The Story of the Stakes...
So on Saturday K&K went all the way over to Hengrove Park to see a man about a coin. Specifically, one of
these, with what we think might be a beech tree behind the hut. It's rather nice - he bought it with some of his birthday money, but luckily has no plans to collect the other eleven (he has two different ones now).
However, this was a bit of a long walk for them both, so they didn't get to Wyevale for my stakes for the fruit cage. Ken offered to go on Sunday instead, so off they set while I carried on with the
AC. Then came the phone call...
OH NOES!!11!! Wyevale didn't have 8' stakes. Nor 6' ones. In fact, the only bamboo stakes they had left were 2' ones - just a tad shorter than I needed... But, Kai agreed to sell me 3 of his 8' ones so I could sparrow-proof the blueberry bushes (because more and more of them are turning purple now, and we should be able to start eating them in about a week, and I don't want the birds getting them instead).
Today, it being Monday, I needed to shop - in town, in fact, for skoosh refills/dropping off used Brita filters for recycling/checking FabricLand for material to make a couple of new T-shirts (they didn't have what I wanted)/Wilkinson's for sprouting seeds and
laaaaarge plant pots for next year's cumbles - but they didn't have what I wanted either. However, since I had a FirstDay ticket, I nipped up to Broadwalk to our local Wilkinson's, which had everything I was looking for. And more, because hiding behind some extendible trellising I spotted some long, sturdy green poles... Turned out they were plastic-wrapped aluminium made specifically for use with netting over fruit. And they were 89p each. Result!
Slogged fully laden down the hill, flopped for half an hour, then hobbled over to Tesco to do the shopping I had
planned to do at Sainsbug's on the way home from town but couldn't because I went up to Broadwalk instead. If you see what I mean. And actually that was good, too, because they have big pots of Yeo Valley organic fat-free vanilla yoghurt on special at the moment, and I adore vanilla (more so since I discovered it comes from an orchid). And I've also recently discovered that cumble plants don't like getting the base of their stems wet when they're growing, and the horticultural cognoscenti place large, open-bottomed yoghurt pots over the base pressed into the soil so water doesn't splash on them (as opposed to me having to be very very careful to keep them dry). So not only do I get a tasty treat, but I can recycle the pots next year for my cumbles! I love it when a plan comes together.
On arriving back, however, I had to get the fruit cage made, and Ken had his CT scan (for his eye problems) tonight, so only had time to drill the holes for me (in poles and bamboo: I'm holding the frame together with garden wire this time!) before he had to leave (using my FirstDay ticket - we don't 'alf get good use out of them!) Kai came out to support the struts while I did the wiring - and then I had to get the netting done...
I sewed it together. Well, actually, I used my largest crochet hook to pull the twine through and knot each section together. If you've ever seen black and white images of sailors repairing fishing nets, it was a bit like that. Except I don't have a beard or smoke a pipe. But otherwise - yeah... Took me an hour. Knackered now. But it looks good, and is
much stronger and more durable than the makeshift one.
01:07 1/7/08 - and I've just watched
Lord of War - a very nasty and disturbing film, but sufficiently compelling to keep me watching even though after twenty minutes I'd almost decided to switch it off... Need something to take the bad taste out my mouth now.
Looks like the weatherpixie site is broken. Invisibling mine til I find out what's what.
Labels: busyness, films, gardening, medical matters, shopping
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 9:47 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment