Hard Gardening

Once again, there is a digger on the premises.  This time it's being operated by a chap called Neil, acting in his capacity as a garden hard landscaper.  I suppose that once they reach a certain level, they turn their noses up at easy landscaping.  Anyway, he is kindly putting a patio where there used to be grass, just outside the new dining room.  Unfortunately, this area is only held up from collapsing into the lower part of the garden by a shallow "wall" made of wood, supported by wooden posts - at least, it was when they built it.  Now it's supported by force of habit, since the posts have already completely rotted away, and the wall has bowed out where the huge pile of earth from the Battle of the Somme leant against it.

But that's all in the past!  Already Neil and his sidekick Ben have removed the fence, dug a ditch for the foundation of the new wall, put a big pile of earth where the trampoline is going to go, and then flattened it out again with the grader.  Generally speaking, they've turned all the previously grassy areas of the garden into the world's worst clay tennis court.  And this is just day one!

Neil digging

world's worst clay court

And it hasn't rained yet.  I suppose there's plenty of time for that in days to come.

Meanwhile, I've been sitting on this little snippet since our last trip to Yorkshire.  Taylors of Harrogate, makers of the venerable Yorkshire tea, have come up with a new idea.  I haven't seen this down south, so I guess they are testing it out locally to see what happens.  Personally, I hope that (a) nobody buys it (even at the knock-down price of £2 for 40), and (b) the person who came up with the idea is either sent for retraining at an establishment run by actual humans, or quietly "disappeared", but I suppose you are free to draw your own conclusions...

Too lazy for a proper tea-break?  We've got you covered... 

I am genuinely shocked by this marketing wizard's attempt to exploit a previously untouched super-vulnerable sub-group within our society. But are there really people out there who can't find the energy to eat actual biscuits?  I hope not.

If you want a proper composite drink, by the way, it's got to be chocolate Ovaltine (with milk - not the stuff you make with water).  Extremely yummy.  The lovely Jackie showed Layla how to dab little bits of the powder onto a wet finger (from a special little pile in a special little dish) but Layla has developed the concept one stage further.  Her technique is to pick up the dish, stick her nose right into it, and lick greedily.  This process distributes the sticky brown powder across her face, her clothes, the table, our clothes, the chair, the floor, and very probably some other places we haven't found yet.  Adorable!