Gardening Cold Turkey

I decided on Sunday that I needed a day off from the garden to allow my body to recover. I knew I ached when I stood up but it took me some time to discover the source of the discomfort. When I started on the garden it was my thighs and calves. When they stopped aching it was my back. Then it was my toes. These all seemed fine now. Thought it may have been my ankles, but further prodding and rubbing realised it was my heels...

To aid myself in an enforced day off I put on my 'posh' trousers - ones I would not want to get dirty from scrambling up and down the bank. As I sat on my bench in the glorious morning sunshine drinking my first cup of coffee of the day I was just itching to get up and dig out the dandelions I could see at the top of the bank. NO!

After lunch we went out to visit a local garden that was open under the Scottish Garden Scheme - Charterhall. On entry we were asked if we wanted to enter their quiz to identify 20 plants within the garden. This was a great idea as it gave you a map of the grounds and a route was marked out to follow to find the plants in question. I have to admit to only knowing about half of them but it was good fun. There was a pipe band on the main lawn, various side tents with things for kids to do and a small plant sale stall. I bought a geranium with small dark purple flowers - will find a shady spot somewhere on my bank for it.

The weather clouded over in the afternoon and it started to rain around 5 p.m. It kept raining all day yesterday so I had another enforced day off. Today looks dull, cloudy and calm which means the ground will still be too wet to really do much. I just hope it improves - it is frustrating being so close to the finishing line and being unable to get on with it...