Last time I wrote in this blog was nearly a year ago, and it was when I had just moved into my new house.
One thing that really bothered me about the house was a little pond at the front entrance to the house. Although Nicky loved the tadpoles and the frogs in this pond it was a green mass that attracted mosquitoes. As the weather changed over the seasons and more and more water evaporated, the stones started peaking out and the tadpoles died.
Earlier this year I acquired a regular gardener (he’d been there with the previous owners) and he agreed with me that we needed to do away with the pond but he wanted to fill it with soil. I knew my in-laws wanted the lining though, so the first task was to get that out. He then filled a good portion of it with some bags of soil I’d got from the nursery and a bit of left over compost I’d had from a previous gardening project.
We planted a few succulents and some lavender.
That pond had bugged me for so long I thought I would feel huge relief to have that water removed. Stagnant water at the entrance of a house isn’t good for hygiene or appearance and it was good to have it done.
What I didn’t expect at that time was a measure of grief. Like something had been taken, grief for the tadpoles and the frogs whose homes I had taken, and just a sense of loss.
I realised that this pond was just bringing up other feelings of loss that I’ve had to deal with in the past few years and that these feelings were ok.
I have never been very successful looking after plants but I am determined to look after the new ones I have planted here. I have a routine now that I water them every evening with a watering can. I’m hoping that they will grow.
The first picture was taken 1 April, the second 22 April. The lavender isn’t doing too well but the succulents are flourishing. The red flower is going strong too. I realise that plants, like people, take time to settle and grow.
I recently turned 49 on 27 March and decided to get a cat. Life is never going to be perfect. The best is to live our best lives now.
So off Nicky and I went to Animal Welfare to choose our kitten. Nicky is very fixated on the song “We don’t talk about Bruno” from the movie Encanto so we have called him Bruno. But mostly we just call him “Kitty” right now because he is so small and cute.
Kitty is really good at hiding and it’s quite a mission to find him and make him safe before putting the alarm on for the night. I am starting to find his hiding places though.
He likes to chase things that make a noise and he likes to scratch. We give him tons of hugs but he’s more interested in investigating the world and climbing as high as he can go.
He’s only about four months old and only due to have his sterilisation and chip in June. So until then we have to lock him down indoors and keep him safe!
There is something very amazing in the morning to not only have Nicky climbing into my bed but having a purring kitten jumping in too is really special. (I seriously don’t know where he hides at night).
I’m so glad we got this cat because he’s giving us a lot of joy.
I wonder how your lavender is? That is a mediterranean plant that does not expect daily watering.
It’s actually growing well now.