:: clonk

After all my moaning about being too busy, blah blah blah, guess what I did yesterday afternoon? I read a book in the sun, then I slept in the sun. It was lovely. I felt refreshed by it. Earlier I'd taken Bertie on a very long walk in the hot sun & he'd conked out. I was just having a sit-down with a cold drink and a book before getting busy in the garden.

Yeah, right.

Suddenly it was half past five, and time for another walk. I still haven't done any more gardening, but I really must -- I noticed this morning that the aphids have moved on to the honeysuckle flowers. I've never seen that before! Another mad thing that's happening is the rose bush out the front. Last year I carefully pruned it again, but didn't feed it. I'd pruned and fed it the previous year, and I think I read somewhere you shouldn't feed them too much. But lo and behold, it grew an astounding amount of foliage -- much, much more than last year. And this week, out came the flowers: not pink tea roses like last year, but single wild-rose type blooms. This is obviously the root-stock going rampant. But why this year? I'm baffled. There are a few pink roses struggling through, but mostly it's white. It may be time to grub up the whole bush and put in something else. I'd love a philadelphus, or mock orange, it has a wonderful smell.