Cat Treats

It's called Nepata cataria. Common name, Catmint, or Catnip.

And kitties love it.

Funny, he was very hungry after that.




Not many of these have made it out of the pot and into the garden over the past year or so. But if I did manage to plant it, someone would always find it.

So go on, treat your cat today.

A Temporary Solution

This is what I have been known to refer to as the ugly front. I might go so far as to say, the hideous front.




It is perhaps an affront to me, because it is right in front of my nose, as it were, when I sit outside and enjoy the garden, on the "patio" area. You can just see my chair on the right.

It has improved greatly in the recent past, because of the weed burner, and now it's just an unsightly mound of dirt.


Much has been discussed over the last two years. The ideal would be a brick wall, which would involve a lot of work, and considerable expense.


Less costly would be railway sleepers, which has been mooted recently. Or just simply, a cheap concrete wall.


Frankly anything would be better that what it is now.


In the meantime, I have come up with this

A stretch of weed control fabric, which at least saves me weeding the patch when time could be well spent elsewhere in the garden. I plan to extend this idea across the whole area, just until we all make up our minds what sort of solution we want to spend our money on.

And the cat likes it, so it can't be all bad.

It's not terribly pretty, but then it's not terribly ugly.

A Tree Adventure

Pretty tree. The problem is (if you can see, it's not on our property), it creates a considerable amount of shade, and this year it is dropping more sap on the left border plants than I would like. Plus, too many branches overhang the shed. Considering that last year, this happened on windy spring day



a whacking great branch came down, narrowly missing the shed, more of those branches overhanging the shed is a bit of a worry. Just like that, it snapped off.

The man upstairs decided that today was a nice day to tackle the tree. So armed with his trusty ladder and a large hacksaw, he set to work.

Then he got up a bit higher.

And then, just to make me really nervous, a little higher.

My role in this adventure was much more grounded - he would throw a rope around a branch for me to hold while he cut, so that when it fell, I should give it a good pull and then it would not hit a fence panel or the shed roof.

I was only marginally successful in this, but the shed/fence/wood burner are, thankfully, intact, with but a few scratches on the shed roof.

Eventually our reciprocating electric saw came out, and the result is much less tree.

(Interesting, that, reciprocating saw - what is it reciprocating to?)

And I think someone is going to enjoy a good fire ...