Smiles and snarls

Lovely news today: Anna and my nephew Richard are to be married next spring. (I have 11 months to save up.)

After last week's rain, the garden is looking really good, though I sez so meself as shouldn't. Since the last time I blogged about it, lychnis, a fuchsia (the RHS one: ie from cuttings nicked from a hedge in Rusthall High Street), a cistus and more of its helianthemum cousins have come into bloom. I got the grass cut yesterday, and that always improves the look of the place. The pond is rather green, though, so Martyn has treated it to a filtering and uv treatment contraption. To install it, he has had to lift a bit more turf - loud applause, because that means less cutting. The resulting extension to the bed behind the rockery is now populated with annuals and perennials, so I think I'll soon be able to clear one of the cold frames and get it out of the way till autumn cuttings need the space (it's rather in the way when I go to fill a watering can from the water butt). A propos the pond, by the way, the blackbirds are regular visitors: they have developed a taste not only for the tadpoles, but also for the fish food. As if we don't give the buggers enough to eat already!

Spent a while with the motor trade this morning. Egg1 is showing a couple of warning lights now, both related to systems that hadn't been invented when I bought my first car. They would need expensive diagnostics and replacement parts, so given that the thing is perfectly safe and functional, I think we'll let the trade sort it out for the next owner. Gone, alas, are the days of no fix, no fee. So we're the thick end of £80 down for no beneficial result, dammit. Imagine, therefore, my joy on returning home to find a tax disc reminder. All dealt with quickly and efficiently on line, though the language of one of the DVLA screens upped my blood pressure a bit: how about this as an exemplary bit of English:

'Need a new driving licence quickly, use our online service, its convenient, easy to use and you'll get your licence quicker.'

Anyone beat my count of six glaring mistakes in not quite two full lines? Mediockrity rools, innit?