Proper Gardening

I seem to have spent quite a lot of time over the last month on "projects" relaying a patio, clearing over grown borders etc. so it was really nice today to get on with some proper gardening. I spent this morning planting up containers with a range of bedding plants, including my current favorite Cosmos Sonata. I love the delicacy of their foliage as much as the pink or white flowers, in containers they are also useful for a bit of height.

And then this afternoon more standard maintenance work grass cutting, weeding, cleaning out old foliage etc. from a border, all in all a really satisfying day's work. However I did realise as I arrived home around 6:30 that our home group would be arriving in an hour and a half, I had to get washed, changed and fed, and I haven't done any practise since last week's rehearsal when I committed to lots of practise this week!

Such is life, trying to do too much in too short a space of time

Memories of Cornwall & Monday night's rehearsal

For some strange reason today's work seemed to keep reminding me of our last couple of holidays in Cornwall, our first job was a bit of a clearance, an over grow border needed to have it's edges found, then over to another garden where we planted some asparagus, and some osteospurnams. This reminded me that the osteospurnam I grow in my front garden is a cutting from one in the garden of the house in Fowey we stayed in the last two time we went to Cornwall. Of course I love to visit the gardens in Cornwall, and it is one of the strongholds of Brass Banding, there are some very nice beaches and restaurants as well; we have really missed Cornwall the last couple of years.

Then up to the Vicarage where I found the I had put in a cutting of the cutting from Fowey. Last time there I also took some cuttings from the huge but lovely Hydrangea beside the house, we now have two Hydrangeas out growing their pots and one has been given to the friends who let us use the house (now sold)

So after a hard, but good, days work in the gardens, it was off for a Brass Band rehearsal, we had a decent turn out with someone from every section of the band apart from the basses. This meant that for the first time for a few weeks we could do some proper work on a couple of pieces. We just took a couple of straight forward "Bandstand" pieces but took then apart, looked at what made them work, the articulation, dynamics, which part is important - when to bring it out when to support -, and made some real strides forward in our playing. At times it was quite hard work but ultimately very rewarding.

After rehearsal up to the Grape & Grain at Crystal Palace to listen to the "Big Beer Band" and sup a couple of pints of "Doombar" Cornish ale, which of course only served to reminded me of sitting on the terrace of the Galleon looking out over the Harbour at Fowey










Funny old day really..........

Front Garden

I did actually manage to get some work done in our garden today, but there is still a lot more to do. I bit the bullet and completed trimming the hedge, but yes, I am afraid I did cheat and use the trimmer rather than do it properly. It will be interesting to see if I do get lots of black edges to the leaves where they have been cut, and if I do just how unsightly it is. I will keep you all posted, I know you are anxious.



After trimming a hedge I always like to give it a good drink, and then a feed so at the moment the sprinkler is in front of the house giving that garden a good soak. A few years ago I lost patience with the lawn in front of the house, it was too small to be any use and we would not want to sit out in front so I dug it all up and planted flowers. Over all I am really pleased with the result, a couple of shrubs - a Japonica and a Skimia - will have to be moved, they just don't work where they are, but the general effect is very nice. The great thing is that there is less maintenance than there was with grass!

Tubas, Tubers & Gloria

Well all a bit strange today, Gloria (my Transit Van) had to go in for her MOT so I couldn't go out and work this morning, so actually had a short moment in my own garden. The only trouble with being a working gardener is that so often I finish work so tiered that my own garden gets neglected.

Smudge is helping out, alongside the heron on guard duty. after that he got a little tiered and had to have a sit down .

I have so many jobs around the garden to do that I think I shall have to arrange a day off, just to work on my own garden. All the produce is looking good but there is a lot to do around the ornamentals. First priority has to be to finish trimming the front hedge, this is griselinia, an evergreen large leafed shrub so it should really be trimmed using secateurs to cut each

individual stem, but I have left the job half done for so long I think I'm going to cheat and use the petrol hedge trimmer, then it will only take a few minutes.




My first early potatoes are ready to start lifting so I am going to harvest a few for dinner tonight, but before then I must do some practise. On the 7th July the Croydon Symphonic Band are playing a concert at St John's Smith Square and with having played all those silly little things recently I must do some tuba practise. I have just heard that fortunately Gloria passed the MOT with only a new tyre needed, and a couple of simple jobs to do before too long, so I will be able to to get out to work this afternoon, I need to cut a Vicarage lawn before the parish garden party on Sunday.

Hard Work

I have just completed another one off job, clearing a couple of very overgrown beds and cutting back some out of shape shrubs. While I love my work, and just about every aspect of gardening this was pretty much just plain hard slog, today I even had the radio on!

Since I wanted to spend no more than a couple of days on this job I had help, my colleague Sue was musing over lunch yesterday, "what do I miss about office work?" and the only one thing we could come up with between us was the pub at lunch time, the worst factor of this is that in most offices you can't even have that indulgence any more.

Any way clearance over, tomorrows challenge is getting the Van MOT'd. I'm really looking forward to some proper gardening, I want to plant something! Sitting on my patio are about 20 trays of bedding waiting to go in at various customers gardens, then there is that hedge to trim, a few lawns to cut, a cherry tree to cut down, a new installation .............

I don't think I'll get bored

Saturday's Gig

Well, I have left it for a little while to write up on Saturday while I tried to work out exactly how I feel about what happened, but in truth I'm still not sure how I do feel. Two of my friends came along as "deps" to help out the band, which was just as well since for a number of different reasons only two members of the band turned up.


This meant that we were reduced to two cornets, a Euphonium and me. I had taken a tenor horn along as I feared I might have to ask a cornet player to cover horn, however in the end we had to play as a quintet with me on horn. If I am not a Euphonium player then I am definitely not a Horn player. However despite my personal horror and disappointment maybe the important thing is that the customers enjoyed our performance, and it is amazing how much music can be played with just five players.

After the first set it started raining, so first we had to take cover in a marquee, and then indoors, if we had had more players we would not have fitted under cover, so as they say every silver lining has a cloud......

One of the deps was my very good friend Allan Wilson. You may not know the name but I am sure you will have heard some of his work. Allan is an extremely talented and hard working recording conductor with a list of credits that is stunning. Take a look at his site http://www.allanwilsonmusic.com/Home%20Page.html this shows the range of his professional conducting and arranging work, but does not give more than a hint of what a fine player he is. It is truly awesome to have someone of this stature come and play with us.

Links

I just found out that I had made an error on the link with All Souls Orchestra, I have now corrected this so please take a look at the site, and better still buy a couple of our CDs. I would like to stress that all the orchestra and soloists give their time free, and any income we get goes to support the ministry of this Christian Orchestra.

Go on buy a CD or DVD you know you want to.

The photo is of Proms Praise our annual event at the Royal Albert Hall. The shot is taken from the gallery and shows the scale of the choir, orchestra and audience. I tried to find one that showed me and the new toy, but nothing available at the moment