I washed our tablecloths yesterday, and then set them out in the back garden to dry on our laundry rack. I was lying on a blanket on the grass with Olga, reading, when I looked up and saw the tablecloths as a sort of "2001" monolith looming over me. A weird perspective!
I finished "Jamaica Inn" by Daphne du Maurier, which I liked. I had a little trouble getting into it but after about 100 pages it took off. I can see why it was popular when it was published back in the '30s. Very gothic, with lots of dark corridors and windblown rain.
I also mowed the lawn, which now looks like this. The teasel jungle is still tall and green, and all those teasels are in various stages of blooming. I like the overall effect, which isolates the back part of the garden, but once they're finished blooming I may cut quite a few of them down, along with the burdock, so they don't all re-seed.
Also, our roses are looking terrible. Some of them barely have any leaves. We didn't prune about half of them this year, because we wanted to see what would happen, and I think that's part of the problem -- we have leggy growth. But we also have black spot, which is very common and we haven't done anything to fight it. We have an organic black spot remedy that we haven't used this year, and I think next year we need to be better about pruning, mulching and using that remedy. To be fair, pretty much every rose bush I've ever seen has black spot, but I think ours is especially severe and I'd feel terrible if we, as custodians of these old rose bushes, allowed them to perish on our watch.
I pulled together a bunch of documents in order to file my British taxes. It's so fun being an expat and having to do taxes TWICE. Fortunately I have an accountant helping with the British ones, because I know nothing about British tax law and this is a new requirement prompted by my inheritance from my mother. Maybe once I see how it's done I can file myself in future years. Or maybe from here on out I'll have the accountants do both my American and British taxes, which is their specialty. It would be nice to hand it all off to an expert.
Also, I've been meaning to say thanks for all your comments on Friday's post, wishing me and Dave a happy anniversary. It was great to hear good wishes from so many of you. You made our day!
I like the garden view. It almost looks infinite, even though there are buildings in the background. Make sure the roses have good air circulation around them. It won't kill off blackspot but it can help to prevent it growing.
ReplyDeleteThese are great tablecloth.
ReplyDeleteOur roses are half and half, equally neglected re pruning and deadheading some are healthy and flowering abundantly while the others directly next are stemmy and what little leafcover there is, it's spotty and meh. I give out to them but to no avail.
Your garden! What a happy place, blackspot notwithstanding. I wish we had an accountant here who could do both Spanish and American taxes. We first have our Spanish taxes done, affordably, and then pay a small fortune to our accountant in California to have our American taxes done.
ReplyDeleteYou stopped me at tablecloths! Gosh,how posh.
ReplyDeleteI have the tax situation well in hand. My income is so low it's below taxable! Yet I live very happily.
Beautiful tablecloths and they look like an art display. Art in the park comes to mind. I failed at roses and would not know where to begin with black spots. Having a tax expert sounds ideal to me.
ReplyDeleteWe have some nice table clothes, but we don't actually eat in the dining room & right now it's a makeshift home office space for me. But maybe I should put a cloth on there anyway just to posh it up a little!
ReplyDeleteI just love your back yard - such a nice oasis of calm. And I would 100% turn over the tax work to a professional!
The garden looks gorgeous, so peaceful.
ReplyDeletebelated Happy Anniversary. this last week was intense and no time for my usual routine. very busy tablecloths. I assume your dishes are a solid color!
ReplyDeleteMy rose bushes are also old and they don't seem to do what they are supposed to no matter what I do.
ReplyDeleteI thought those were quilts until you said tablecloths!
ReplyDeleteI finished my du Maurier and enjoyed it, too. I might have to put Jamaica Inn on my list.
Your garden looks great, Steve! I always like the look of your tablecloths.
ReplyDeleteThe tablecloths look like an art installation. Better than many! I have ignored the one rose I have; this year it bloomed a lot but really needs some trimming. Do I need to be poked and bloodied though?
ReplyDeleteThe garden looks wonderful! Roses can be quite fiddly and some years seem worse than others.
ReplyDeleteBelated Happy Anniversary to you & Dave!
You garden is beautiful! I know you don't like chemicals, but there are fungicides that can be used to treat black spot. When we had roses, it seemed like they were always getting it, that and powdery mildew and thrip. The fungicides were necessary to combat the disease.
ReplyDeleteThe title "Jamaica Inn" struck a note in my head today when I was reading your blog. I thought, I have that book. Sure enough, there it is in among all those old books I inherited from my grandfather. I haven't read it but now I think I should. In fact, I should read all of those old books that I haven't read before.
ReplyDeleteI love the tablecloth monolith.
"Oh look Igor! The librarian cleverdicky eez reading in the garden again!"
ReplyDelete"No doubt he eez reading capitalist propaganda as usual"
You know how I feel about laundry on a line- prayer flags!
ReplyDeleteYes. Find the right tax guy and let him do it. Why not?
As for roses- I know nothing about them and cut them back once a year, let them do what they need to do for the rest of the time. It seems to work.
BTW, your comment on Sabine's blog re the Orange menace was spot on, he's the ultimate tool.
ReplyDeleteYour yard is beautiful and I like the monolith. Happy belated Anniversay to you and Dave. Sorry I'm late but I was . . . "incapacitated". I'm much better now.
ReplyDeleteThe garden is lovely and I agree you should take better care of the roses. I think Black Spot usually occurs when the leaves have been too wet with no breeze to dry them. Try to water without getting the foliage wet.
ReplyDeleteI don't even own a single tablecloth anymore, I don't need one more item to be covered in cat hair. Plus my one and only table has several permanent items as well as my nightly dinner plate and it would be too much trouble to move all that just for a tablecloth.
For years I did my own taxes -- to my detriment. I thought I was fine. Then one day I went to an accountant and got a refund more than double what I did in the past. I'm a convert!
ReplyDeleteAndrew: I think that's exactly the problem. We've planted too many other things around the rose bushes.
ReplyDeleteSabine: Well, a lot depends on the type of rose. We have some ramblers that are totally fine. It's the hybrids that are suffering.
Mitchell: Interesting that you still send your taxes off to the states to be done! I never had an accountant there, sadly. Aren't there expat accountants in Spain who could do both?
Boud: But you still have to file a return, don't you? Or not?
Susan: Art in the back yard!
Bug: We actually rarely eat on these cloths. Two of them cover the dining room table and one is on a table in the foyer.
Bob: It's our oasis!
Ellen: Ha! Yes, our dishes are white. :)
Red: Ours always bloom and have been minimal maintenance up to now, but I think we really failed them this year.
Kelly: Yes, add it to your list! I'd love to know what you think of it.
Ellen D: Thank you and thank you!
Margaret: Well, fortunately you don't have to do that now. We always trim the roses in February. Unless it's a rambler, in which case it gets trimmed after blooming.
Damselfly: Thank you! Yeah, roses have off years. I notice that many other peoples' bushes look a little sparse, too, so maybe it's something about the damp spring allowing more fungus to grow.
Jim: Yeah, we're really trying not to use fungicide, but we DO have a sort of fertilizer that purports to help control black spot. We're going to start using that a little more regularly and see if it helps. So far I haven't seen a thrip, knock on wood! At least, I don't think so.
Sharon: Oh, if you have a copy, definitely read it! :)
YP: Ha! That's probably pretty much what they're saying.
Ms Moon: I've always been content to do our taxes but they are finally becoming too complicated for me.
Jim (again): Indeed. That is the word for him. Well, one of many.
Catalyst: I'm glad you're better! You scared us all!
River: But that's why a cloth is a good thing -- take it off, wash it, put it back on! No more hair or dust or whatever! We don't water the rose foliage but we had a very damp spring and I think that's part of the problem.
Jeanie: I always wonder about that! I sent the accountants my US return for this year, in which we paid a small amount of money, and I bet they're looking at it thinking, "Well, we could have avoided THAT!"
We haven’t found a local accountant who can do both. Will keep looking. Our Spanish accountant is about 1/4 the price of our American one!
ReplyDeleteNo. No taxable income no return even possible. They make allowance for this when you need to access programs such as the COVID $$. You only have to file if you owe.
ReplyDelete