Woman versus Nature

I've probably spoken about weeding down here before. Most of my day was spent fighting the weeds, so it's very much on my mind. Here it's not so much a case of hoes and pulling out dandelions, it's more an epic fight against nature for the right to exist in your own property.

This path, for instance, should be 4 feet wide. It should be nice crunchy white gravel. And that's how it was left a mere 5 weeks ago. This morning, the path was less than 1 foot wide and you almost wouldn't know there was gravel there. This is a shot of it between rounds 1 and 2 of Woman versus Nature. I'm starting to win by this point, and you can see gravel. This path is about 7 metres long. There are another 30 metres or so of path like this....

And they're now all clear. (Mostly.) My knees may never be the same again (though I have to say the idea of using one of the kids' swim floats as a kneeler was a good one) and my back is certainly in need of some painkiller or other.

As well as the weeding of paths, there was also a lot of pruning of bushes - which we didn't like to do in the summer when everything was gloriously in flower. Mr B and I have a difference of opinion over pruning. I like to treat it as an artistic exercise: cutting a few pieces off, then standing back and seeing how it looks. Mr B goes in with power tools to slash and burn (then I follow around afterwards with secateurs to tidy up the really ugly bits). His way is quicker, mine is prettier.

Even with all this hard labour, we did manage to fit in a leisurely lunch in the sun, a wander to the river to let the kids play in the shockingly cold water and a sit in the sun with a book.

So now, at the end of the day, hands stained orange by some odd weeds, and prickled by thorns, I've earned my glass of Fitou. I've probably earned the whole bottle, and a few of its chums, but I may bank those for another night!