2025 - What I did today

Slow roasted in olive oil then froze aubergines, sweet peppers and courgettes. As the nights are getting chillier, I cleared the pollytunnel doorways so they can shut.

Nothing in the garden but I did nip out between showers to pick some raspberries.

Managed a couple of hours in the garden before the rain really set in. I had to choose the jobs carefully, such that they could be abandoned if the rain came. Managed to get the CFBs and their sticks down and put away. Just got in for lunch and the heavens opened. Good timing for once.

Last night, the camellias in front of the house, were being blown against the upstairs landing window and it sounded just like fingernails on a blackboard (if you're old enough to remember that sound . This won't happen again, the camellias have had a haircut! Pity really as the flower buds were forming but, there are plenty more at ground floor level and I'm sure they will soon bounce back - just not against the window. Extra bonus is that I have a better view now, for when I'm sticky-beaking at whatever is happening outside.
I saved a few camellia seedpods and chopped the rest into the garden waste bin.

Attention was directed to the top area. A spindle bush hides some of the composts and it was getting unruly. Spindles are thugs. P set about it with the hedge trimmer. Not far from the spindle is the thug blackberry. Although it's a bit early to prune out the fruited canes, the fruit had either wizened with the heat or moulded with the wet, either way the fruiting canes had to be removed. So that was my job, kitted out in leather gauntlets and secateurs. I got away with just a few drawings of blood. Now my decision is whether to cut out some of the new growth some 15 ft long in some cases or to tip the long lengths in order to give the new thornless plant some room to thrive. I think I'll let thug have 2 or 3 ramblers rather than half a dozen and shorten some of those. I fear the shortened canes will just branch at the tips and be 'umbrellas' causing chaos at the tips. We'll see. Next year if new blackberry thrives, then thug's days will be numbered.

I got the chainsaw out fo a good while today and chopped up some of the neighbours fence that I scrounged off him when he got a new one. I had already cut (and partly burned!) all of the posts and concentrated on the coss rails today which were laden with nails. Luckily by examining each piece I managed to avoid the nails. Cut up about four wheel barrow loads before I got bored and didn't want to push my luck avoiding nails.
Still loads to chop up but I will only use the chainsaw in small batches as it's tiring and I am less likely to cause an accident. You only get one chance with a chainsaw!