Pruning the Roses

Yesterday we had sunny and relatively mild weather, so Dave and I spent a lot of time outside. We worked on the garden and I even wore shorts (though it was a bit chilly for that). It felt like the very earliest, teeniest, tiniest hint of spring was in the air.

I moved Olga's dog bed to a sunny spot on the lawn and she lay watching us. Like most dogs, she likes lying in the sun more than anything else except possibly a can of food, and she seemed relieved that her long period of indoor imprisonment was at least temporarily over.

I moved three of the foxgloves -- which seemed to be struggling in their individual pots -- to our patio planter where hopefully they'll settle in. It might look like they're close together but they have quite a bit of root space both to the sides and down, so they should do OK. The pottery shards are to prevent squirrels from digging up the plants.

We also neatened things up a little. I pulled some ivy growing into the lawn and cut down the dead loosestrife, and Dave pruned all the roses (not that you can really tell from this picture). The buddleias still need to be cut back but the mighty Internet, which knows all, says it's too early for that.

It's probably too early to transplant foxgloves too, but c'est la vie.

I also weeded our potted plants and discarded a few that had obviously died. Sometimes primroses, in particular, live through the winter and sometimes they simply vanish. We had several pots that contained nothing but dirt.

But I've buried the lede to this blog post, which is that last night Dave came down with coughing and a fever. He's testing Covid-negative by lateral flow but he's going to take a PCR, and he has just been on the phone to an NHS nurse, who advised him to self-isolate. (How does that work when we live together? Am I supposed to sleep on the couch?)

Meanwhile, I still feel fine and I'm also testing negative, but if Dave does in fact have Covid I'm sure it's only a matter of time. I'm going to work today as planned, since close contacts are no longer required to stay home. (I know that seems crazy but it's the policy.) I'm hoping he just has a cold or something but it seems unlikely. Argh!