I'm fine

Shop assistant: Those shouldn't be stacked on the trolley like that.

 

I'm making my way to the till with 4 sleepers from the gardening section of our small local B&Q. I stacked them upright in the boards bit of the trolley. I spose they should've been lying flat. They haven't moved though. I'm being slow & careful.

 

Do you want me to stack them for you?

 

It's not far to the till. The shop's really quiet...

 

I'm fine.

They shouldn't be like that.

It's OK, they haven't moved.

I head for the till & take my place in the queue. After a couple of minutes, he's back.
 

I can stack them for you...

I'm here now; it's fine.

But they shouldn't be like that. Shall I stack them?
It won't take long.

I really don't mind.

 

& so he starts to rearrange the trolley. After he's moved 1 sleeper & is just starting on the 2nd, it's my turn at the till. I need to move the trolley, but he's got an armful of sleeper...

 

We're on.

 

I start to pull the trolley toward the till. He staggers forward with the sleeper & dumps it back on the trolley. I have to brace against it to stop it rolling into my shins.

There's another problem - the sleepers don't have a barcode. A member of staff is required to go get it. Our man volunteers, but not until he's finished stacking the remaining 2 sleepers.

So I wait. The tillfolk serve the other customers. & I wait. & I wait.

Eventually, he's back.

 

Can you believe it?! The manager told me off! For helping you!?! He said "She said she was fine". But it's health & safety!

 

His feelings are hurt. He's confused. He's looking to me & the till lady for sympathy...

Even more eventually he hands over the code. I finally pay for the sleepers.

 

Do you want a hand with those to the car.

No, I'm fine.

But it's a bit bumpy out there.

I'm fine.

But it can be quite dangerous & the trolley can run away....

No thank you, I'm fine.

 

He goes away. Finally.



 

Back at the trolley, I check my receipt. They've only charged me for 3 sleepers. I've got 4. I toss the moral coin in my mind, but I already know I'll go back & pay for it. I approach the lady at the till & explain. She thanks me for my honesty. While we wait for the card machine to do its thing, I feel the need to say:

I'm a big girl. I can lift stuff. I will be OK.

 

She said: I used to lift stuff all the time in here, but since I've been back from maternity leave, they keep me on the till.

 

It depresses me that some folk still think that women can't lift anything heavier than a shopping bag. Maybe it's a generational thing - my 'assistant' was 60 if he was a day. Maybe he thought he was being gallant. But, if he wants to take the health & safety line, I'd wager his back was more at risk than mine.

 

Besides, who the hell does he think is going to be lugging these sleepers around the garden all afternoon...?

 



One step at a time

The snow was back Sunday morning.
But I still have a tree to plant in stinky dog corner.
But I've got more structural work to do before it goes in, & that's going to take all day.
But it is quite literally baltic out there...

I bought the tree last weekend & it has already fallen over in its pot once, when the wind got up midweek. Fortunately it isn't damaged, but I do this all the time: buy something expensive & leaving it lying around neglected/rotting/dying.

But today is not that day.

Grasping at a very short straw (that it was very sunny for about 30 mins between the very brief snow showers), I decided to Carpe the damn Diem & get out there.

A quick jaunt to B&Q, filling up the passenger seat of little car with "rustic sleepers", then back to the ranch to use them as steps of the grand dog corner terracing plan.

An editorial aside: As (for me) this blog is about playing with blogging tech as well as gardening, I'm now going to try something new. Those waiting since the New Year for Japan posts will know that I'm struggling with a content backlog, so I'm wondering if a format change might help. For this post I'm going to try intro - piccies - outro, with all the explanation in the picture captions. I'd love to know what you think.

1st things 1st: Finish clearing the rest of the weeds from stinky dog corner.
All systemic weeds though so they're not going into my compost heap;
they'll go into the Council compost bin instead.

That's not vermiculite & meteors. That's snow.
I think my face has frozen.

Straight down the centre line:
I've still got the centre point pegged out from last year's path laying,
& the steps will respect that arc.

So, how far apart should they be?
A bit of shuffling the sleepers, measuring, & marking with bamboo pegs.

Cutting the steps out of the top soil.
A bit of level checking at this point too, so I'm at least in the ball park.

Weed barrier fabric laid in overlapping sections, with bamboo rails to
help keep the corners tight. Hopefully, by not using just a single run of
fabric from top to bottom, I'll reduce the risk of movement across the
whole run.

The sleepers placed on a bed of sand, levelled left to right, but with a slight tilt
backwards. The sleepers are not pegged down in anyway as this won't be a high
traffic area... I might revisit this decision if things start shifting though.

The rest of the fabric is covered with sand.
There'll be more gravel once I've nipped back to B&Q.

As you can see, there's more work to do: the rest of the terracing needs to go in. Then planting to soften the edges, maybe some low-lying things in gravel &, oh yes, plant the feckin' tree... still didn't manage that. But I was chuffed with my afternoon's work, and my ability not to trip up or stab myself while trying to think with an ice cube brain. & I learnt that it is waaaaaay easier to keep going than it is to get started.

So that's the end of the post - please add a comment to let me know what you think of this format. Thanks! :)

Honoured guests & unwanted pests

The plan on Sunday was to plant a tree. That was the plan. But that's the thing with plans - they change.

While grubbing around in the bottom left corner of the garden where I want to plant the tree, I spotted this in the top of the boundary wall:

Signs of burrowing

Look closely between the stones & you'll spot 2 holes. Too big for mouse holes. This is rats again, & alive this time, not dead in a bag.

I imagine the wall is a dandy ratty abode. Stone on the outside, soil on the inside, plenty of room, shelter, & rarely disturbed... a veritable des rodent res.

I can't let this stand, I have to do something to deter the rats from remaining in residence. So this revelation scuppers another plan - not only am I not planting the tree, but I am now removing my attempted honeysuckle screen.

Best laid plans

Down that end of the garden, over the other side of the wall, the neighbours have their dog cage. And it stinks. It's not hosed down much, so the smell is rank most of the time, proper gopping on a sunny day. It's a shame cos that corner of our garden would be an ideal location for a water feature, or a bench on which to sit & catch the last of the evening sun. But such whimsy is just not an option because of the overriding stench.

I had hoped to create a sweet smelling, long flowering screen, by training the vigorous honeysuckle we already have over a trellis. A trial trellis went up last year & the honeysuckle has romped away. So this year I had intended to replace the trellis with something more sturdy & keep weaving the tendrils in.

But now... it's got to come down. I need to keep an eye on the wall to see how much rat action there is. Time for a Plan B (or is that C...?).

Everybody out

The soil in the wall supports many plants: a nice blue trailing thing; the occasional mountaineering foxglove; a whole host of nettles; 2 tree saplings.... yeah, these guys should've been out well before now...

I quite like nettles. If you can tolerate them in the garden, they're great for the wildlife (caterpillars & pollinators), good in the kitchen & you can even make textile dyes from them: green from the tops & yellow from the roots. And the yellow roots I think are my favourite bit of the plant, cos it means that when I'm yanking them out I know exactly what they are :)

Yellow nettle roots

Deter & observe

With the top of the wall cleared, I want to keep it that way so I can see what level of ratty activity we're dealing with. So I took the soil level down a bit & lined the top of the wall with polythene. The garden waste recycling bin is already full from the purge the other week, so I'm having to bag up offcuts at the mo. I'd just nipped up the shop for a new roll of garden sacks & figured they'd make a great (& cheap, & to hand, & just the right width straight off the roll) alternative to some of that barrier membrane stuff we've got under the gravel.

Plastic down, & covered with 2 bags of gravel, it now looks a lot tidier:

Gravel dressing over a double layer of polythene

Given how eager things like thyme, rocket, foxgloves, poppies are to seed themselves into gravel in other areas, I'm sure this won't be bare for long. And any incomers will be more manageable than the previous thick mat of nettles & grass.

Finish on a song

All the hacked honeysuckle took a little time to clear, & while tidying up I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye:

My clean-up companion

This little laddie/lassie was hopping in & out of the gooseberry's bare branches, picking up bits I'd disturbed. It was remarkably bold, not more than a meter away - I've never been this close to a Robin in our garden before. I thought it would scarper as soon as I moved, but no. It kept hopping in & out of the bushes to have a peck around. It appeared so tame I wondered if someone had been feeding it by hand.

Then, as I sat stuffing garden sacks, it sat & sang. It was just lovely.

I reckon there's a nest in them there shrubs.