Retirement, eh?

I have driven the best part of 200 miles in the past week or so, purely in the pursuit of the hobby and related stuff.  It's the interviewing season, and I have the last of six days to do tomorrow.  Some mightily good candidates, and quite a lot going forward for second grillings.

In the meantime, the slash and burn continues in the garden as and when the weather allows.  We've planted onion sets and sown lettuce, leeks and various kinds of beans, and of course await results.  Martyn has shifted herbs to containers to make space for veggies in the raised bed, but it's all the more obvious now that it's far too small for more than a spot of tinkering.  If one had the courage of one's convictions, one would Get Someone In to rotovate great swathes of grass, and plant lots of spuds.  Absent the above, we have started fifteen seed potatoes of three varieties in containers out on the terrace, and we'll see what they do.  We've had terrific results from Charlottes in the past, and will see how the Maris Peers and Rockets perform. 

We saved seed from borlottis and flat yellow runner beans (delicious!) last year, so they are installed in disused PQ tubes of compost in the sitooterie, alongside some french bean and leek seed from good old Fortnums.  A few cuttings have over-wintered successfully in the cold frames, notably potentillas and cistus.  A three year old pelargonium shows signs of life, as do a couple of long-serving fuchsias.  Might haul them indoors to boost them into producing shoots long enough to take as cuttings before we head south in a month's time.  If we get a good day this week, I'll get out with shears and tidy up some hebes, box and pieris.  The primroses are blooming fit to bust: we got them from Gladys, my art class friend some years ago.  Sad to say, she seems to have gone into residential care: her vast pile of a house has 'sold' signs on it.  But at least, as Miss perceptively put it, we know she's safe.

Rattled the cage of Jokers"Я"Us today, it being more than five weeks since the latest of their blown double-glazing units was measured for replacement.  I hope, for the sake of their future customers, that we have fewer cock-ups, hence failure costs, than last time.  While in cage-rattling mode, I have enquired of dear Pierre whether he intends ever to finish the work in Another Place.  Our spies report precisely no progress since last back end.  Replies awaited from both.  Deep sigh.