Hors de Combat

On Friday I mowed the lawn, Saturday and Sunday I weeded and tidied up a couple of beds and finished tying the climbing roses on a lateral trellis for maximum flowering, and today I've potted out the first batch of dahlias, the Bishop of Llandaffs. I'm feeling great and have had to almost physically restrain myself from doing more. Tiny steps. I hate the phrase but it's appropriate. In the meantime Hugo got into an altercation with one of Sarah's cats behind the summerhouse and ended up with a torn and bleeding nose. He's back in the Elizabethan collar again and feeling very sorry for himself. I'm feeling very sorry for him too, poor little fellow. And I fear he will now have another scar to add to the many. I didn't actually see what attacked him, but given that he shot up the garden to the back gate at top speed I guess the cat was on the other side, bidding a hasty retreat home. So I've ruled out rat, shrew, water vole and sea eagle. And me? I just have a black arm from cuff to elbow.

Before, perfect

After, blighted

Picture does not do justice

We're home alone again after protracted visits away, and blind alleys in hospital. I still don't know why I have high blood pressure and heart failure, but I'm confident the experts are on to it. In the meantime this sudden burst of excellent health is a wonderful bonus and I'm making the most of it, if gently. This morning we walked the whole way around the field for the first time in ages, in very warm sunshine, and the skylarks lit up the air with their sweet, soaring songs. I couldn't see them, but boy were they loud. In the garden I have almost no bulbs, the squirrel having eaten the masses that I planted, but leaves are coming out, blossom is beginning. David came around on Friday with a present for me, a sarcococca confusa, which has a powerful scent when it flowers in winter and evergreen leaves. I'd admired one in his garden, and this was his delightful response. He stayed for tea, and that was when I discovered that as well as running the Cambridge bookshop Heffers for many years he had also been a gardener. Well. In return for the gift I'm going to allow him to help me with tricky prunings and other ongoing gardening issues. It's the least I can do.