I've always loved my garden - a heady mix of honeysuckle, jasmine and clematis climbed the fences and dripped their petals on the cottage garden beds. Roses drooped in summer sun after the bluebells and bleeding hearts from spring went back to sleep for another year.
However, it might be time to concede defeat in the battle of the bindweed. No matter how hard I've tried to get rid of it over the years - even to the point of digging up rose bushes and painstakingly removing the deadly tangled roots before replanting - it still chokes every plant, climbs every stem and smothers my roses the second my back is turned.
All this rain did not help. It's like something out of a horror film out there. I half expect some viscious green tendril to snake out of the undergrowth and drag me in there by the ankle.
No, I fear the only solution is to dig everything up and over and start again.
I'm just rubbish at throwing things away though... I keep little bits of string from the labels of trendy surf-dudette clothing, bus tickets from holidays in faraway places, broken jewellery, rusty things I find squashed in the road. I have this belief that I'll find a use for everything. Digging up plants and throwing them in the bin just makes me feel queasy. I'm reaching a compromise position and will attempt to keep the roses in pots while I assess if they are weed free.
However, I accept that it has to be done. Just as I have to let go of the bus tickets and other accumulated junk and the bits of me that no longer (or possibly never did) do me service. Life is a journey forward and we can't move with freedom if we're tied down by the roots of the weeds we should have dug up years ago.
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Sharing the beautiful pink of my climbing roses with Inspiration Avenue's Pink Challenge this week.