Saturday morning

Well, after saying I had no definite plans for anything yesterday, I did manage to get out. I went to B&Q and then Wyvale, which is next door, to get sundry garden bits and bobs. I ended up with a spade and a fork. I have no idea what happened to my old spade and fork: I thought I had lent them to DD but she says no, I didn't, so I'm puzzled. The pair I got are small (and cheap) and pretty lightweight, just right for the sort of thing I do. I wouldn't bother but I'm now starting to use the goodness that has been created by my compost bin and digging it out of the bottom with a small trowel is ridiculous!

I bought some small pots to pot on the baby rosemary cuttings as the new little roots were growing through the bottom of the mini pots I first put them in. I looked for (and found) some suitable bedding plants to fill the planter now that I've taken out the rosemary pots and also for another pot that I think I might put round the front, once the plants have established, to alleviate the 'brickness' of the new paving. There's no doubt it's neater and I know J and K are not gardeners and don't have the time to maintain the front of their house as it required, but I do miss the greenness of the hedge and the shrubs. No more photos of snow settling on the laurel hedge!

While I was looking I saw a nice looking trailing geranium and also some sturdy looking baby bays. Now I know my poor bay seems to be surviving against all odds and is sending out new leaves but there's no way I will be picking those leaves for a good time to come and last week I actually had to *buy* some dried bay leaves for a recipe, something I haven't needed to do for ages and which I rather resented. So when I saw these little bays at a reasonable price I thought 'why not - belt and braces' and bought one! Give it a month to settle and I ought to be able to use a few carefully chosen leaves now and again. And, of course, I have those dried ones to use up too.

So a good hour or so was then spent potting up and generally sorting out and I'm very pleased. Mind you, if all the rosemary cuttings do survive the latest move, I will be looking for homes for them - no way do I need ten! I guess if I bung them on the staffroom table, they will go fast enough!

Later on I wandered down the road to A's home to deliver her birthday present, went in and had cuppa and some gossip with her, which was jolly nice. When you work with people day in day out, you miss them after a while.

It's dull this morning (no chance of rain though, I bet) but yesterday was glorious with skies as blue as forget-me-nots and not a cloud to be seen. The photo really doesn't do it justice in any way whatsoever!