Birthday Delights: further stirrings

Even though it wasn't my birthday, Sue gifted me a wealth of allotment fodder that she's been hot-housing for me:
  • five pepper plants
  • four tomato plants
  • three chilli plants
  • two courgette plants
  • one cucumber plant

She's got a countdown going on there... I've only just noticed! It makes sense, as she gave me zero pineapple plants, and I'd been wondering about that.

I'd already got beans, onions, and carrots interred, so we're on our way to cheaper eating! Thanks Sue!


It was a lovely day, so we decided to have a little birthday picnic lunch on a blanket. As you can see, it wasn't the most glamorous of birthday meals, just the usual, but the champagne lifted it to 'hoorah' status.



After our leisurely lunch, we decided to let Kevin loose on one of his favourite occupations, one that I've attempted to dethrone him from. Mowing. We drove on the lawn tractor to our neighbours' house (I did feel quite hillbilly...) and Kevin set about taming the lawn. He was in his element, finally released to be the mowing man he has always wanted to be.



Meanwhile, I photographed other natural phenomenon, like a white rose alongside the moon.


This particular bloom is known as 'La Brigitte'. It has the most heavenly fragrance!


Stripping Shutters

 Before I can let loose with the new blue paint, I am duty bound to strip off the old lead paint and the rust. There are four separate sets of four panels, all with two sides to tackle. That's a lot of stripping.


I have used all of these tools to attempt the task:


Would you like to guess which tool is the tool of choice? The most efficacious of the bunch? Yes, you guessed it! The chisel.



It may be some time before the shutters go back up.
The Post Lady

 As you may have realised, we are very proud of our French post box, a little cube on a metre high post at the boundary of our property. It has a key. All of the post boxes of France have a different key... to keep one's mail private and secure. What makes me chuckle is that the post peeps have one master key. What does it look like? It might be a screwdriver. Who knows? It allows them to put all manner of objects in the cube. I have now ordered two items from Amazon whose dimensions are millimetres away from those of the post box. Our industrious post lady has managed to squeeze both of these into the cube... without damage. She must gain great satisfaction from this art. I know I would. The associated art of withdrawing the items has presented a challenge.

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