Sunday, May 14, 2006

Ground Force

No sign of Charlie or Alan yet, but the champagne is on ice.

I have unexpected time for blogging because my sister and BIL had to leave for a few hours today. They are very involved in their local church. They will be there now, staying on for lunch because there they have been invited to a talk about gender roles and Genesis. Hmmm.

Given the ideology of their vicar, they are fully expecting not to agree much or at all with the views to which they will be subjected. However, as fair-minded if rather frustrated people, they are willing to listen. Whether or not they will get a chance to discuss, who knows? Their vicar, at least, doesn't seem much interested in considering ideas or interpretations which differ from his own. I am looking forward to their report when they return this afternoon.

Despite M's extremely doom-ridden demeanour yesterday morning, the day go off to a pretty good start and went well. This is despite (or perhaps because?) he and BIL went (after some clearing and measuring) to buy fence panels.

They missed the closing time of the local timber merchant by about 10 minutes.

En route to B&Q they got stuck in a complete gridlock, due to a lorry on fire.

Sod's law, or what??? So, they spent at least an hour and a half in the car and came back with no fence panels. (they did, however, bring beer and cake, so that was a good result).

Meanwhile my sister and I did mammoth clearing (mammoth as an adjective here, not a noun), hacking, ruthlessly cutting back - almost but not quite slashing and burning. I think the men got off pretty lightly really, as they returned in time for lunch, and then in the afternoon did 2 trips to the dump. And that was about it. After cups of tea, showers, G&Ts, we enjoyed Dr. Who (except my sister - its one of the things we don't have in common)(unlike our sensibleness)(but she really is much more sensible than I am) and today's re-scheduled Sunday lunch in the evening.

Here is the result, so far.


What a transformation from yesterday!
Its almost like having a new garden to plan for and enjoy.
(Sorry Rambling Woman ... your time and your garden WILL come)



And here is the frog we sadly had to evict in the process. We wish it happiness (and continued consumption of slugs and snails) in its new home, wherever that may be. Hopefully still in my garden. I love frogs.

A pretty excellent day, all in all. I knew it would be okay when my sister appeared early in the morning wanting to go to the car boot fair (which I'd thought I would probably forgo). We got some great bargains, she found just what she was looking for, and M was greatly reassured that we weren't obsessed with work to the exclusion of everything else. My sister wasn't too sure initially about the haggling. There was a nice symmetry about it, as I remembered - while haggling for her yesterday - that I used to make her ask for things in shops for me when we were children. She soon got the hang of it though, and before long was getting prices knocked down from 50p to 20p.

I must go now as we are dying the bottom half of LG's hair red, ready for her departure tomorrow on school journey to Swanage for 5 days.

Before I go, this is what we bought at the boot fair:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify what I bought, what my sister bought, and in each case - WHY????

12 comments:

The fabric of my life said...

Right lots to say here Lettuce so I shall have to keep checking back at your post.

Firstly well done, what mega women you and your SIL are!!!! You performed miracles and i think the men got off very lightly!! What a great space you have created. I look forward to seeing what you make of it.

I guess that you bought the fabric (Dennis the Menace, cool), the wool for your weaving.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need that many pairs of slippers in your household so i think that might be your SIL and that she bought them to send to a country in need via her church?

The penguin and jigsaw I'm not so sure about.

LG red hair for school trip? What's going on there?

Identikit said...

Wow, amazing work in the garden.

Dunno about the shopping though. I remember you saying that LG collects penguins and I know you like jigsaws. Slippers!! Haha. Well your sister is supposed to be very sensible and slippers are one of the commonest causes of accidents on the stairs - so perhaps she likes to have one pair for each member of her house - one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom so they don't have to risk their necks wearing a pair on the stairs.

Never seen so many slippers. We don't do slippers here!!

ramblingwoman said...

Well done Lollo! What's happened to the jasmine - did you get rid of it?

Well, Dons the Penguin is definitely for LG and the slippers well I was thinking 'no one will ever get through that amount of slippers in a lifetime' but when Dons said they might be for a church charity I thought she MUST be right surely?

The jigsaw I reckon is bought by Lettuce but to bring up to my house in the half term for us both to do! (I only do jigsaws when Lettuce is here)

HOws the red hair?

Tanya said...

Why do you need so many pairs Of Slippers Letty??? Garden looks great, I don't recognise it, I'll post some photos of mine today, you should see my courgettes. We planted potatoes and pumpkins yesterday..

lettuce said...

Good guess on the church/charity thing Dons, but wrong arena. It was my sister who bought them. She's a primary (year 6) teacher...

I bought the jigsaw puzzle, but for her.
She bought the penguin (for herself!)

The fabric of my life said...

Sorry I realise now that I called your Sister your SIL! I need to pay more attention :-/

grumpy old woman said...

Glad your day turned out well after all, Lettuce ....
Yes, a meet up would have been good. We'll have to do it when I go to London again.
As for getting off with a guy - well, my friend is twenty years younger than me, and I guess her male friends will be around her age. I have been known to pull some younger guys in my time but those days are probably behind me now! hee hee
~(:o})=

Molly Bloom said...

I just wanted to add that I thought that you bought the slippers for new homes for the evicted slugs, snails and frogs. That would have been nice.

The garden looks cool.

And...I'm going to fight you for that Dennis the Menace material. Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Anonymous said...

Yippee new homes!

ramblingwoman said...

just been looking at all those slippers again...I don't know who could buy second hand slippers actually. The thought makes my fussy tummy go all queezy - putting my bare feet into a shoe where someone else's bare feet have been....

lettuce said...

haha - loved the thought of my sister's house with lots of slippers lined up at the top and bottom of the stairs! Not so much the thought of filling them all with slugs and snails, eeewww Betty.

The jasmine is still there, just. I'm sure it will make a triumphant come-back. (not so sure about the rose and the clematis which look extremely limp)

My sister teachers Year 6, who do a slipper-making project - the slippers are for her class to study, draw, take apart in order to design their own. Cool, huh? I wish LG was in her class!

Jay said...

Cake and beer = excellent consolation prizes