Tidying the Entrance to my Sanctuary

Yesterday was a toasty warm twenty-four degrees, but the sky was overcast with thin clouds all day. I loved it. I was warm, but not hot. 

There are two kinds of yard work: The “A” and “B” lists. The “A” list is an inventory of things that must be done; the “B” are things I want to do. They are optional. They are also the most rewarding because they feel like “bonus” improvements. Most of my time in the yard now, is on my “B” list.

I never use my front door. My favoured way of access and egress is via my back door. To get to my back door, guests must come through the large backyard gate and then around to the steps up onto the deck that they must cross to arrive at the door. The gate is the entrance to my sanctuary.  

I was delighted to be drawn, yesterday, to tidying up the entrance the private area of my yard—the area inside the gate. I realized that this was the part of my yard that people first see, so I got to work on edging, immediately behind the gate, where the courtyard meets four proud Ferns.

It was a mess of long fallen-over grass, prickle vines and Dandelions and a lot of other weeds I can’t name. I pulled all the offending growth, leaving some lovely shiny natural grass.

This is how the edge looks before I clear it of the weeds.

This is the part I finished. Those Ferns are almost two meters
high and you can see the Ivy I started climbing the shed wall.

Yesterday morning; I noticed lots of little Apples budding on two of my Apple trees. (The third had no blossoms this year.) This is a first! I’m a very proud Daddy! I’ll have to thin them out so that only a few mature, but I may actually get Apples this year.   

This is the view I had whilst I had lunch with Eoin and François on their deck. I felt privileged to be seeing people for a delicious (!) meal in a stunning location. After lunch, we got into our cars with our dogs and went to the beach where our dogs exhausted themselves running after each other.

Today, its cloudy and we may have showers, but I expect to be able to get lots more work done on the entrance area and get back to my book.