Cruel To Be Kind?

You see this Eucalyptus Tree? Unfortunately, so do I - still...! And it is blocking out such huge new Kitchen Garden potential for me.

The story goes, that it was planted many moons ago, for floristry additions to bouquets and arrangements, and no-one bothered to check out just how tall this thing would grow in the garden, if left unchecked. Which would account for why it's umpteen miles high now, and casting not only its' shade, but its' peeling bark, its' shedding evergreen leaves and berry-tip wotsits, and actually, it's doing my head in. I must find out how much it costs to hire an industrial 'Cherry Picker' bit of machinery (Trousers is professionally qualified to operate one - Oooh! Get HIM!) and get all Trousers's mates round for a 'Chainsaw The Annoying Tree Down' Party.

Any single one of you, male or female, with your own non-electric chainsaw (!), proper protective clothing, proper-proper insurance, would be welcome at the party. If any of you turned out as having A Day Job as a Tree Surgeon or something, you could have an extra sausage roll, and an extra 'tinny', get dinner thrown in, and party for the rest of the weekend, as far as I'm concerned.....
Any takers?!


And whilst this beautiful 'muddle' in the photo below is, in itself rather appealing visually, it's going to need a certain amount of Wellying (new word) in terms of pruning this year.



It's a spring-flowering Clematis montana, which I showed you in the early Funny Farm blog updates last year, growing magnificently and beautifully through the Yew tree, the Yucca, and everything in its' vicinity. Sometimes, just sometimes, as a gardener, you have to be cruel to be kind. And in this instance, it is spoiling, rather than enhancing, so it can have one last flush of scented glory this year, and then it needs to be drastically pruned.

For those of you who know me well by now, and those of you just getting to know me, I am completely and utterly addicted to my cat. No more, no less... Trousers and I go for a walk round the farm - the cat comes too. I'm pricking out seedlings in my Grown-Up Girls' Greenhouse, and my cat's sitting there watching me. I'm weeding or planting up the borders, and my cat insists on playing the 'jump out and grab Wellie's ankles' game, making me scream with laughter. And the more I laugh, the more she does it. It's a hoot.....
And earlier this evening, I wanted to show Trousers the first lamb that I'd seen down on the funny farm, so armed with the camera, we went to find it, but the cat went "Me! Me! Take a photo of Me!".



We didn't find the lamb, but we did find a very tired shrew, layed down on the path for a well-earned snooze! My cat looked at me, and went "Moi?"

I'm hopeful of bringing you photos of the new lamb in my normal regular Sunday Blob Update tomorrow.

In the meantime, thank you for watching.

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