Mud & Mischief

Gee, it’s May on Monday. And I’ve not really updated anything I’ve done in April. Must have been an exciting month…

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. Went to Spain on the 8th for a week, which was nice. Not quite as much sun as I would have liked but at least it didn’t rain. Slightly manic second week of the Easter break, in that I’m not totally sure what we did but we never seemed to be at home or be able to arrange going anywhere or to do anything as there was always something on.

On Monday I went down to Birmingham for the night and saw Miss Saigon with Mom, my aunt and my cousin. Thoroughly enjoyed that, especially the helicopter bit. Spent an hour at Mandy’s (aunt) on the way home discussing gardening and the best way to germinate sweetcorn and how impossibly provincial some Brummies are in that they didn’t know what a butternut squash was. lol

And have spent an hour at the lottie this morning, child free and in peace and quiet. If you ignore the council blokes strimming the graveyard a hundred yards down the road. Dug up a massive bagful of couch grass (damn the stuff, it’s enough to make me want to say to hell with organics and pass me the glyphosate). Planted some leeks. Going back later today to plant a few more potatoes and sow some carrots. Didn’t do enough carrots last year, so have large piece of fleece, and I’m going to grow myself a half ton this year.

See, I knew we’d end up talking about gardening. Off to investigate my greenhouse and sow a few more peppers- they do take an awful long time to germinate. Then off to a funeral. Bob, one of the old boys from the allotment. He was always there - part of the fabric of the place. didn’t actually have a plot, but his house is right next to the driveway into the lotties. You have to swerve around his garage to drive up to the top. Is very sad, and very strange not to see him sat by his garage, with his old black dog, Ben. Ben died in January, and Bob had a stroke the month after. Another stroke and a heart attack finished him off last week. He was always there - he was an engineer and had all kinds of lathes and presses in his garage. He fabricated bits and pieces for all the classic car owners for miles around. Apparently there’s going to be a large classic car procession from the church to the crem, which will be lovely.

Four months into the year and two funerals already.