job done

I finally finished cutting the Eleagnus hedge, or at least I cut as much of it as I was going to.  Straight after breakfast I dragged the Henchman into place, half way along the hedge where there was still a small tufty section I didn't manage to get to last time before my neck got too stiff.  From the vantage point of the Henchman the small section seemed larger than I'd thought it was looking at it from underneath, but as I snipped and flipped I began to make visible progress, stopping every so often to relax my neck and shuffle the platform a little one way or the other to try and get a clear view of the last obstinate stems I couldn't quite see to cut.

The Systems Administrator appeared before I'd finished and asked how it was going, and I said that there were still a few tufty bits.  The SA said they could just stay tufty, but I said that then they would annoy me every time I looked at them, knowing I'd had all the kit out and hadn't quite finished the job.  Eventually I thought I had finished and went to put the pole lopper away in the garage, only to see as I turned around that there were still some isolated tall waving shoots, not visible from the side of the hedge facing the drive but only too obvious from further down the hill.  I cursed mentally and got the pole lopper out again.

By lunchtime I decided it really was as good as it was going to get, and after lunch we put the Henchman away, so I cannot be tempted to fiddle with the hedge any more and cutting it has officially been deleted from the list of Things To Do.  At last.  Tomorrow I might finish planting my Beth Chatto geraniums and poppies, and try and get some more of my seed raised young plants into the ground while the soil is still warm.

It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and as I stood up on the Henchman I had a good view of a buzzard circling over the wood and the back garden, quite low.  When do buzzards establish their territories, or do they even have territories?  I don't think we've had them breeding in the wood so far, but it would be exciting if we did.  Though we have had kestrels.  Are kestrels happy co-existing with buzzards?  They might be as I don't think they compete for food particularly.  I never understand why people who know about birds generally seem so unimpressed by buzzards, which are dismissed as not red kites or golden eagles.  I am due to see a friend on Wednesday who knows a bit about birds, and must try and pick her brains about buzzards.

Meanwhile the SA cleared away the great pile of prunings I'd left outside the study after chopping down the tangle of honeysuckle and Boston ivy that was climbing up the downpipe on the veranda, and beginning to infiltrate the gutter and climb in through the bedroom window.  The SA was admirably restrained yesterday when I had to confess that in the process of cutting through the honeysuckle stems I'd managed to sever the cable to the outside lights.