The big job today

It's been a nice day with a bit of a breeze and the morning dampness dried up by the time we'd had a (late) breakfast. So it seemed a day for garden work. 
My first thought was getting the last of the potatoes up but Jan said it would be good to have some help in the corner of the garden you see in the blip. She was pulling up oregano, and I was given the spirea bush to dig up. Spirea grows deep roots and then sends up fresh shoots both near and far to the original plant. Once established it is really hard to get rid of, but we will try! This is stage 1, dig deep and get as much of the root as you can. Stage 2 is to pull up, or dig out, all the other shoots that have spread from the original; that's done too. Stage 3 will be next year, clipping off all the new shoots as they come up, and maybe going for the roots from which they spring too.  I'm afraid that stage will go on for several years before the plant finally gives up. (Why did we ever plant this beast??)
All the bits of spirea we dug up have gone on the fire pile. If you throw them away in the forest or a murky corner of the garden they just start to grow. We have gained at least three bushes in this way!
After about three hours of hard labour we decided it was enough and stopped for a cup of coffee. After our break Jan headed off to sew, and I dug up another row of potatoes, and put some of the summer furniture into its winter quarters. Hooray for lovely late summer days!