Tops and Tails

Val, my new gardener, had some great ideas and advice about planting my back garden. She pointed out that only the "thug" plants like crocosmia and hemerocallis will thrive in the long border adjoining the hedge because of the existing root system. She named a few others which luckily I like, and I'd add dahlias to the mix as well. Where to put my blue and white perennial bed then, with its delphiniums and lupins, its blues and whites and pinks? We decided that the side of the garage would be perfect. Against the garage itself I'll plant climbing roses. maybe some clematis, to cover the wood. I've bought the black stain to make a start on that wall. To the left where the fence runs parallel to the lane will go some shrubs which will grow tall enough to screen the garden. And in the rectangle indicated by these two adjacent sides will go the perennials. She advised me to buy a couple of strong lavender bushes and take several cuttings from them for the small hedge around the summerhouse, but I think I'll just buy several small ones and wait for them to grow. And where the chopped down hazel is will go more shrubs to create a frame for the view at the bottom of the garden. The vegetable bed will be extended by several feet, and I'll clear out the existing bed to grow more veg, peas and beans as well as herbs etc. It's all coming together. All I have to do is make it happen.

Our morning walk yesterday ended in gruesome style. Sasha found a dead vole or something, black and a few inches long, and decided to pocket it, which in her case means mouth it. The sight of her trotting along beside me with a small pointed tail and two tiny feet flapping around her lips was almost too much to bear. I tried to get her to drop it, something I do several times a day with stones, sloes, poo, but she'd clamped her jaw so tightly I couldn't shift it. I tried not to look but it was horribly evident. Eventually, much to my relief, she dropped it. Ugh. Please, please don't let her catch or find anything bigger or, worse still, alive.

Puppy class was great. She was much calmer, and I was given a lot of tips to help me control her. Laughably, when one of the celestial beings showed me how to hold her by the collar facing away when she misbehaves, Sasha didn't even try to struggle! Not the real world at all. I can't believe I haven't even had her for a month yet. We've both come a long way.