because there was a tropical cyclone heading down the coast towards us. In the end it crossed the coast quite a bit north of here but we still got strong winds and soaking rain. The rain is very welcome, strong winds not so much. The cyclone has done a lot damage where it crossed the coast with one small mid west coast town almost completely destroyed and others badly damaged. Housing in the north of the state is built to withstand cyclonic winds but this one came much further south than usual so no-one was prepared.
Since the rain looked likely to persist until Tuesday on Sunday morning I thought I'd better get out into the garden and do a bit of a tidy up. This was not because a lot needed to be done in preparation for the strong winds - we live on top of a hill and are used to the chill of strong morning easterlies at this time of year and keep things pretty well secured all year round. It was because I'm about to have surgery which will keep me out of the garden for some considerable time - and if you know me you'll also know that this is not something I look forward to - and by that I mean both the surgery and not being able to get into the garden.
Pisces has learned over the years that I need to get out into the garden a lot - when I'm stressed, when I'm happy, when I need a break, you name the situation and I need to get out into the garden and grow things. When we first married he used to try to find ways to save me work in the garden but he long ago realised that what he sees as work in the garden for me is pleasure. Now he obligingly takes on any task that I ask him to or that he knows is beyond me.
So Sunday was mostly me weeding and topping up the soil any pots I thought needed a little TLC. That led me to prune some of the flowering cacti that were a bit straggly - which in turn led to sweeping up the leaves and leaf litter that had accumulated around them over the summer. I'm very glad I did because it rained steadily until around midday yesterday and there would have been a soggy mess to clean up. I also divided up some of the pots of yellow bearded irises and the excess is now planted out into one of the flower beds outside the family room where I'm looking forward to having a splendid display of blooms in a few months.
As we usually get some severe storms here in the winter starting in May now all is in readiness both for them and for the time I won't be allowed to work in the garden as I recover from my surgery. I'll be back here again in a few days. Wish me luck.
