She's no lady.

Alchamilla Mollis, AKA Ladies Mantle, is the "She" here. More like Bill Sykes,s coat as far as I can see.
 Don't get me wrong, the acid green flowers are often in my vases. The froth is a wonderful way to make a few blooms fill a vase. There were 2 fairly small plants in my garden last year, but the heat wave seems to have put them into overdrive. I spent a very sweaty couple of hours digging a veritable forest of them out this afternoon.

They were growing like Triffids (and breeding like rabbits seemingly) along the front bed of my garden. I had noticed but the significance of such a proliferation escaped me. Then this morning I realised that they were choking the life out of my roses and fuchsias. Not Good.

The SO is taking down a dry wall in the back garden, resulting in mountains of soil, and I saw a way to kill 2 birds....

The front bed had a very low soil level, the retaining wall was standing almost a foot proud the whole length, not a real issue but annoying.
I removed nearly all of the offending plants and saw that there was room to build up the soil level around the roses, without burying the graft too deep.

Cue some more sweaty work shovelling soil into the barrow, wheeling it to the front garden and then shovelling it into the bed.
I have almost finished, an hour tomorrow should see the back of it. It looks so much better, I did take the opportunity to remove some very straggly lavender plants and now have some gaps for more plants. Woo Hoo.

First thing tomorrow we are off to the builders yard for sand and ballast. There is talk off a concrete ring beam that will morph into a potted herb garden, I did hear the words patio and seating  but by then I was deep in what herbs, how many and have I got enough pots.

Once finished in the garden I took the time to make soup, a small butternut squash, 4 smallish carrots, 2 sweet potatoes and an onion were peeled and chopped. A chilli from my plant and 5 cloves of garlic were peeled and minced.
A little oil in a pan, 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds heated till they sizzled a bit then a tbsp or so of ground cardamom a little ground ginger and cumin joined the party. In with the veg and a good stir round and 5 minutes on a low heat. Then I covered the veg with boiling water, added 2 veg stock cubes and a good grind of black pepper. Brought back to boil and then simmered for 35 minutes with a lid on, the veg was soft,the smell was making me swoon so in with the wand liquidiser. 
Oh My Word, delish, Oops I forgot to say that I threw in some fenugreek leaves when the soup hit the boil mark.
The chilli note was there so I spooned a little soup into a bowl for a taste test. 
It's a hard job but has to be done.
Very nice, but just a little too much burn at the back of the throat, I have Greek coconut yogurt in the fridge at all times and a dollop of that tamed the beast.
Once cooled down half went to W, along with some yogurt, and the rest is in the fridge for tomorrows lunch. 
The wall will be put back tomorrow, the SO will be the builder and I will be the labourer so it will be most acceptable if not downright essential, with a slice of bread possibly.

It is now walkies time so I better get a wriggle on. 

                      TTFN                                        Pam
PS I did have a shower before cooking, it was really necessary.