Guest Post - Nature Watch

While I'm away on honeymoon, today's guest post, from my father, discusses the delights of the garden now summer is here.

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Thanks to Schratzl for the image. NATURE WATCH. I was gazing leisurely at the garden the other morning, in a rare, brief moment of idleness and was admiring the wonders of nature. The new, green life bursting forth now that winter has relinquished its chilly grip on the earth, the thrill of birdsong, a constant delight to the ear, which if freely translated from bird speech says "Ladies, anyone up for a shag? Sod off other males, this is my territory! Ladies ...?" The lawn has quietly been gathering itself through the winter and has exploded into tussocks, independent states which are now fighting to conquer lesser clumps and rogue grasses. The first cut of the year is always a challenge! Norman, the giant bonsai tree must be 30 feet tall if he's a foot now and must be something of a rarity. It was a good thing that we took him out of his pot all those years ago and put him in the garden as no way could he fit in the living room now. I believe he is a Cedar of some kind and his 'leaves' are modelled on bright green needles - to be handled with care and preferably only stroked in a downward direction. The lady of the house sat with me on our rustic garden bench for a quiet moment. She agreed it was indeed a wonderful morning and in the same breath commented that Norman needed a 'trim', which sounds like a painful operation. The chances of my remaining unscarred by such a task are slim to non-existent. It was but two weeks previous that she decided that the young Oak in the corner of the garden also needed a 'trim', specifically cutting through the trunk approximately six feet above ground to encourage it to spread. Gardeners who are reading please note, this is a young tree of barely six inches diameter trunk, so not a great and ponderous creature. However armed with a log saw and a hand axe, whilst balancing six feet up a ladder, it was still something of a challenge. I decided to admire the wonders of nature a wee bit longer and then busy myself with the battleground which is the lawn. It's bound to take longer than I anticipate and with luck it will be lunchtime before too long.
Why not head over to www.facebook.com/RavenMagical where my parents offer all kinds of new age and weird and wonderful magical items via mail order.