:: rain rain go away

Yes, it's raining again. During my days off it did stop raining long enough for me to weed the front garden, where the convolvulus was staging a comeback. It's looking quite spiffy out there; the St John's Wort bushes that had been choked out to just sickly sticks are flowering well, and the hydrangea I moved from the back garden is also blooming, a lovely blue. I dotted some dark blue lobelias around too, and they all look lovely together. Along further there's a rock rose I got from the "Search and Rescue" section at the garden centre, it's doing really well too.

I moved all the Spanish bluebell bulbs I could find from the big bed to the narrow one by the wall -- they look good for about five minutes while they're flowering, but they grow so thickly their leaves block out anything smaller, and then there's just bare ground where they've been. I thought they'd be good with the bushy plants and would help fight the dreaded convolvulus. We'll see. If they're a pest there I'll move out the back up under the trees. They'll grow anywhere, apparently.

I dug some ericacious potting mix in around the daphne, to help it along -- it's still sickly despite all the spraying. It has more leaves, but they still eventually go yellow and spotty and fall off. I'll give it until next year before I try moving it to the back.

I've been working hard on Pinky's new website and also on a new design for mine.

On Sunday night I went to the movies, saw Minority Report -- it was ok. I went to the cinema at a newish shopping complex at Leith, it's the one that has the Royal Yacht Britannia tied up outside. And this time, just along the dock from the Britannia, there was The World.



To quote from the website: "It is the world's first residential ocean liner. It is a temple in Thailand, a seaswept summer in Newport, an ancient journey through the Greek Islands, and New Year's Eve in the South Pacific - all without leaving your home." Yes, all very well -- but it's also a rainy afternoon in Leith. Plus, it's an ungainly-looking thing, like a floating block of flats (which is basically what it is).

More traumas for Bertie, and for me, today. I was waiting to cross the road with him after his walk. A bus was just pulling out up the road and a boy was running down the hill to catch it at the next stop, round the corner. He flew across the road right at us, and Bertie panicked. I grabbed his collars and his hindquarters, but he still managed to drag me out into the road -- right into the path of the bus. Luckily the driver saw what was happening and had slowed right down and stopped.

It took five minutes to get Bertie calmed down enough to carry on home, he was rattled to his core. Then as we were on the home straight, a couple of boys came past on their bikes, larking around, and one of them actually hit me. More panicking from Bertie, but not as bad.

We had an altercation last night over a hedgehog. Bertie caught it on his late-night walk, and refused to drop it. I tried prising his jaws apart, but they just tightened. I tried pinching his nostrils, but he just breathed harder through his mouth. I couldn't get a grip on the poor animal, of course, so I had to just walk around and wait for Bertie to get tired of carrying it.

Then as soon as he dropped the hedgehog we had a furious scuffle as I pushed it into the undergrowth with my foot and he tried to pick it up again. The hedgehog made a run for it, which I was happy to see. Very unhappy dog though.