Hibernation & migration

No posts since September, eh? A bit pants really, especially after the "Post it!" resolution in my end-of-year-one round-up :/

However, I have some excuses:

Not much to write about

The Autumn has been full of doing other stuff, like running away to gigs on the weekends (woohoo!) & learning Italian. I've not been out in the garden AT ALL.

We're moving...

Yes indeedy. Pretty serious stuff & lots to do. So I'll endeavour to post about that - which plants will we take? Which will we leave behind? What's the new garden going to be like?! It's all very exciting :D

So if you want to buy a 3 bed house in Bedlington with an awesome garage, a pizza oven & a lightly wrestled garden, check out hubby's rad 3D modelling skills & drop me a line. The house will be listed with an estate agent in the New Year.

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! :)

Bargain, or weakness?

I've done it again. I've splurged unexpectedly at the supermarket. But, but, it was the perfect plant. Honest.

The rationale

• They're hellebores - an item on my fantasy plant list (I'm compiling that at the mo & will it share with you another day).
• They're white - fitting my colour scheme for shady corner, & being woodland souls shade is what they like.
• They're face up - many hellebores have droopy flower heads, but not these.
• They're 2 for £5 - a bargain, surely...?

Hellebores are in flower right now & so there was a huge display in the garden centre on Saturday. & the garden centre wanted £20 per plant.
TWENTY QUID!?!
They were big plants, I admit, but still... I'd want a tree for 20 quid.

So today, when I saw the perfect plant 2 for a fiver, it just had to be done.

Too pretty not to...

Now I just have work on being unrepentant about impulse buying.