6 May 2024 (Monday) - Wet Bank Holiday

I slept well, but was rather disappointed to see rain when I got up. Rain had been forecast so it wasn’t unexpected; just a shame that it was raining. Just as well I’d got the bits of the poggered garden store into my car ready for a tip run yesterday; I wouldn’t have wanted that int the car dripping wet.
I made toast and had a look at the Internet. Squabbles abounded as they usually do; but no more so than on the garden pond websites. The same people who were so vocal about not having tap water in their ponds were advocating chucking in pretty much every chemical known to science. And barley straw… if your pond isn’t clear there were those who were very vocal about chucking in barley straw. I’ve tried it in the past; it didn’t work. As others have found. But anyone who claimed barley straw wasn’t the best thing in the entire universe were being decried as liars. And as for fake herons…
 
With the weather looking a tad iffy and heavy rain forecast for later I loaded up the car for Wednesday’s tip run, then we got the dogs on to their leads and went for a little walk round Saltwood, munzing as we went.
Our walk ended just as the rain started.
We came home via Bybrook Barn garden centre. I needed a few odds and sods. The car park was full. That was not “rather busy”, that was “full”. Not a single space. “er indoors TM dropped me off and I popped in to get what I needed.
What I really needed was a hooter on the trolley.
Maybe one person in fifty was aware of their surroundings. Most were utterly oblivious to the fact that there was anyone else other than themselves in the world. So many of them were just blankly standing around staring into space. And the narrower the passage or doorway, the more there were idly standing around staring into space.
I eventually negotiated my way through the swarms and got what I wanted. And then we drove home past the outlet centre. Traffic was queuing for hundreds of yards in all directions to get into that place. What is the attraction? They don’t sell anything you can’t get cheaper on-line. A chap at work is regularly cursing the place as the queues are horrendous, and when he comes out he has spent hundreds of pounds on stuff he doesn’t want. He, like so many others, goes shopping because he really does have nothing else to do.
 
We came home for a cuppa and a hot cross bun. The rain had got rather heavy, so I went out and had a look at the gutters which I’d scraped out yesterday. They weren’t overflowing today, which was something of a result. Pulling out that plant and that fag packet had done the trick…
I wonder for how long.
I put a photo of the old kite buggy on-line. The thing was old when we got it, and that was over twenty years ago. The thing hasn’t been used since 2015, and that was only riding down the hill at Stanmer Park. One of the steering struts is wedged in place, the tyres’ inner tubes have had it, I doubt the material would take my weight any more, and sadly it is just in the way.
If any of my loyal readers want it…
 
During a lull in the rain I got into the garden and did what I wanted to do today. As you step out of the back door so there used to be a couple of wooden boxes with the spare shingle and compost and stuff. It all looked a bit of a mess, so I scrubbed out the area where the poggered garden store used to be and moved the spare shingle and compost and stuff back to there. I might put a little roof over them in a bit. Or I might move it all again and swap over the spare shingle and the remaining garden store. I’m not sure.
But whatever I do, as you step out of the back door it looks a tad empty now… sorting that will be a project for the future.
 
“er indoors TM went to the opticians. I read a book for a bit and woke up underneath Treacle.
I wonder what’s for dinner?

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