The Saga of the Stinging Nettles

 Up early , got my scruffy gardening clothes on. The plan was to climb up here  ...

.....carefully avoiding the Song Thrush's nest (I'm sure that they have fledged and gone now ) , climb in and along behind the red Acer ....

... find the wall .....there is an old and crumbling brick wall in there somewhere ....

.....climb over the wall ,  which should bring me out just in front of that telegraph pole ....

......and clear all the Stinging Nettles and Brambles that are now over-hanging our front gate .

I had planned to just throw them as far as I could and gather them up later ...but he wants me to throw them nice and accurately into a wheelbarrow  , which he is going to place by the gate . 

Well , I'll try , but I know my method is best .

It's about 7- 8ft high and I can't reach the Nettles from the front . Not safe to put a ladder here .

So I'm all ready to start and he says " Right , get in the car ,we're taking rubbish to the tip and then after that , off to the Garden Centre for a coffee . "

I didn't really need anything , but enjoyed looking around anyway .

Lots of fabulous tropical plants . 

I'd love to repair our old water pump , but to do that we would need to buy another one of these old barrels ....... which are a bit out of our price range !

We have one of these half barrels waiting in the wings to be planted up , but we have to wait for the old workshop shed to be pulled down and the new workshop shed to be built first as it is going to be placed at one end  to look nice and if we were to plant it up now , it would then be way too heavy to move.

I can hardly move this thing empty let alone full of earth and plants !

I had a look around in the Aquatics zone , with a view to making a pond with the grandchildren . 

I'd like to make a slightly better one than the one we made last time , although even that was fun .

I looked at these , but there is no way I can afford one of them ! So I might consider digging out the hole and lining it with pond liner . 

Then I got side-tracked when this beautiful Coy Carp appeared in the Nursery's  pond . 

It is nice to see them , but I wouldn't want to keep fish . I am quite happy for our little pond to just be full of frogspawn , newts , water boatman beetles , water snails etc .

We had our cuppa tea for me and coffee for him  , drove home , had lunch .

Went for a walk down the lane and as we left , so it began to rain .

Well , the rain doesn't really bother me and I love to see the wild flowers now in the hedgerow sparkling with raindrops .

...and the ancient Oak tree ....

with sage and gold Lichens .

They come alive in the rain !

I really enjoyed our walk .

                                       Runner-beans .

When we got back home I checked on the vegetable garden and I think everything is looking refreshed and happy after such a good drink .

                                          Courgettes and Sweetcorn .

I peeled off my cagoule dripping wet and hung it up to dry in the shower .

I don't mind getting wet in the rain , but there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to put it back on again , all cold and  dripping wet , to go and pull Stinging Nettles .

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it !

The Nettles get to live another day .

Tomorrow..... they've had it ! I'm coming after them !