Summertime???

Well, I've kept away for a few days now, so time for an update. Mum and sister are away in France for Easter, so maybe my brother and family will come here for a visit.

The advent of BST came, as usual, with the weather anything but appropriate! Saturday was cold, wet and windy, but Sunday a little better, and I was able to get to early evening Mass AND BACK in the light, which makes me feel things are on the up (and the long-range weather forecast is promising reasonable weather over Easter, too!).

On Saturday, too, someone I know came and we observed the hour for the earth - switching the lights off for an hour - NOT something I was planning on doing, but she had come by on her way home from the demo in London (she is into every cause going of the pacifist/feminist/eco variety and probably more besides) because she hadn't anyone to observe the event with and thought I might be free. She is one of those people who somehow manages to cause disproportionate disruption in my house ... and this time I was left with a jumper that had candle wax all the way down the front, which wouldn't have happened otherwise because I wouldn't have been sitting by candlelight!!

That is just typical - she doesn't actually mean to disrupt, it just happens - every time!! In a sense I can't really blame her as I moved the candle, but if she hadn't been here I wouldn't have had the candles lit so it wouldn't have happened. She is also prone to bright ideas which she communicates to me with great enthusiasm and without seeing the practical consequences. Her most recent suggestion is that I could replace the fence (which apparently is in a state of disrepair) with a hedge, thus establishing a more ecologically sound barrier with a bonus for wildlife.

All very well BUT:

- next door is responsible for that fence

- it needs someone who knows how to set it up, and that is a lost art these days

- it is bound to need maintenance, expensively so.

This follows on her giving me a bush for my birthday, despite my reply to her suggestion of giving me a plant, which was that I did not want anything for the garden at the moment as I needed to get the garden organised (and weeded!!) properly before putting anything in it. (It has been neglected since I was ill two years ago.) To add insult to injury, she had chosen a bush which needs acid soil and ours is alkaline ... as she claims to know a bit about gardening, that is another thing not thought through ...