Three bags of manure started my day off well. I like this incremental delivery as it does not overwhelm me, so I am making great progress in the garden. Pity it is the wrong end of the year for this sort of thing but it will give me a good start next Spring. This lot went into what I had expected to be an empty bed. I had not planted anything there, and the bramble berry had given every indication of dying (this is down the back where the hose does not reach that easily and I had decided not to bother with it given how dry the beginning of summer was). But no, on pulling out the all too willing twitch, I discovered new growth on the bramble hiding underneath. So I have pruned off all the dead canes, re-inserted the climbing frame and am hoping for the best. Also a raspberry seems to have survived several years of neglect and that too is poking out new growth. All of this is being buried under the manure which is a little fresh for the purpose but I suspect brambles are well up to it. The three bags went into that bed, and more of the undergrowth was mowed. Since I had the secateurs out with me, I also cut back the celery (that is the green thing in the corner of the bed in the photo). Cutting through the thickest stem I was surprised to discover an entire colony of earwigs boiling out of the large hole in the middle. I often wondered where earwigs come from and now I know, lol, they grow in celery plants!

The fennel and one of the currant bushes also got some attention, and then I got the whipper snipper out.

First I could not undo the knob that gives access to load the cable. So I took it over the road to see if John could manage it. He is clearly very very ill at present, so it was lucky there was an electrician there who happily sorted it out for me. I set to with a will and a new lot of cable, and got some edges trimmed. But when it came time to turn it off to re-load additional cable, it would not go off, no matter what I did. It just kept on running. Eventually I managed to get it to stop by switching on the choke and revving it till it flooded itself. No idea what is going on there.

This morning as I was collecting the manure, two of the horses were led down the lane and out onto the oval for some exercise and the chance to learn to lead. On their way back I invited them to stop for a bit of a graze on my place which they greatly appreciated, leaving further offerings to add to the garden. If they can get over the resentment that I am profitting from their waste, we may yet get something resembling a relationship going, one hopes.