1 April 2024 (Monday) - Building the Plant Box

I had hoped for a bit of a lie-in this morning. “er indoors TM ‘s alarm went off like it usually does, and then there was a major commotion outside at half last seven. Some idiot had driven his huge lorry through the barrier at the top of the road, found himself facing a queue of incoming traffic and then started shouting about it. You would think that people would think twice about making a complete cock of themselves when they are in the firm’s lorry with the firm’s name emblazoned all over it, wouldn’t you?
 
I gave up trying to sleep go up, made brekkie and had a look at the Internet. April Fool abounded with the Lego corporation announcing a full-sized Minion model, local Facebook groups showing photos of mis-spelled signs on the local college, and one Sparks fan page suddenly being devoted to wombles. And sadly this provoked no end of squabbles from people who didn’t understand the concept of “April Fool” or “Humour”.
 
I spent an hour weeding and tidying up in the garden until “er indoors TM and the dogs emerged from the pit. Once I’d hung out washing we took the dogs to the park. I had this vague idea to try the cooked breakfast in the dog-friendly café in the park but there was an Easter Egg hunt in the park and the café was full of face painting. We just had a little wander and walked home. As we walked I tried to get inside Morgan’s head. I wish I knew what he thinks. When on the lead on the way to the park he was confrontational and aggressive to other dogs. When off the lead in the park he was playing nicely with other dogs. We had the same yesterday at the Leas.
We came home via the corner shop where I got pastries. We had them with a cuppa, and just as the second load of washing finished so the heavens opened. It didn’t rain for long; just long enough to get everything wet.
 
Bearing in mind the box I was building for the garden needed something solid to stand on (or the base would rot away) I popped to B&Q for a paving slab.
Oh dear…
B&Q was absolutely heaving this morning. Children were running round screaming; people were randomly blundering about. Maybe one in twenty was actually looking where they were going. Some people were looking at what was for sale in total amazement in much the same way that I would go to the zoo and look at the animals.
I got the slab I needed and got out as quickly as I could.
 
I came home; “er indoors TM set off to visit family. Not wanting to leave the dogs all afternoon I stayed home. Seeing the rain had stopped I had a look at the box-sections I made yesterday. I put them together into a box. They didn’t fit together quite as precisely as they might have done, but a clout or two with a hammer got them into shape. I lined the box, painted it, and the rain started again. Realising it was two o’clock and that I felt hungry I stopped for scoff..
Yesterday I had an out-of-date Mars bar for lunch. Today I had a bag of peanuts. As I scoffed I watched another episode of “The Gentlemen. And seeing it was still raining when that episode finished, I watched another.
 
By then the rain had stopped. So… the purpose of the garden box was to replace the poggered pot one of our shrubs lives in. So I heave the poggered pot out of the way, got the new box into place, filled it with soil, transplanted the shrub and tidied up. Ten seconds to type; an hour and a half to do. It does look better than it was though.
By one of those strange co-incidences Facebook memories told me that I first got the shrub I transplanted exactly six years ago today. It is a “sorbaria sorbifolia” and according to the Internet it is quite hardy. I wonder if it will survive the transplanting? “My Boy TM” got one at the same time that I did and his soon died – and he is good at gardening.
I’ve two more shrubs to transplant. Which means two more boxes to build. If any of my loyal readers have an old picnic table or old shed or any old random lumps of wood kicking about… I can swap them for sorbaria sorbifolia cuttings or a big poggered flower pot.
 
“er indoors TM came home with kebab which we scoffed whilst watching the first two episodes of the second season of “Lego Masters: New Zealand”.
That kebab’s not sitting well…

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