rain later

The day started off so promisingly.  The sky was blue, the garden glowed in the sunlight, and I set off to buy more mushroom compost convinced I'd have it all spread before the afternoon was out. Why, I might even have time to go and get some more to restock before the garden centre closed for Christmas.

The first couple of bags were used up in no time at all, and by lunchtime I'd applied the contents of four of them, tucking it in generous handfuls around the stems of the old rose 'Juno'.  She is a centifolia, bred in 1832 and still going strong, with scented, muddled, middling pink, flowers. After previous applications of manure she is currently happy enough with life to be spreading at the root, though thin sand isn't generally the best soil for growing roses.  However, as the brown tide swept past 'Juno' the sky began to darken and the wind gusted more sharply, and by lunchtime it was clear I was looking at a rerun of yesterday, and it was going to rain.  The Systems Administrator assured me that rain had been forecast from the outset, but in my enthusiasm to get out into the sun that had truly passed me by.

Instead I cleaned.  Keen gardeners tend to have cleaner houses during wet spells, but in honour of Christmas I'd have had to do the cleaning at some point anyway.  Needles from the Christmas tree have already found their way as far as the kitchen.  I vacuumed and wiped, and even swept as many cobwebs as I could reach down from the ceilings, and by the time I'd finished it was all quite clean and remarkably tidy by our standards.  I fear that one reason why cleaning seems easier than it did a decade ago is that my eyesight has got worse, but since our friends and relations are likewise ten years older than they were maybe the illusion will work on them as well.

I thought it was unfriendly of the short indignant tabby to come and march around the kitchen shouting for her supper on wet and filthy feet, after I'd washed the floor, but such is life with pets. The internet is full of advice on festive clothes to wear on Christmas day, silver and sparkly being my favourite suggestion, but in our case it will have to be the same sort of clothes we always wear at home, that is things that will not be ruined by contact with Our Ginger.  And are reasonably warm.  Quite possibly the same sweater I'm wearing now.