The peacock has got an eye infection, and is penned up and being treated with eye drops. The vet apparently wants him released so that he can exercise his leg muscles. The consensus at work is against releasing the peacock, since once he's running loose nobody thinks we would ever catch him again. It isn't clear how his eye got infected. Maybe the guinea fowl finally lashed out at him, as he does annoy them, or maybe it was a rogue bit of vegetation.
It was extremely hot and sticky in the plant centre due to the KILLER HEATWAVE. The manager sent me down to the shade structure to weed the epimediums and the bamboos, and I spent a peaceful couple of hours pulling hairy bittercress out of their pots, and crawling among the bamboos picking dead leaves out of the gravel. I always wear a sunhat in high summer, since a few years ago my face abruptly decided that it had received enough sun exposure for one lifetime, and began to find strong sunlight painful. For work and gardening I have a Tilly hat, which is a 1930s retro looking thing that blocks UV, repels rain, ties on or will float as required, and is machine washable. Crawling among the bamboos in my 1930s hat I amused myself pretending that I was an explorer in the jungle, while trying to make sure I didn't go the way of the peacock and jab myself in the eye. My glasses offer some protection, but side shoots can still sneak in round the edges. I once had to waste an entire Sunday morning going to the Colchester walk-in centre after a Cornus got me that way, following which I did buy a new pair of plastic goggles which I wear at home for tasks that obviously constitute an eye hazard. An optician, a very dapper young man wearing a three piece suit, told me that I should wear eye protection all the time. I don't think he was a gardener himself, or had ever tried taking his own advice. After half an hour in goggles on a hot day you can't see through them for sweat.
After that I was allowed to stick prices on to an enormous consignment of greetings cards and paper napkins, so that I could stay in the relative cool of the shop. Normally I try to avoid getting too involved in the shop. I don't even dust my own house more than I absolutely have to, so I certainly don't want to end up dusting displays of china mugs. Since the time I failed to notice that the price gun had a euro setting as well as pounds sterling and priced a lot of things up in the wrong currency I am generally allowed to go and do plant related tasks anyway. But it was bakingly hot outside, and I was grateful not to be out in it all afternoon. As it happens I rather like greetings cards and printed paper napkins, so was quite happy looking at the pictures and trying not to move more than I had to. Don't think it counts as an aspect of my job for which I require my horticultural degree, though. The quantity of paper napkins we've just bought should see us nicely through to next year's Jubilee lunch parties and beyond.
At six o'clock we went clammily home. This was my last six o'clock finish for a while, as by the next time I'm at work it will be July, and we'll finish at 5.15pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment