under another sun

A gorgeous sunny day again, so out in the garden doing stuff. Planting things into the area near the new pond, such as native plants, and cornflowers, and popping in a few bulbs for next spring. Lorraine removing yet more bucketloads of pebbles from the beds, which I poured on one side of the pond. It's all a big project. Went off in the late afternoon to Beth and James, and sat in their garden. It makes me very happy to see Beth in this phase of her life, and how she and James are getting used to their beautiful garden and their big koi pond which it turns out has frogs too, and loving their frisky little tabby called Micky, still zooming about indoors but soon to be released.  Beth made us a delicious salad and chicken, which we ate outside. Then inside, and had the Eurovision Song Contest on in the background, which I quite enjoyed. It is best to watch stuff like this with Beth. I predicted the winner too. Noted a prominent poet on Facebook renounced the joys of Eurovision this ...

Up fairly early and taking bags of garden litter to the tip in Hove. Lorraine carefully spreading sheets inside her Qashqai, and looking with horror at a colony of tan coloured baby spiders that had appeared around the handle of the rear door.  Once this drippy bag stuff done (in the rain) off to Waitrose looking like bin men, and bought stuff in preparation for this evening's night in. Strange how much fun doing stuff like this with Lorraine can be. In the evening Rosie and INnis came around, and we watched the Eurovision Song Contest, and drank some drinks and picked at lots of finger food. Eurovision not something I have watched much in recent years. The usual mix of camp, histrionic guff,  and a few earworms including the bouncy Israeli winner who duked it out with the Cyprus entry. The UK song was only moderately bad, but was voted down anyway because it is from the UK. Even a stage invasion by some fool shouting about Press Nazis wasn't enough to create sympathy among ...

Still gorgeous this morning, and unwillingly to work, whining at Lorraine in the car before she dropped me off. Into London without incident, and work fine despite straining at the leash to be outside. Sloped along the canals and other places at lunch. After work, looked at poems in the train. Some of my own, which I decided were unsavable, which is always freeing thing.  Really enjoying reading Bone Monkey by Janet Sutherland at the moment. I love her poems. Home, and the air cooler by the time I reached Brighton. A salady dinner with Lorraine, and we found ourselves watching some kind of Eurovision song nonsense on TV for a while. An early and sensible night. I found myself under the motorway in a crowded with schoolboys skateboard area and two empty basketball courts. I snapped one of the courts, below, and noticed later that someone had painted Fuck Basket Ball on the board, which spoke to me of some would be ball player's thwarted ambition.

Off in the afternoon by bus into town. Sprang onto the bus, which proceeded ten metres along the road before breaking down. Eventually into town where I went with Lorraine into C&H fabrics for fabric, including the stuffing for a draft-excluding snake. Then into M&S and another shop with a ridiculous name and an incredibly bored looking man selling coffees to look at bras. Luckily after this kind of thing, there was the Basketmakers to look forward to where we met Matt and Irish Tom and Bryn for a cheeky few beers and a bite to eat. Betty also joined us after work, before shooting off to see Laura. Sitting at a nearby table was three of the barbers in the shop I go to, who greeted me cheerily. Rather good fun to be in The Baskets again, and to see Matt who had been working on an allotment all day. If it's not about allotments Matt's not interested. He was talking so much about the allotment that I found it hard to interject to tell him about my garden. We used to talk...

Basketmakers A bank holiday weekend, and naturally nothing but the wild rain hosing down on Brighton. Lorraine and I went to see her Bulgarian friend Romina, who had two newish sofas to sell as she is moving to Switzerland. We were given slices of cake and cups of tea and had a really nice chat. Romina's son Vas was a superconfident 14 who from his own account is a gifted drummer, and Michael Jackson devotee. They are moving to Switzerland soon. Out into the rain, and from there to the cozy Basketmakers where we met Matt and John for some grub and a few beers. A jolly good time. We got talking about Mark Bassey, one of my neighbours who is a trombone player. Turns out that he is a big hero of Matt's so I will try to arrange a meeting. Matt very pleased that Mark had come to our show. Home and snoozing on the sofa, woken by a new neighbour called Merlin wanting to borrow some kitchen scales. Then watching the enjoyably awful Eurovision Song Contest. The UK entrant was justifiabl...