Last Gardening of the Year plus Poncho's Paw

A package arrived at Friday lunchtime. I eagerly opened it to find the rest of my plant order, minus the Japanese anemones.

The weather wasn't too bad in the afternoon, although a little cold, so I had to take the opportunity to plant as much as I could. I climbed up to the top of the high bank and planted the tricytris - again looked like bits of root to me. I then decided to tackle the paeonies, one in the rockery bit of the long bank where I had removed the lupin, three in the new area between the climbers and the last two in the high bank. I decided that was enough for the day - my hands were covered in mud and very very cold.

I got back out after the morning dog walk on Saturday. Having looked at the weather forecast this looked like my last chance - storms and gales on the way. Firstly the tradescantia - at least these looked like plants - two under the honeysuckle and four under the buddleia in the long bank. Next the blue poppies - three fibrous blobs - at the top left hand side of the high bank. I have no idea how deep I was meant to plant them, but hopefully I at least got them the right way up. Lastly the remaining bulbs, tulips and alliums, in the high bank around the other plants. I had a few failed attempts here - kept finding more clumps of snowdrops where I was digging. I still have five lilies, but they will go into a pot.

I must say that I was not impressed that no planting instructions were included for anything other than the bulbs. It will be interesting to see what comes up and what is lost forever.

By the time I had cleared/cleaned up - myself included - it was time for the afternoon walk.

Poncho seemed to have recovered from his run last week, and had been walking very nicely until on our way home we saw Florence, an old golden Labrador, running towards us wagging her tail. Her owner, Mr Gore, and his son were luckily not far behind. The son carried on with Florence around the corner, and Mr Gore stopped for a chat. Unfortunately Poncho could still see Florence now that the hedgerows have lost most of their leaves, and was still barking and leaping intermittently. It was starting to get dark when we continued on our way home.

We noticed Poncho was hobbling a bit again, and over the next couple of days got worse. It is especially bad when he gets up after lying down for a while. The poor little soul has been hopping, holding his right paw in the air. We reduced the walks to just enough for the requirements to be met. I have taken Jen a little further on a couple of occasions, but as the weather has been very cold and windy she is not being to obstreperous when I have turned around to come home.

This evening Paul took Poncho to the vet. Jen was much more put out when they went out without her, running backwards and forwards between the lounge and the lobby, and whining. It turns out that it is actually his elbow that he has hurt, and will now be on anti-inflammatory tablets for the next six days.