I went outside and watched the light develop in the sky. It was lovely sitting there quietly just doing nothing but watching as the colours changed.
When it was a little lighter I peeked over the fence and, observing the neighbours' tidy garden,
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| The neighbours' back garden |
and, comparing it with my own more interesting, but decidedly more messy version,
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| an interesting mess. |
... I decided to use the quiet early morning hours to have a bit of a tidy-up. I began with one of my favourite parts of the garden, the giant bamboo thicket:
As you can see a huge amount of leafy matter had accumulated over the years behind the stems. I grabbed, pulled and tugged and raked. I dragged out dead canes, and had a great old clean-out.
At one point a shaft of sunlight through a newly created gap revealed the sun had risen.
And down the bank the golden light bathed the wilderness and the water.
Unfortunately, shortly after this while singing the song below (but not as well), a piece of bamboo flicked up and caught the side of my eyeball and I spent the rest of the day bathing it and trying to avoid having to go to the doctor*.
The moral of the story is, of course, take care when gardening, especially around bamboo, and concentrate on the task in hand, rather than singing at the same time.
* It's all better now.
Or, you could just have resisted from peeking over the fence to the neighbour's garden, and just sat quietly watching the sunrise...
ReplyDeleteYes Monica. Or I could have resisted after I peeked too! I have enlisted the help of no. 2 son and all the bamboo debris is now over the bank and the lawns are mowed too!
DeleteBamboo gardening whilst playing the ukulele is daredevil behaviour to say the least! And for your information I was not singing when I tumbled downstairs but if I had been singing it might have been the nursery rhyme - "Jack and Jill" or "Way Down" by Elvis or "The Bigger They Come the Harder They Fall" by Jimmy Cliff.
ReplyDeleteWhat if my ukulele was made of bamboo?
DeleteI hope YOU are feeling a bit better? Did your life flash before your eyes on the way down?
do you know{of course you don't} that most people around here do not know what bamboo is but my father planted it as a barrier and fence line betewen porpperties and did a very successful job of it<><>i have wanted to have bamboo sheltering my poarch but my wife does not really know what it is and declined<><>so what is a person to do?????? i liked the look of your bamboo before you cleaned it out as well as when you cleaned it out<><>right now i am in the process of picking all my tomatoes green or not and bringing them insice{am tired of covering them every night for frost},.,.,.we do live in vastly different climes, don't we kate????
ReplyDeleteIn our climate, bamboo can get out of control very easily Putz. Perhaps your wife DID know and was wise.
DeleteIf you need one I have an extremely excellent recipe for green tomato chutney. I intentionally pick mine green sometimes so I can make it!
post script <><>i made a bamboo house when i was a mere lad of 13<>><<>slept in it a few times after going cherry picking with my fiends<><>i think i have related that in past posts of yours right here
ReplyDeleteBamboo is wonderful stuff for all kinds of things. I always said I would make a teepee one day. My house is two storied and this bamboo is twice as high as the roof. It will be a huge teepee if I ever do get around to making it.
Deletepost post script>><<>alos i was sorry to hear about your injury<>><><><><><><><><><><><><>><<>><<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>burma shave
ReplyDeleteThank you. No ill effects.
DeleteHeavens you must have been up really early??? I would be afraid to put my hands in the bamboo for snakes but then, do you have snakes in NZ? Having speared myself in the eye with a palm frond I know what an eye injury is like . Another one of those "wish I could just push the rewind button" moments. Glad it was not serious.
ReplyDeleteNo snakes in En Zed Helsie. Eye injuries can happen in the blink of an .... heh.
DeleteReally sorry about your discomfort after damaging your eye but truly glad that the injury wasn't worse. That's a big change to the bamboo grove. Looking forward to seeing it but, of course, you've now set yourself an annual task (with safety glasses).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sorryness Geeb. I usually attack it manually (or 'once a year').
ReplyDeleteI love sky watching
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a big sky to watch x
I'm lucky to have such a nice sky even tho I live in town John.
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