ME payback and Dahlias on the compost heap

The 'payback' associated with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is difficult to adjust to. The problem for me is judging correctly what will trigger its worst effect which, in my case, is a kind of nauseated, zapped feeling and a sore chest on top of the usual achey limbs and painful facet joints.

The weather over the weekend just gone has been lovely. On Saturday morning I started the autumn- and winter-long task of Boggy Brae hedging while Toad and Toadlet still slumbered. I wedged a ladder between the NW bank and the hedge, making sure it was well tangled in firm branches so couldn't tip, and attacked the top few feet of the rhododendron hedge.

[I just went out at this point and actually measured the longest branch I cut off – two and a half metres. So, yeah, a few feet!]

I didn't do an awful lot – not more than half an hour or so of cutting. Then it was a case of tipping three wheelbarrow loads of small branches and leaves onto a heap in what is fast becoming the Jungle Corner, breaking or cutting some of the woodier parts and stacking them beside the bike shed (there's a convenient narrow space between the bike shed and the coal bunker), and putting the tools away. I left some of the larger branches to deal with another time and just pulled up a couple of barrowsful of Lesser Knotweed (Persicaria campanulata) to finish off with. I found underneath it two small holly trees, a small St.John's Wort and, best of all, some more of the delightful Alpine Enchanter's Nightshade.

So let's say half a morning's work, and I don't rush this stuff. I was hot and needing a cold shower when I'd finished but it was a warm day.

Then yesterday I mowed and strimmed the NW and NE terraces – about six barrows full of grass cuttings and ferns and trimmed back periwinkle (Vinca major). I'd decided not to do more hedging just yet because I'd clearly annoyed my back thigh muscles making them do something unaccustomed on Saturday, and anyway the terrace needed mowing. The back part to the SW still needs doing so, you see, I hadn't overdone anything. Today though: blergh.

So after hanging washing out this morning I gathered my camera bucket – a rectangular mop bucket with gaffer tape along a split in the bottom; it's not waterproof enough to use as a mop bucket any more, but it means I've somewhere dry to put whichever camera (of two) that I'm not using at any particular moment – and tootled out to try and get to know the Panasonic Lumix a bit better. I've pressed all the buttons now and tried different settings without really understanding most of them. I might have to resort to reading the manual. The trouble with manuals is they're always full of jargon that you have to be an expert to understand before you even know what they are talking about!

Last year Toadlet sowed some dahlia seeds in a trough in The Den and we left it in there all summer. They did really well, unlike our dahlia attempts in Oxfordshire which were a flop. In the autumn, when they died down, I tipped the trough of earth onto the compost heap. It got buried over the winter with vegetable peelings various, coffee grounds and teabags, and this year some dahlia plants sprung up. I shall let them do their thing, bury them again in situ and convert that heap into The Dahlia Bed. I like plants that just get on with life.

The sunlight was shining through the petals and insects and spiders were clearly having a ball:

And now, having done that and written this, I'm ready for a venison burger sandwich. Flowers are good for the spirits.