As far as I am aware the advice in the event of nuclear attack is: take shelter under desk and kiss your ass goodbye, but maybe I'm out of date.
We did have a nuclear attack preparation at my school in the 1970s, but even then the teachers exposed it for what it was by simple addition of logic to facts. Mrs Williams and Mr Abbott, once they had given lip-service to the obligatory bits, drew out their guitars and gave us a hard-strumming rendition of the anti nuclear protest song 'Before we had the War', which was much more sensible. God I loved the 70s.
However, R has been recalled on Wednesday afternoon for a 'What to do in the event of a Nuclear Attack' session, where the class will learn to tape up the windows and take shelter under the desk. The class teacher Mrs Essex-Facelift has let it be known that she is Not Happy about this as she is not being paid for the extra hours. Good to know we can rely on the French teaching profession in an emergency.
R hopes that once the windows are safely taped up they will be able to play cards and board games, but suspects Mrs Essex-Facelift will vent her spleen by making them WORK.
When R came home after the nuclear drill he was in a sweat and could only mutter 'torture, torture' so I had to drag this out of him.
The Headmistress Mrs Scruton opened the proceedings by shouting
"NUCLEAR ATTACK NUCLEAR ATTACK'
over the tannoy, which was broadcast in every classroom, Big Brother style. Then she shouted something like:
'ASSUME HIGH SECURITY POSITION' but no-one was sure as her voice had become distorted beyond recognition by the excessive shouting and poor quality of the PA system.
At this point a mysterious man in black entered the classroom, opened his black attache case and withdrew one bottle of water, a handful of plastic cups, a pair of scissors and some rolls of sticky tape.
'Who was he?' I asked, aghast
'Um, 'chief of zone B' or something...nobody knows.' (his identity will have to remain mysterious).
Mrs Essex-Facelift was in a bad mood about it all but this did not stop her making sure the job was done in every absurd detail. Every window, keyhole and air vent was taped up. Clothes from Lost Property were employed to cover the internal door.
'Did you recognise any of your lost clothes?' I said excitedly.
'No' replied R, with an air of detachment.
'I have another question. How do you know you will have sufficient sticky tape should the terrible day arrive?' I asked, but R could only continue with the story.
It then became very hot indeed in the classroom, and of course airless. When someone complained there was only one bottle of water between 30, Mrs Essex-Facelift shouted 'I HAVE TO STAND UP AND TEACH YOU FOR TWO HOURS AND DO YOU EVER SEE ME DRINKING?' and she set about banning pupils from fanning themselves and wiping water on their faces and other survival initiatives. 'AND STOP FIDGETING, YOU'RE WASTING OXYGEN' she added.
R later found out that the other classes had an appropriate number of bottles of water and plastic cups but Mrs Essex-Facelift had apparently decided to make the nuclear survival process just that little bit more challenging. I think she would benefit from some counselling. They shared out the water, one cup between four.
'What about the spread of infectious diseases?' I asked.
Bets were on that Mrs Essex-Facelift would force the class to do extra French, but she appeared to have been banned from doing this by the Minister of Education (or perhaps in this case the Minister of Defence) so she had to resort to forcing them to watch Alfred Hitchcock 'The Birds', a puzzling choice. R complained that it was an 'old film from the 70s' and 'very badly done' with 'random birds and blood everywhere.'. (Yes we did have the discussion about the old days when there were no computers simulations etc). After one hour and a half of suffocating heat, oxygen deprivation and bird terror, the pupils were released, their physical and mental health shattered.
I asked R if he had learned anything about nuclear explosions, or if he knew why they were taping up the windows but he did not reply.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Monday, June 9, 2014
Woodland Garden in June
Here is what has happened so far to the structure built in April, the only maintenace was one short weeding session. I'm overwhelmed by the show put on by our dry shade tolerant iris foetidissima. Is it the loving attention? (more likely our exceptionally mild winter, which they appreciate apparently).
It's name (trans; the most stinky one) comes from the fact that it's leaves when crushed are stinking man (but I've never gone searching for what I don't need to know). It's colours (cream and pale veined lilac) are not exactly striking, but I think the overall effect has subtle charm, and anyway if you've got dry shade you are grateful for anything you can get.
The clumps of leaves have looked good winter and spring, and I'm hoping for a good crop of scarlet berries in the autumn; I'm cautious about this as we are experiencing Paris Monsoon season , something which pleases our friends the snails. Yesterday I observed one large snail on every flower. JC threw them over the neighbour's wall. When I questioned the morality of this he said: it will help him mow his lawn - and in any case there's no food over there so they head straight back to our garden - but at least the climb over the wall will slow them down. (I'm wondering if JC isn't a secret adept of chronic uneighbourliness?)
It's name (trans; the most stinky one) comes from the fact that it's leaves when crushed are stinking man (but I've never gone searching for what I don't need to know). It's colours (cream and pale veined lilac) are not exactly striking, but I think the overall effect has subtle charm, and anyway if you've got dry shade you are grateful for anything you can get.
The clumps of leaves have looked good winter and spring, and I'm hoping for a good crop of scarlet berries in the autumn; I'm cautious about this as we are experiencing Paris Monsoon season , something which pleases our friends the snails. Yesterday I observed one large snail on every flower. JC threw them over the neighbour's wall. When I questioned the morality of this he said: it will help him mow his lawn - and in any case there's no food over there so they head straight back to our garden - but at least the climb over the wall will slow them down. (I'm wondering if JC isn't a secret adept of chronic uneighbourliness?)
 |
| The structure holds in the 'tatty' season, with primula and violets which have gone over, the remains of herb robert flowers and a touch of wild strawberry and ground ivy |
 |
| Iris Foetidissima |
 |
| A small stone owl I fell in love with |
 |
| The pebbled areas still look good, campenula late flowering in the shade |
 |
| Yes we did get some cherries, the one straggling tree we saved did the work of many, 2 kilos, 4 pots of jam |
Storm Aftermath
After the storm, the moss is knocked from the roof, and plums, leaves, twigs and surprised snails are shaken from the trees, the geraniums are no more, trees are war torn and new inland waterways have formed. Here are the culprits. R&B braved the storm in short bursts to gather them, and B had the brilliant idea of storing some in the freezer.
 |
| The Giant Hailstones |
 |
| Leaf table cloth |
 |
| A surprised snail, previously lodging in a tree, finds himself on the ground |
 |
| Japanese Neflia damaged in the bombardment. |
 |
| The lake in the waterproof cover of swing seat |
STORM; Paris, June 2014
After a 35 degrees hot and humid day I noticed flashing lights in the evening sky. We all rushed up to the loft and gasped over the spectacular light show. It was as if the sky gods were in a battle, shooting lightning at one another without once touching the ground. Every dot-to-dot possibility was explored, in hues of pink peach and purple, and sometimes the sky lit up like day.
B and I went out into the street to try for some overhead shots.
The lightning continued to flash, but it was calm, and it seemed as though the storm would pass us by. B had packed up his tripod, and I was lingering awhile in the quiet night when I heard a noise, rather like a stone hitting some metal scaffolding, then a thud, then a blow to the van next to me.
I looked round for someone throwing stones, but there was no-one, just an ever increasing collection of thuds and whacks. There was almost no wind, so I reasoned it couldn't be flying debris in the path of the storm. I felt at any moment I would be hit by an unidentified flying object, so I made my way inside, and on the doorstep I saw a large white rock of ice, and I realised we were about to be pelted by giant hailstones.
I shouted at everyone to shut the windows and shutters and get the cats in. Then suddenly the sky became a squealing mass of furious fiends hurling rocks at our roof, windows and doors, a pounding bombardment with occasional foundation-rocking direct hits, surround sound so loud we could not hear ourselves shouting.
The cats called this Unnatural and went howling mad.
THE WILDEST AND MOST THRILLING STORM EVER EXPERIENCED, even by those of us approaching 50.
 |
| Sky gods shooting lightening at one another |
B and I went out into the street to try for some overhead shots.
The lightning continued to flash, but it was calm, and it seemed as though the storm would pass us by. B had packed up his tripod, and I was lingering awhile in the quiet night when I heard a noise, rather like a stone hitting some metal scaffolding, then a thud, then a blow to the van next to me.
I looked round for someone throwing stones, but there was no-one, just an ever increasing collection of thuds and whacks. There was almost no wind, so I reasoned it couldn't be flying debris in the path of the storm. I felt at any moment I would be hit by an unidentified flying object, so I made my way inside, and on the doorstep I saw a large white rock of ice, and I realised we were about to be pelted by giant hailstones.
I shouted at everyone to shut the windows and shutters and get the cats in. Then suddenly the sky became a squealing mass of furious fiends hurling rocks at our roof, windows and doors, a pounding bombardment with occasional foundation-rocking direct hits, surround sound so loud we could not hear ourselves shouting.
The cats called this Unnatural and went howling mad.
THE WILDEST AND MOST THRILLING STORM EVER EXPERIENCED, even by those of us approaching 50.
Friday, May 30, 2014
France, Paint, Chalk Paint, high prices, frustration
My latest project is painting furniture, there is so much good wooden furniture here being thrown away because it is dated, dusty and brown - much of it in my house waiting to change colour. I'm thrilled to learn about Annie Sloan paint www.anniesloan.comand Autentico paint, www.autentico-chalk-paint.co.uk.
These paints paint over everything, even orange varnish no sanding or chemical prep needed, beautiful skin-like texture and lovely colours, I tried some out, would like to buy some. Okay I'm drooling to buy some right now.
I sloshed some over our industrial metal spiral staircase, and it sticks! No need for stinky harmful chemical coats!
Dry and Cure...
The trick is to understand that acryllic emulsion type paint takes a short time to dry, but up to 30 days to 'cure', so something that seems to scratch off when you first do it won't later, and in the meantime if you wax it and are careful, you can still use the beautified painted item.
But as usual with good ideas and good products NOT IN FRANCE!
Problem One; The price of Paint in France
I'm, stunned, I'm SHOCKED to discover the difference in price for paint in England and France. For example, Dulux paint can be had in England for £15 or £20 for 2.5 litres. Here, Dulux 'creme de couleur' a satin emulsion, sells for 18 Euros for HALF A LITRE!!! Four times more expensive in France, WWHHHAAATTT¿????! Why? My internet researches reveal only speculation, social charges, taxes...but nothing concrete. I'm suspicious because glasses are outrageously more expensive in France than in any European country, and there is no Specsavers on the scene, and seems to have much more to do with the purveyors and sellers of glasses earning a good living than anything else..
Problem Two; Finding the equivalent paint in England (using example Dulux)
So naturally, I set about working out the equivalent Dulux paint in England, to see if anyone would bring me over a 2.5 litre pot for the price of a 0.5 litre one of the same (American) make in France. I chose Dulux because I had a very bad experience with Luxens paint which fell off my shutters, and even when I'd sanded and primed, failed to stick and soon chipped off my stairs and banisters (not so chalk-like paint which covers the mess the 'proper paint' left absolutely beautifully). The guy who sold me this paint did not tell me it was crap. I found this out from another guy at the same local DIY shop Weldom when he sold me some Dulux, in which case he was prepared to wrinkle his nose at Luxens and say he did not like it as it was 'too elastic' (?). Anyway, Dulux seems to be voted 'most likely to stick'.
Interestingly, in France some of the Dulux range (but careful, not all) is 'multi surface', so can be used for walls and woodwork. I presume this means it has more resins and binding agents in it to make it stick. But in England, ceilings/walls are firmly separated from wood, different products needed in UK, apparently, call it fashion, call it national expectations, call it marketing...
I bumped into an English woman living in France who told me all French paints are 'not as good' as English paints in colour, texture/finish and performance, but was unable to give me evidence to back up this claim, such as the cause (lack of good quality pigments, low resins???).
Problem 3; The Price of Annie Sloan paint in France
Well, given that French paint is so madly priced, the Annie Sloan stuff doesn't look so expensive by comparison. In England it sells for about £18 (or about 22 Euros) a litre. It has good quality pigments and is a special high-resin recipe, so fair enough. I found a French shop which supplies Annie Sloan paint, and their paint was indeed 22 Euros for a whole litre. Or so I though. In fact it was 22 + 10 Euros, making it 32 Euros, and as the flat rate for delivering 7 tins was 35 Euros, from Brittany (??) I make that approx 37 Euros a tin, getting on for twice the price in England, where some shops offer free delivery over £100 (no such luck here) and standard delivery is £5.
I was really prepared to support Annie Sloan, I like what she's doing artistically, ethically, philosophically, and I appreciate the initiative work and skill she's put in to the product, and the colours appeal, but I can't pay twice the price for the same product because it's in France, I just can't. Even though the nice lady at the shop (www.lescouronnessauvages.com) explained it was the cost of transporting the paint into France and the cost of running her shop which put the price up. She said I should take it up with Hollande, but what with all the problems he has I doubt if he will prioritise my chalk paint trials.
Problem 4; Anomalies in paint prices in France - in most shops you pay 4 times more for the same product bought in bulk elsewhere...has nobody noticed?
I decided to make my own similar paint (no doubt not as good) as I couldn't buy it. This is tricky, because no-one lets you know what's in their paint apart from Auro www.auro.co.uk paints. Sadly ecological paints like Auro don't stick to furniture in the same way, I tried, and created powder. So I bought a tin of Dulux 'archi TECte', for 20 Euros for HALF a litre, which promised high resin content, I'm guessing quality pigments and matt finish (not popular here and difficult to find) - it became obvious to me that chalk and lime paint sticks to everything if and only if the acryllic/emulsion paint you use if of good enough quality. Now at least I could experiment. I made some chalk-like paint by mixing one part slaked lime with this paint (10 Euros for 20 kgs) and got something which worked and which I liked.
This Dulux paint is about 40 Euros a litre, BUT if you buy 10 litres (from Leroy Merlin) it's a staggering 10 Euros a litre, yes, take your pick, 40 Euros a litre or 10 Euros a litre for the same product. Taxes, social charges, or commercial toss???
Problem 5; lack of transparency on paint ingredients
It has become clear to me that we as customers do not have access to the information we need to make a judgement on the paint (for a specialised project for example), but must make do with marketing packages for purpose. We can get scant and varied info on whether a paint is 'no' or 'low' VOC emmisions, as dictated by the EU, but not about other possible ingredients and their possible downsides. Commercial competition is interfering with human creativity and freedom of choice. The one exception to this I know about is AURO www.auro.co.uk who are happy to list all their ingredients, hooray. I would buy their paint but have not yet found equivalent to chalk and lime paint, and my home made attempts ended in powder, I guess they already have calcium carbonate and slaked lime in them, and fewer synthetic resins necessary for universal sticking. But I'm using eco paint for everything I can (walls, windows, ceilings...).
Problem 6; price cut exploitation, high price exploitation
I am not a lover of cut-price because faced with a tempting price, and the urgings of our society to do our duty and find the lowest price, we forget to ask why the price is low. For example, why are these carrots so cheap, when so much labour has gone into bringing them to us? Could it be that the intensive farmer is treating his illegal refugee labourers like animals, beating them, paying them next to nothing, making them work 12 hour days with no break and 'housing' them in animal barns with no heating or water?
I like prices to reflect the real cost of a product and a reasonable wage for all those working on it, preferably not too many salespersons.
However, in the case of unusally high prices (and hazy explanations), I have to question who is being exploited?
Current options; Home-made or Annie Sloan/Autentico from England
I'm desperate to continue my chalk-like paint project and maybe even turn it into a career which gives me a purpose in life and a label (What do you do? I'm a furniture decorator). So here are my options;
Make my own, either by buying in bulk at 10 Euros a litre, or researching English paint and finding an equivalent and begging someone to bring some over. I can get wonderful ecological paint pigments from Calca Del Brenta www.lacalcedelbrenta.itAuro www.auro.co.uk Biofa biofapaint.co.uk and perhaps I can try beetroot, ash, soil?? All this will take a long time and I will make a lot of mistakes which would be avoided with the pre-tested products which I would prefer to support. And I'll never be sure it's quite as good.
See if a sales outlet in England would offer me a better price including delivery on Annie Sloan or Autentico, or try to organise a friend to bring some back from a shop near him or her.
I'm currently pursuing the Autentico chalk and lime paint option, they do a special strong version (velvet) which would be good for my kitchen cabinets. I even got to see some paint and charts and buy a sample in my small home town (whereas Paris, capital city in the country of origin of this type of paint technique, has NOTHING). I emailed Autentico, and man from Autentico replied really quickly, and offered to have some sent over from Holland for 12 Euros, and promised to send me a colour chart. The chart never arrived (French post?) and the man from Autentico has not yet got back to me, I keep trying. I'll try the Oxford shop of Annie Sloan next.
WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BLOODY COMPLICATED IN FRANCE?
HOW ON EARTH CAN FRANCE EXPECT TO COMPETE IN EUROPE WITH THIS ATTITUDE?
HOW DOES ANYONE MANAGE TO RUN A BUSINESS HERE?
WHAT IS FRANCE DOING TO ENCOURAGE SENSIBLE AND NECESSARY INNOVATION?
YES THIS IS A RANT
But please remember I have the same thing with every good product I discover and try to buy and every service (fences,gates, trellis, garden furniture and innovations such as grow-bags, acryllic splashbacks, a competent and available plumber, ditto doctor, education,justice, ..and on and on) and so, forgive me.
These paints paint over everything, even orange varnish no sanding or chemical prep needed, beautiful skin-like texture and lovely colours, I tried some out, would like to buy some. Okay I'm drooling to buy some right now.
 |
| Texture like skin |
 |
| His and Hers stools, white paint and lightly coloured wax (originally dark worn varnish, paid 3 Euros for both in 'brocante). |
Dry and Cure...
The trick is to understand that acryllic emulsion type paint takes a short time to dry, but up to 30 days to 'cure', so something that seems to scratch off when you first do it won't later, and in the meantime if you wax it and are careful, you can still use the beautified painted item.
 |
| Reproduction chair, left out on pavement by neighbours, originally dark brown shiny varnish and tatty dirty grey, painted cloth with red emulsion and wood with home made 'satin' chalk paint mix. (Teamed with grey will cushion and checked cushion, both from brocante) |
 |
| Used matt paint and polished with coloured wax, like sweets... |
 |
| Very waterproof and stain-proof and easy to clean, self-polishing when sat upon |
But as usual with good ideas and good products NOT IN FRANCE!
Problem One; The price of Paint in France
Problem Two; Finding the equivalent paint in England (using example Dulux)
So naturally, I set about working out the equivalent Dulux paint in England, to see if anyone would bring me over a 2.5 litre pot for the price of a 0.5 litre one of the same (American) make in France. I chose Dulux because I had a very bad experience with Luxens paint which fell off my shutters, and even when I'd sanded and primed, failed to stick and soon chipped off my stairs and banisters (not so chalk-like paint which covers the mess the 'proper paint' left absolutely beautifully). The guy who sold me this paint did not tell me it was crap. I found this out from another guy at the same local DIY shop Weldom when he sold me some Dulux, in which case he was prepared to wrinkle his nose at Luxens and say he did not like it as it was 'too elastic' (?). Anyway, Dulux seems to be voted 'most likely to stick'.
Interestingly, in France some of the Dulux range (but careful, not all) is 'multi surface', so can be used for walls and woodwork. I presume this means it has more resins and binding agents in it to make it stick. But in England, ceilings/walls are firmly separated from wood, different products needed in UK, apparently, call it fashion, call it national expectations, call it marketing...
I bumped into an English woman living in France who told me all French paints are 'not as good' as English paints in colour, texture/finish and performance, but was unable to give me evidence to back up this claim, such as the cause (lack of good quality pigments, low resins???).
Problem 3; The Price of Annie Sloan paint in France
Well, given that French paint is so madly priced, the Annie Sloan stuff doesn't look so expensive by comparison. In England it sells for about £18 (or about 22 Euros) a litre. It has good quality pigments and is a special high-resin recipe, so fair enough. I found a French shop which supplies Annie Sloan paint, and their paint was indeed 22 Euros for a whole litre. Or so I though. In fact it was 22 + 10 Euros, making it 32 Euros, and as the flat rate for delivering 7 tins was 35 Euros, from Brittany (??) I make that approx 37 Euros a tin, getting on for twice the price in England, where some shops offer free delivery over £100 (no such luck here) and standard delivery is £5.
I was really prepared to support Annie Sloan, I like what she's doing artistically, ethically, philosophically, and I appreciate the initiative work and skill she's put in to the product, and the colours appeal, but I can't pay twice the price for the same product because it's in France, I just can't. Even though the nice lady at the shop (www.lescouronnessauvages.com) explained it was the cost of transporting the paint into France and the cost of running her shop which put the price up. She said I should take it up with Hollande, but what with all the problems he has I doubt if he will prioritise my chalk paint trials.
Problem 4; Anomalies in paint prices in France - in most shops you pay 4 times more for the same product bought in bulk elsewhere...has nobody noticed?
I decided to make my own similar paint (no doubt not as good) as I couldn't buy it. This is tricky, because no-one lets you know what's in their paint apart from Auro www.auro.co.uk paints. Sadly ecological paints like Auro don't stick to furniture in the same way, I tried, and created powder. So I bought a tin of Dulux 'archi TECte', for 20 Euros for HALF a litre, which promised high resin content, I'm guessing quality pigments and matt finish (not popular here and difficult to find) - it became obvious to me that chalk and lime paint sticks to everything if and only if the acryllic/emulsion paint you use if of good enough quality. Now at least I could experiment. I made some chalk-like paint by mixing one part slaked lime with this paint (10 Euros for 20 kgs) and got something which worked and which I liked.
This Dulux paint is about 40 Euros a litre, BUT if you buy 10 litres (from Leroy Merlin) it's a staggering 10 Euros a litre, yes, take your pick, 40 Euros a litre or 10 Euros a litre for the same product. Taxes, social charges, or commercial toss???
Problem 5; lack of transparency on paint ingredients
It has become clear to me that we as customers do not have access to the information we need to make a judgement on the paint (for a specialised project for example), but must make do with marketing packages for purpose. We can get scant and varied info on whether a paint is 'no' or 'low' VOC emmisions, as dictated by the EU, but not about other possible ingredients and their possible downsides. Commercial competition is interfering with human creativity and freedom of choice. The one exception to this I know about is AURO www.auro.co.uk who are happy to list all their ingredients, hooray. I would buy their paint but have not yet found equivalent to chalk and lime paint, and my home made attempts ended in powder, I guess they already have calcium carbonate and slaked lime in them, and fewer synthetic resins necessary for universal sticking. But I'm using eco paint for everything I can (walls, windows, ceilings...).
Problem 6; price cut exploitation, high price exploitation
I am not a lover of cut-price because faced with a tempting price, and the urgings of our society to do our duty and find the lowest price, we forget to ask why the price is low. For example, why are these carrots so cheap, when so much labour has gone into bringing them to us? Could it be that the intensive farmer is treating his illegal refugee labourers like animals, beating them, paying them next to nothing, making them work 12 hour days with no break and 'housing' them in animal barns with no heating or water?
I like prices to reflect the real cost of a product and a reasonable wage for all those working on it, preferably not too many salespersons.
However, in the case of unusally high prices (and hazy explanations), I have to question who is being exploited?
Current options; Home-made or Annie Sloan/Autentico from England
I'm desperate to continue my chalk-like paint project and maybe even turn it into a career which gives me a purpose in life and a label (What do you do? I'm a furniture decorator). So here are my options;
Make my own, either by buying in bulk at 10 Euros a litre, or researching English paint and finding an equivalent and begging someone to bring some over. I can get wonderful ecological paint pigments from Calca Del Brenta www.lacalcedelbrenta.itAuro www.auro.co.uk Biofa biofapaint.co.uk and perhaps I can try beetroot, ash, soil?? All this will take a long time and I will make a lot of mistakes which would be avoided with the pre-tested products which I would prefer to support. And I'll never be sure it's quite as good.
See if a sales outlet in England would offer me a better price including delivery on Annie Sloan or Autentico, or try to organise a friend to bring some back from a shop near him or her.
I'm currently pursuing the Autentico chalk and lime paint option, they do a special strong version (velvet) which would be good for my kitchen cabinets. I even got to see some paint and charts and buy a sample in my small home town (whereas Paris, capital city in the country of origin of this type of paint technique, has NOTHING). I emailed Autentico, and man from Autentico replied really quickly, and offered to have some sent over from Holland for 12 Euros, and promised to send me a colour chart. The chart never arrived (French post?) and the man from Autentico has not yet got back to me, I keep trying. I'll try the Oxford shop of Annie Sloan next.
WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BLOODY COMPLICATED IN FRANCE?
HOW ON EARTH CAN FRANCE EXPECT TO COMPETE IN EUROPE WITH THIS ATTITUDE?
HOW DOES ANYONE MANAGE TO RUN A BUSINESS HERE?
WHAT IS FRANCE DOING TO ENCOURAGE SENSIBLE AND NECESSARY INNOVATION?
YES THIS IS A RANT
But please remember I have the same thing with every good product I discover and try to buy and every service (fences,gates, trellis, garden furniture and innovations such as grow-bags, acryllic splashbacks, a competent and available plumber, ditto doctor, education,justice, ..and on and on) and so, forgive me.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
How I feel now
One snail
Of substance
Heavy load
Many obstacles
Long road
Slow progress
Stops
Pulls in head
In the garden at the moment
 |
| OH WISTERIA |
 |
| He stole it, MY PRECIOUS SWING SEAT |
 |
| B, who never sets foot in the garden, now says he LOVES working in the garden |
 |
| Develops muscles, gets a tan, pleases mother, gets paid...win win win win |
 |
| Faux copper lantern customised from Carrefour's cheapest, Narnia-style for Enchanted Garden |
 |
| What happens when one electric socket, one light and a water tap are fitted...the rest still not finished (gravel parking area, path, the other socket, the other lights...) |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
