New gardening gloves, a handsome car wash sponge and a swimsuit were my birthday pressies to myself before I became overwhelmed by an urge to hoover the car and drove in search of a vacuum and the one I put a dollar into was suckless. Still the motion of hoovering was satisfying.

I am way behind with planting my seeds because of the back bash up, next week a friend is coming to help me dig out more of the building rubble I keep uncovering in my plot. I hope it won’t be over for the peas or beans or whatever should have gone in. Last year Grandma and the small male planted much of it and it was terrific. Except the other half that wasn’t terrific and that appears to have been caused by being the burial ground for a former fish and chips shop. My carrots were like stumpy little toes. “ickle” carrots. Deep fat fryer stunted carrots. Other than that small hint of carrot it was barren.