuff' wood, slabs, gates etc. on my drive in front of my lounge window for over two years. Finally managed to clear it in the last few months, ended up giving a lot of it away and feel much better for it. Also been getting my fence and gates done.
You get there in the end, it just takes a while and its ten steps forward and nine steps back! But just think of that one step forward
Enjoy the stay with your sister and cats, wouldn't be without my doggies!

Suze xx

beanielou

Company & cats, nothing better 

Karmacat

Thank you!  I'm keeping going too - this evening, I emptied out my spice/seed shelf, reorganized things, it took me all of ten minutes, and makes life *so* much easier! 

Karmacat

Good morning!  I've been working hard at maintenance and at cleaning - I don't have a rhythm for using my snazzy new vacuum cleaner, and with lockdown, no one else sees the inside of my house, so I'm basically disgusting 😄  Doing pretty well though, now, so I'll try and keep it up, as well as the two outside projects: digging out the weeds on the front border and replacing with bark chippings to compost down over winter, and clearing the slate chips away from the house so I can extend the patio by 18" or so.

Had a convo with my neighbour over the driveway yesterday, and found out, to my horror, that the ivy I've been cursing for years is actually mine!  OMG, as they say.  It's going, as of now!  The fence it leaches off is going to collapse when that happens, so there's yet more work for the fencer to do.  Neighbour has asthma, would be ecstatic to see it go, and its right outside my back door and jeopardises my quince, plus I have to spend *so* much time cutting it back.  I'm thrilled 😄

apple_muncher

Ivy is a rotter! Glad you can get rid of it with a clear conscience!

Suffolk_lass

In the right place ivy is a valuable source of nectar and pollen, being the last flow of the year for honeybees (and ivy bees and wasps) but 99 times out of a hundred it is not well looked after and quickly becomes a dusty strangler. So many trees in the countryside have struggled with ivy gradually killing them.

Karmacat

Thanks both!  SL, the bee food aspect is the only one that worries me - the bees absolutely *love* the quince flowers, and the border will have lots of new bee-friendly plants.  I've just realised - I've been thinking of that ivy as bee food, but it isn't - its so near our back doors, it gets pruned before it ever flowers!  Okay, thats good.  I cut some more yesterday, getting entangled with a hedge that separates the gardens further down, that felt good too.

Today, I'm trying to do some proper work - going to use my new computer to write an email, we'll see how that goes.  I've purposefully been quite lazy over the weekend, I want to step it up a bit today, and I need to phone both bro and sis.  I'll give myself till 10am on here.

QueenJess

When we moved into our house I could see evidence of extensive ivy on our large beech tree.  It looks like the developers got rid of it (the old dead bits keep falling down in the wind), but obviously some survived as it was growing up the tree again.  There was no way I was having that and I spent 10 hours diligently digging all the roots out so it never grew back.  The tree has looked healthier each year since then.

I'm not a huge fan of ivy anyway and have thrown loads of bee loving plants all round my garden.  I was surprised to see a bee on my honeysuckle yesterday (was also surprised to see it flowering again!).

maddiemay

Hi Karmacat, my OH is always waging war on the Ivy plants, I keep telling him that Monty Don (lives locally) insists that we should try and keep some as it is extremely beneficial to lots of insects.  I hope you don't mind me posting this link which I have shown him.   https://phys.org/news/2013-04-honey-ivy-gardeners-foe-bees.html.

maddiemay

P.S. we now leave a couple of small areas of it. (cannot fathom how to edit previous post).