finies, les vacances

Slightly less clumsy in the garden, I hope. I've planted up some pots with a couple of layers of tulips each, plus some pansies on the top row for winter colour. I've slapped in a few bits and pieces from the staging - the last remaining lavatera, a gaillardia grown on from a friend's seedlings, and a couple of freebie violas we were given by an ever grateful and highly solvent local garden centre. I've spread last spring's daffodil and muscari bulbs across two hanging baskets, also with some pansies on top, so ought to be set up with colour for autumn, winter and spring.

I might get out and do a spot of hedge trimming at the front today. The ghastly leylandii have been growing like mad things, and are making manoeuvring the new, wider car a bit tricky. I'm not sure whether I'll tackle the big hedge at the back myself, but we certainly won't be bringing in the firm we've used in past years. Last year they didn't quote before doing the work, and I almost fainted when the bill arrived. Costly business, home ownership. We had to Get Someone In to unstop the kitchen gully again yesterday: second time this year. The fall on the drain is obviously not steep enough, and one quickly forgets to be careful what one sends down the sink. Tempting to seek out the architect and send him down...

Oh, and the best mixed metaphor since 'barking up a dead horse' at the AGM the other night. 'They'll find it's a poisoned chalice that comes back and bites them in the backside'. Visualise, using one side of the paper only.