Ouch!

Not only did my flu and Covid jabs give me a rather sore arm, but for much of Friday I felt like I had flu, and though it was better next day, the shopping trip was about as much as I could manage.  Rather better on Sunday, so we took a ride across the county town to get some replacement linen.  A couple of towels I bought with Globus tokens last century have understandably given up the ghost.  I suppose we could cut them down and hem them to serve as cloakroom and kitchen hand towels, but we have enough of that variety.  But it’s difficult to shake off the frugal instincts that have served me so well over the decades.

We dropped into town on Monday, it being Martyn’s birthday, to get a promised birthday present.  We went to a tailor’s shop that shows no signs of having changed in decades - with the exception of the card reader!  It’s nice to know that there are still some old-fashioned independent businesses around.  I wouldn’t have noticed its tiny frontage had not the chap in the department store down the road suggested it.

Not much to be said about the garden.  I hope to get a few more tomatoes - notably from a self-sown plant that shares a minimal bed with the Queen Elizabeth rose.  The plants in pots are looking pretty knackered, so I may have to give up on the unripened fruit.  I’ll give them a week.  Meanwhile, the rosemary hedge at the front is bushing out nicely thanks to Ben’s attentions, and a few of the plants are in flower.  Quite a successful project, that.  The parent plant had become rather leggy, so I chopped off the worst of the boughs and started dozens of cuttings, bringing them on in one of the raised beds, and potting them up in fresh compost.  As I write, Ben is tying back the climbing roses: just in time, since we’re expecting very strong winds in the coming days.  (Maybe I’d better give the tomatoes less than a week…)