a picture paints a thousand words

[pensnest]

It was Elton John at Carrow Road on Wednesday night, but I—inside the house watching TV—didn't hear any of it. Beast was serenaded as he walked to and from chorus.

My first veg bed is in! Admittedly the soil hasn't been smoothed over yet, but yay! There are two blackcurrant bushes in it, because there they were, curranting happily, so the bed is built around them. There will be five(!) more. This necessitates some changing of plan, as I do not need another three raised beds for vegetables, so there can be more shrubs and flowers instead (also yay!).

I took some Stuff to the Oxfam shop yesterday, but while extracting it from the sideboard realised that a mouse had been chewing one of the T-shirts. This was a particular shame, as it was a brand new one—I had ordered the wrong size for my nephew, the company sent me a new one and said keep the first one. I went on a mission to find something for my son's birthday (this Sunday), and thought some pictures from charity shops might do. He has no aesthetic sensibilities at all that I can discern (a trait he shares with his late grandpa), so I thought perhaps a selection of attractive but cheap pictures might help me figure out what he might actually *like*. I had hoped he would enjoy abstracts, as I do, but he doesn't. In the end I bought seven, only one of which I am dubious about (but it was in the first shop where I found any pics, so I was looking to get several). After my charity shop picture triumph I spent a little while browsing in Loose's Emporium, which of course I did! It is a magnificent Emporium, indeed.

It's going to be HOT today. *woe*

ETA: 33 degrees! Yikes!

Comments

[frausorge]

Hurray for the vegetable and/or flower beds! Volunteer black currants sound lovely. And that's a neat idea with the pictures. It is indeed often easier to get a reaction expressed to something concrete, than to get a theoretical preference formulated, so I hope your strategy yields results.

[pensnest]

I have planted some of the courgettes into the first available bed. \o/ Last year all my courgette plants were nibbled to death by something. Possibly muntjak sneaking into the garden, which I don't think they can do right now. We shall see.

I do hope some of the pictures are well received. I strongly feel he needs some kind of wall decorations!

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My first veg bed is in! Admittedly the soil hasn't been smoothed over yet, but yay! There are two blackcurrant bushes in it, because there they were, curranting happily, so the bed is built around them. <<

That's awesome. Though if you are raising the soil level, be careful not to smother their roots.

>> There will be five(!) more. This necessitates some changing of plan, as I do not need another three raised beds for vegetables, so there can be more shrubs and flowers instead (also yay!).<<

Have fun with it.

Today it was cool enough that I could go back outside and pick mulberries.

Re: Yay!

[pensnest]

The soil level is actually coming down—well, except for the three earth mountains presently occupying the garden! My late FIL had put a lot of soil and compost onto the area, which the weeds were certainly enjoying, and the rest of the beds will actually be lower than where the currant bushes are. It'll all work out, I expect.

Mulberries sound nice!

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Huh, interesting. I wish you luck with it.

Re: Yay!

[pensnest]

I just hope I have the energy to make it work!

[turlough]

Congratulations to the first veg bed! I totally agree that more shrubs and flowers are always welcome.

And congratulations to the charity shop finds. I hope your son will like them.

Yikes indeed! Anything over 25 is FAR TOO HOT in my opinion.

[pensnest]

It was like stepping outside into a warm bath. Ick!

[rikes]

Yay for garden progress!

What a good idea for your son's birthday present, hope they'll help you both figure our what kind of art he'd like to have more of.

Gah, 33! Fingers crossed it's cooled down a bit already.

[pensnest]

He is dismayingly indifferent to art of whatever kind. I hope one day to discover a picture he actually *likes*, but it may be a long time!

Mercifully the temperature dropped quite a lot over the weekend. It's due to get warmer this week, but not ridiculously warm.

[turps]

It sounds like your garden is going nicely. I hope your new veggies flourish.

Elton was playing at Sunderland recently. I never went but from the videos on social media, half of the NE did.

[pensnest]

Elton was rather a Big Deal here, too!

I hope I have the concentration to make the veggies work... it's a lot of watering. But it is *so* nice to be able to go out into the garden and pick veg, and then cook them at once.