Tag: grass time

I’m asking the Questions

On By geordieroscoeIn weather5 Comments

Way-aye, Roscoe here.

I’ve got some pictures of hay-making and our late night grass time this week. But first I’m asking for Questions.

I was telling Mam how hard it is to think of something to say each week, and Mam said ‘why not interview the others?’

When I said I didn’t know what to ask them, she said to ask you.

So, please would you ask questions in the comments that I can ask Biggles and Neville. Then I’ll ask them and write each up on one day. Mam says she’ll think of some too, and it’ll be a Profile of each of us. That suggests I have to interview myself, too.

Mam’s put the hay up on a rack in the summerhouse to finish drying now, but this is how she dried it in the sun.

It’s been extremely hot the last few days. Mam says that, but we’ve been just the usual temperatures. Mam opens the door to the garden first thing, so the fresh morning air comes in, but she closes the curtains to keep the sun out. By the time we’ve been cleaned out she closes the door to keep the cool in. All day long we’re inside, and so is she. She’s been writing this week. There’s been a tall blowy thing wafting air across us too. It feels good, but I wonder if Mam is over-doing it. I mean, it looks lovely outside when she draws back the curtains in the afternoon.

But she goes outside for something and comes back in and says “ It’s terribly hot, boys. It’s 32!” Whatever that means, I don’t know. Apparently it’s got up to 25 at the highest in our room, which seemed fine to me.

Then we get to go out when the sky is starting to go pink. It’s a little bit warmer than our room then, but it gets cooler. On Saturday Mam was reading her ebook and didn’t realise it was nearly dark! She was better yesterday though.

We like it outside in the evening. It’s very pleasant and quiet.

See you next week, and please remember to ask lots of questions that I can ask the others over the rest of August.

love

Roscoe xxx

Garden Vegetables!

On By geordieroscoeIn garden2 Comments

Way-aye, Roscoe here.

It’s been another busy week. We’ve been eating piles of grass Mam cuts for us when it’s too wet to go out. It grows all by itself at the bottom of the garden, along with some wildflowers that we’re not allowed to eat. Well, take us down there, Mam, and we’ll eat the grass and not the flowers, right?

Mam’s been making funny noises doing what she calls drilling and screw driving. She did it on the paved area, then brought it over in two L shaped pieces to the red carpet places. Then she screwed some more and made it into a rectangle.

Then she dragged all the bags of soil from the old compost heap over, and poured it into the rectangle. It filled about half of it. She folded up the carpet and laid it against the earth, then she planted the vegetables from the pots. There’s:

  • Dragon kale
  • Ragged kale (the one we think is a bit iffy)
  • tiny celeriac plants
  • cos lettuce (we’re eating the ones left in the pots now)
  • swiss chard
  • endive frizee (we’ve had some of that too)

And I think that’s the lot. Maybe when she gets some more soil she’ll sow some carrots, although the ones in the big pot are fabulous,

Then she fixed the insect mesh over it. She says it’s to keep the cats off, as well as the butterflies.

Then yesterday she did the second rectangle, although she didn’t put any soil in it. She says she’s going to scrape the grass off, fork it over a bit, and sow green manure in it to break up the soil. Look, I just tell you what she says. I don’t understand it at all. It’ll make sense when I see what she’s done, probably.

Run around the vegetables

No news on the newbies. But Mam’s put the fleece down in their cage, which must be a good sign. And they’ll be getting the snowman bed and tunnel.

Talking of cagewear, Mam gave me and Nev the blue snugglesack alongside the zebra one. Now we don’t need to argue about who’s sitting in it!

See you next time

Roscoe xxxx

Change of routine

On By geordieroscoeIn garden2 Comments

Waye-aye, Roscoe here again. I suppose I don’t need to say that now, as you’re going to expect me all the time. Oh well, it’s part of my routine, so I’ll stick with it for now.

I don’t like to change my routine. I prefer things to have a nice regular pattern. But things are changing here. Only a bit, but just enough to notice.

First up, Mam wakes up then spends a while doing something in her room before she comes to sort us out. Well, she goes to the room at the other end of the hall, and usually calls in to say ‘good morning’, but then she goes back to her bed. She says it’s not time to get up yet, but the sun’s been up for ages, so why aren’t we?

The sun keeps changing. Not light and dark, and cloud and stuff, but it’s shining in on our runs in the morning. It was shining on Biggles first, but now it shines on us a bit too. Good thing Mam usually remembers to draw the fine curtain across before bedtime, so it’s light without being glaring. When the sun has gone round so it’s not shining on us any more, she usually pushes it back, but that’s not till after run time.

That’s another change: run time. Biggles is always a fuss-pot about being picked up before he’s had a proper wee, and now he’s being extra fussy, so Mam picks up Neville instead. Nev was right surprised at first, but he’s got used to it. Then Mam usually takes Biggles, then me. Then of course, she used to have her breakfast, come back and do Bertie and put Biggles back when she put Bertie down. Now that doesn’t happen, and we’re getting longer and longer runs in the morning. They’re not as much fun without Bertie to explore with. I have no idea what Mam’s doing all this time. But she says we’re finishing very much earlier than we used to, so I suppose she’s just filling in the time, like.

Bertie and me having fun before the runs were built.

The other thing that’s changed is our garden run. This week we’ve had the big panels up with the shades on them. Mam cut the grass with the big orange machine and I thought, uh-oh, no grass. But she left patches surrounded by wooden things, and she put our fence around those. We ate all the grass in one of them, so she put us in the one next to it yesterday. The grass was even longer in that one. I thought these wooden rails were marking out the new vegetable patch. I wonder if she expects us to dig it over as well? But she seems happy enough that we’re mowing it nice and level with the rest of the grass.

The three of us in the space where the veggies are going.

So, that’s what’s happening here. No sign of anyone coming to move into the empty run yet. Apparently nothing will happen till this avirus thing has gone away. And Mam wants it to go away soon so the man can come and decorate the wall behind the shelves, and then she can finish unpacking the boxes in our room.

Life’s so complicated. I hope it settles down again soon.

See you next week

Roscoe xxx

PS Mam said it was George’s anniversary yesterday. Nine years since he went over the Rainbow Bridge. That’s a long time.

W is for White, Wet, and Weather

On By geordieroscoeIn a to z challenge2 Comments

2019 A to Z badge
Blogging from A to Z

White! That’s me, Roscoe, except for my ginger eyepatch.

I’m blogging from A to Z with the letter W today!

White

I’m the first all-white piggy Mam had, although Kevin had lots of white all over him but lots of ginger patches too. Victor’s back end was white and agouti, Oscar’s back and side was white, and Dougall had about the same amount of white on him as Neville does. Humphrey had a big white face and white feet.  And Hugo had a half-white tummy and a Zorro stripe.

Roscoe making a hay nest
Neville doing the edges
Oscar meets Roscoe
Kevin with patches
Dougall’s third birthday
Victor ready for cuddles
Humphrey the Brave
Hugo wants to play
Hugo with zorro stripe
Ice, the baby, with his ears nicely down

And the baby, Ice, who isn’t going to be a baby for much longer, because he’s growing fast and his funny ears have dropped over like a pig’s should be, he’s all white.  Very white indeed.

Wet Weather

There are three types of weather.  Hot and wet, hot and dry, and weather we can go out on the grass in.  When it’s cold we don’t go out anyway.  We’ve had several weeks this summer where Mam’s said it’s too hot to go out.  It was hot inside as well, but Mam said outside was worse. When we had some rain, it was hot but the ground was too wet, and she didn’t want to risk us all getting pneumonia like Bertie did.  Bertie didn’t go outside when he was ill, even when we did.

Last week it was hot, but we went out when it was all shady and there was only an hour or so before dark. The grass is damp till lunchtime, which I think would be nice if it’s hot. Mummy says we have to wait though.

Wait is another W word.  I don’t like it at all.  But then next time Bertie has X, which is puzzling us all.  Then I get Y and he has Z, and then we’ll be on holiday again!  I can’t wait for our holiday!

See you next time,

Roscoe xxx

O is for Outdoors and Other things

On By geordieroscoeIn a to z challenge, garden1 Comment

2019 A to Z badge

Outdoors is definitely my favourite thing.

I’m Roscoe, and we’re working our way from A to Z through the alphabet.  My mate Bertie does alternate weeks with me.

We spend most of our time indoors, in our runs, up next to Mam’s working space. But summertime, we go outdoors into the garden, if the weather’s not too hot, not too wet, not too cold, and not too dry. Or too dark.

Most days Mam sets up our run around or between the vegetable patches, with their own little fences surrounding them.  She says it ‘maximises the use of the panels.’ I know we get bigger runs when she does that. I don’t know if that’s what ‘maximises’ means. Bertie generally gets his own run, because he fights with Biggles if they are left together. We get on with both of them.

Summer snoozing
Yummy leaves
Social setting
Between the veg beds

Bertie’s run always joins onto ours. We have a sort of meet and greet area. We’ve got that indoors as well, so it’s not vital.  Biggles likes running around with us, though, and we like him. He’s a nice chap, keeps himself to himself while still being sociable, like.

Over the weekend she decided we’d better get to work on the grass elsewhere in the garden and we had one under the tree and the other next to it, spreading out onto the grassy area, which is still a bit sparse. It’s recovering from drying up last summer.

Under the tree
On the grassy part
Mowing the grass
More mowing

Saturday we were with Biggles in the very shady patch.  Sunday we were in the other one (which is bigger) with Bertie. We got to work on the grass on both places, but clearly Bertie needs more help to mow his than Biggles does.  But then, he doesnt pay much attention to the grass.  He spends a lot of time bothering me.  He’s a right pain in the grease gland at times.  Later in the afternoon Mam put me back with Biggles, which was nice.  Biggles appreciated my company too.

(Sigh) Outdoors.  I like it a lot.  I sometimes stand at the door when Mam’s out picking our breakfast, thinking how nice it would be to go out straight away.  But I don’t.  Not till Mam says the time is right.

Then I can go and get the feel of grass underneath my feet, the wind in my ears, and the sun on my back. I laze around listening to the birds singing, and the little rustling noises of things in the borders, like frogs, and toads, and insects.

Yes, I love outdoors. Although I’m not so keen when it rains.

Next week, Bertie’s back with something beginning with P.  I’ve no idea what.

Have a good week.

love

Roscoe xxx

 

Roscoe

Eat, sleep, work

On By geordieroscoeIn garden1 Comment

Mornin’g all, Roscoe here.

I remembered to put the ‘g’ on up there, did you see that?  What, no ‘ thing?  Okay.

It’s a hard life being a guinea pig y’know.  Eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work.  I guess we work at what you call ‘play’, but it’s serious business, you know.

Take morning floor time.  That’s hard work.  It’s called exercise, and as ye may know, some exercise is really hard work.  I get down onto the hay box, and before I have time to explore it, it’s off onto the floor, checking up on everyone and everything.

roscoe

Everyone = Neville plus whoever’s been there with him.  It’s either Bertie or Biggles.  I have to check up on their scents, make sure they’re okay, not leaving any messages they shouldn’t.

Everything = all the nooks and crannies in the kitchen, making sure they are still there, nobody’s overwritten my messages that shouldn’t be there, looking to see whether Mam’s swept under the table, that sort of thing.  Inspection is an important part of work.  Quality control, it’s called.

We have pretty good quality here, even if Mam has gone overboard recently with the cleaning up bit.

The only rest I get is out in the garden. A bit of grass, then a good sleep, in the sun or the shade depending on what takes my fancy.  We’ve been getting out on the grass most days, unless Mam hasn’t got home till really late.  She did that three days in a row last week, but I let her off because we spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the garden.  There’s not much grass there, though.  It’s all dry.  Except the wee bits in the shade of the boards around the veggie patches, or up against the wall. Those are still worth nibbling.

Trouble is, Neville’s nibbled them all now.  Okay, I might have helped a bit.

Mam says we need rain.  She’s even started throwing water on the grass.  It needs more than that, I think, Mam.

Ah, well, hope it’s nice and sunny where you are.  I’m off for some rest.