hazy lazy day
Duke took the day off today with a migraine. it had cleared by lunch time (cos I kept sending him back to bed til he looked human!) but he decided to spend the day with us rather than go back in. He’s not paid to be ill but he’s done overtime this month so it will even itself out! So, in hte morning whilst he nodded I wrung a bit of education out of Aprilia in the form of some sight words which she did really really well at, don’t think she even noticed that she read some of the "story words" as well as the sight words without batting an eye. She still tires easily with reading though, I can sympathise as it does the same to me but I’m 99% sure she’s not Dyxie so perseverance should get us there eventually!
As it’s a tradition to have pancakes for "family breakie" in our house, and as Duke didn’t break fast til lunch, we had pancakes…. nothing like a huge sugar hit to get you zinging through the early afternoon! I spent most of it waging war on the horsetail - I’m resisting resorting to chemical warfare as it’s never that successful and aparently if you keep taking it down to ground level it eventually gives up but alas I fear if you let it get knee high in between times it just isn’t going to work! Aparently you can shade it out by growing a dense, tall crop over it or by cardboard topped with bark which also improves the soil as it rots in - horsetail doesn’t like good soil which could explain why I didn’t have any in the square beds then.
We’ve also realised that we have a bonus crop nera the beans - we hvae a couple of spuds growing which just goes to show that you really should leave your compost long enough to rot down properly before spreading it!! Ho hum.
Whilst I spent a rather lovely hour in dappled shade at the park with my books, Duke laid the last bit of leaky pipe so now I don’t need to water anything in the back and Aprilia charged round the park wiht the RAinbows. I got a good chunk of stuff done which added to hte hour this morning when all my sleepy headed family were still out cold means I’m nearly back on track! Could do wiht her sleeping late again tomorrow! I can’t wait to get onto the next block - it’s all about Davey (he of the miner’s lamp) and other science-y types which really interests me but then I’m really enjoying Owen and all his social reform at New Lanark too (we passed signs for New Lanark on the way to Melrose, if it hadn’t been for the fact that it was dark, raining and we were a million miles off course I would have stopped to do the tourist bit!)
No, I don’t think I would have fancied a stop-off just at that point of the journey, LOL! Ah well, at least I can laugh about it now, more than can be said at the time!
The rest of the day sounds good, and I must make the most of your wisdom about horsetail as it is trying to take over my veggie patch too!
Comment by Joanna — June 6, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
we would go for the cardboard and bark option - in fact that’s what we are using as a nettle deterrent! planting crops through it. not successful for all crops…
for those of a chemical mind if you crush the horsetail leaves/spikes before applying the glyphosphate it is more succesful. [that being an ‘expert gardener’ stint still has benefits!!]
Comment by HelenHaricot — June 6, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
ROFL Joanna, yes, I can laugh now too but you could have stripped paint with the letter I wrote to the highways agency! Didn’t get me anywhere but I felt better…
Thanks for the chemical warfare tip Helen, I may just resort to taht one at some point. Trouble is it’s right in amongst the veggies and I don’t want nasty stuff absorbing into my almost organic goodies!
Comment by Administrator — June 7, 2007 @ 8:09 am