under another sun

Toby flew back to the New World. I spoke to Mum this afternoon, and we were sad he'd gone.  However, sunshine drew Lorraine and I out into the garden. I moved the garden furniture back to the patio, and we even had some lunch outside. I had lots of things I should be getting on with, but preferred to be outside. I even caught the sun a bit on my neck. Especially as Amanda was decorating and I'm easily distracted. She started painting some taupe today. I haven't often been excited by taupe, but I am now.  Arranged to interview a Faber poet in a couple of weeks. I paused at one point to snap this daffodil. I had to fight off the urge to drink a cold beer in the sun, I need to lose more weight before I can put it back on again.

Did some good writing first thing, but then decided I needed to get  away from my desk, and cut a hedge, ands trimmed the edges of the lawn and so on for a while. Lorraine happily joining me. At least a couple of hours of this sort of thing. Very calming and nice, and Lorraine doing all kinds of wonders clearing out the caterpillar farm of a raised bed. The luxury of a short doze, before Beth and James around for supper to see Pat and Maureen. Hopefully this will be the first of many. Maureen on fine form this evening and telling funny stories. Beth telling us about rehearsing Vagabond Skies. All exciting stuff. Spoke to Mum, who had been to the W&H at lunchtime with Ben. He had been trapped in his house and unable to get his van out for work due to the resurfacing work. Mum, who had cunningly parked around the corner outside her friends' house, drove them off for lunch. Waleed at the W&H asked her how many boyfriends she has. Some of our plums, from the sapling we planted ...

A lovely sunny day, and after getting up for breakfast and calling both mums, we plunged into the garden and spent the next eight hours outside. I mowed and strimmed the lawn edges, and with a spade and shears, cut back the overlapping grass back to the path, cut the big hedge, finished building bits of the pond, tidied up the fish pond, we moved one of the big plants  hefting sacks of earth around, and generally tidied and made good. Lorraine replanting, hefting rocks, digging up a suffering acer and re potting it, and wobbling precariously on the island rockery thing getting into the difficult nooks and crannies and doing a hundred other jobs in the greenhouse, clearing paths and so on. We broke for lunch. Lorraine brought some food out, and I was just finishing cutting a path through long grass and Lorraine popped in to get her drink, when Robert made off with the lump of cheese from my plate. Thieving wretch. Despite this, lunch was lovely, and we continued working till almost ...

Finished off the bathroom with Lorraine. Then I did a bit of touching up with a very fine brush listening to more H.P. Lovecraft based podcasting. Then I joined Lorraine who had been getting excitable in the garden with a strimmer. I mowed the lawn with our newly-fixed lawnmower. Otherwise a peaceful day. I spoke to Mum in the evening, and Lorraine and I ate fish pie.

A day of action. After Lorraine and I plotted the job out on paper, raging with testosterone I used deeply masculine tools such as circular saws and drills and spanners and power screwdrivers , to drive coach screws into the sleeper I cut s to make the base of a cold frame that Lorraine wanted as a halfway house between the glasshouse and the outside world. Lorraine meanwhile did everything else, but without making so much of a fuss of it. Beth and James popped by this afternoon, the first time they had left home for a while, having had the lurgy.  Had a nice chat with James. They are being fairly philosophical despite having had a bit of a wretched week with the house falling through for various reasons, and both having a covid-like bug and working too.   Enjoyed just being at home with Lorraine tonight, and feeling quite a bit better than I have done for a while.  Here is a picture of a few of today's tomatoes and a harvest of green chillies and Padrón peppers and also ...

Spoke to Mum this morning before Lorraine and I began our epic Easter garden mission. Taking Sarah's advice I took out lots of oxygenating elodea from the fishpond, as it was so abundant it crowded out the fish. Then building the first of the big beds. Lorraine held things steady and I drilling in the guide holes, then putting in the bit that fit the end of long thick coach bolts and twisting those in with the drill. Some of them went in sweetly, others had to be twisted in manually while grunting and cursing. An unusual sense of accomplishment at having finishing the first raised bed at the end of the day.  In the afternoon Dawn and Paul called by, and we sat in the sun (on our new garden furniture) living the dream, sipping tea and eating fruit cake that Dawn had made. Also later we sat in the summer house -- a first with guests. Paul is recovering from a health scare but is now cautiously optimistic that everything will be fine. Dawn and Paul are getting married later this year....

A day of industry and sunshine. Lorraine and I hard at work in the garden again today. We had taken delivery of a cast aluminium garden table and six chairs. We had to bolt the legs on and so on. Very sturdy and nice, and the chairs are very comfortable. Sat there having cups of tea in the sun, and ate lunch on it too. Then in the afternoon we did a bit of rearranging of rocks in our rocky bit. Then we deployed the circular saw Lorraine ordered recently, and working together I sawed lots of sleepers in half to make the short ends of the beds. I enjoyed doing it too, which is weird. If on my own, I am not sure I would have felt confident enough to do a job like that. But one of the excellent things about Lorraine, who was busy measuring and using the set square to draw lines, and hefting sleepers with me, is that she makes it all possible somehow. Finished late afternoon, just as the rain came again. As a footnote to the joyful garden, there is creature, a wood pigeons perhaps, or s...

A rest from brainwork today. Instead, an intense day on Kenny Farm. Zoomed off to Morrisons round the corner in the car as they were selling multipurpose compost at a snip, and got six bags of this some of which was put into the raised bed, along with topsoil and a layer of John Innes no. 2. Into this Lorraine planted her hardy winter salad leaves.   Meanwhile I set about digging a trench, through a layer of stones, and a membrane layer quite deep. This was filled with with manure and soil, into which two raspberry canes and a goji berry plant were planted. We had lunch outside in the sunshine and after a few hours, felt that we had done a good day's work. Lorraine really happy when we are working together in the garden -- and I am finding it satisfying, and cheaper than the gym. So the tally of things we have introduced...  Pears, apples, plums, raspberries, strawberries, goji berries, blueberries, rhubarb, hardy winter salad leaves, and Lorraine has planted seeds for chillie...

Lorraine and I up fairly early doing more in the garden. Every day more progress, and it feels like a kind of excellent therapy -- every day seeing a bit of progress.  I dug a hole and we planted the third acer, in what we call the island, and decided the other side should be rocks. And also we managed to rebuild the wooden trug we brought with us from Brighton, ready to take strawberry plants. It involved quite a lot of work, and fiddling with rusted bolts me having to employ things like WD40 and a chisel. This gardening malarky may turn me into a hairy chested man of action yet. Lorraine off to see Rebecca, one of her former colleagues, at her mother's house this afternoon. Her mother lives in Seaford and Lorraine was a kind of school mum to her, so it was a sort of mum summit.  I tried to work on poems but I seem to bring muddiness and indecision to everything, when I need the exact opposite.  Had did a bit of job admin. Having to chase information about the job I was ...

A bit more recording this morning with Robin and a bit of writing.  Today mostly a day of gardening. We are loving being out there.  The evil buddleia all but vanquished now. Lots of moving things around in the garden too. I piled bricks and tiles into the little brick shed. It is only about five foot five high, and has a corrugated low roof dense with spider webs. I used my head as a duster a dozen times, and felt like I was alive with spiders. I saw some beefy ones today. Lorraine bringing order to the workhouse too, after lots of sterling work in the garden. Mum called to say she reversed her car into a wall in the car park of the Jolly Badger yesterday, and the car is to be written off. Luckily she and Mas were completely unharmed, and the Jolly Badger folks very kind, and gave them coffee and a taxi ride home. Mum seemed okay about it but it must have been a shaking experience. Fish pie tonight. Lorraine and I feeling the effects of working physically for hours. No need f...

Feeling distinctly perkier -- walking around in a non-wheezy way. I worked in the garden for a while too. Definitely -- after two weeks -- feeling suddenly lots better.    L andI went to Paradise Park, home to large model velociraptors a dinosaur experience, and a garden centre. Walking around not feeling out of breath and weird is great. We have not been to the dinosaur experience so far, although we could hear what sounds like a model train or something, beeping continuously driving around on the other side of the garden centre wall, which sounded minimally exciting. Lots of browsing, and we came away with shrubs and strawberry, raspberry and goji berry plants as part of the dense agricultural business that will be our back garden.  I'm beginning to look at tropical fish again. There were some at the garden centre, and also at Pets at Home in Newhaven. I have a vision of a tank that is lushly planted but sparsely populated with just a two species of tetras in small shoa...

Saturday -- and a gorgeous sunny day here in Brighton. Lorraine and I got up fairly late, not having to open the door to anyone today. I popped around the corner to collect my sliced chewy brown, and bumped into Rick. The glassmates had gone to the pub yesterday lunchtime.  In other news Prince Phillip was buried today. I am not a royalist, but the sight of the Queen on alone on a pew was rather touching and sad.  After I'd made breakfast, Lorraine and I then went outside. I took advantage of the scaffolding for a few rooftop capers, washing my study window from the outside, and climbing onto my flat roof. I scooped out a third of a bucketload of gravel and dusty soil, rusty screws and bits of peanut shells from the gutter. Meanwhile Lorraine busy planting and potting. I scooped earth out of the bottom of the composter. There is something quietly miraculous about the rich dark soil that emerges from all the peelings and bits and pieces you sling in. Teabags leave frail ghost b...

Rain again. Off to a couple of garden centres, L and I off to buy some perennials. Unfortunately the first centre had already had most of their perennial stock scavenged. The second and larger one had more, though you had to take your life in your hands, with face-masked mobs being funnelled through xmas sections and so on. The plant sections outdoor and fine. We bought several plants and then planted them in the back garden between deluges, and cut down the big stalky remains of the helianthus. Inside tonight, eating roast chicken and Lorraine having some wine, an essential Sunday night fortification for the school week. Lockdown 2 starts officially on Thursday, but teachers must continue of course.  

Keen to have Lorraine depressurise at the weekend, but today the school alarm kept going off mysteriously, necessitating a dozen phone calls over Saturday. We also chatted to Pat and Maureen, still doing well in Ashford. We did have some relaxing times however, such as planting the tomatoes which had sprouted from seeds in our bathroom. Other garden produce growing well. We deadheaded roses in the front garden, and Lorraine tucked in the wisteria to a lattice.  I took myself for a walk on Sunday, finding the ground gasping for water, which has fallen everywhere else. Here is the round pond near the top of Hollingbury Hill, and read more of Bruno Schulz's short stories. I have also been listening to The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. By coincidence, the last audiobook I read, Carrying the Fire , had an introduction by Charles Lindbergh, who is the villain in Roth's alternative history book.  

A strange Sunday. Woke up having done something mysterious to my neck and back in the night, and which gave me a headache. Mother's day today, spoke to Mum. The pesky television stopped working, and she had to have her tooth looked at again. Breakfast in Bed with Lorraine. Lorraine a bit less exhausted today. We did some pottering about in the garden. I cleaned half the decking of ingrained stuff, with my compressed water cleaner, but then stopped to give the neighbours a break. The action was doing something to my back too, and making my headache worse. We sat in the garden for a while, it was warm enough with the sun on our faces.  With Beth we watched Toy Story 4, which was fun. Lots of people still not abiding by the rules, judging by photos and comments on Social Media etc. Crowds gathering in the sunshine. A bit of TV watching only connect with Beth and early to bed as Lorraine has work tomorrow.

Waking up fresh and cheery this morning. A slow start, then up for breakfast. Drove off to a garden centre out in the sticks and bought some herbs and succulents and some thrift and saxifrage and thyme, which later we poked into the pebbles. We are feeling increasingly happy with our little garden at the moment. However before we did this, we went to Wobblegate just outside Bolney, where they make fruit juices and cider, and have opened up a little tap room and restaurant on the farm. Had a pint of their own Eden Farm cider there, and it was bloody marvellous. Lorraine spoke to Tom, who was a go getting young guy, clearly loving what he was doing. He was going to pop into her school to talk soon too. I said I loved the cider I was drinking, and Tom said the brief had been to make a cider that tasted like alcoholic pure apple juice, and it did. The brew in small batches, and use the natural yeast on the fruit rather than add it, so each time they brew it there are subtle differences....

So girding our loins today for the arrival of 75 20kg bags of pebbles and cobbles. These arrived on palettes outside our house late in the morning, ferried across the road by a nice man with a powered pump truck. Lorraine and I carried a few bags through hugging them to ourselves like babies, I was feeling a bit weak and feeble having carried dozens of sacks of topsoil over the last couple of days. Luckily I evolved a technique of slaloming down through the house with a wheelbarrow and a sack in it, enabling me to steadily shiftbags without killing myself. More of a bonus was the arrival of Beth and John. John carrying bags through like a trooper,  he said this was just like being the drum at a gig. Both of them being extremely helpful. Huge volumes of stones emptied over what used to be our lawn. All quite dusty and white. John had to go to do a drum lesson and then a practice session. Betty stayed with us for dinner. I was very much relieved that we had got the bazillion cobb...

Another day of outside work. Feel like I am in beginning training for the World's Strongest Man competition. Gardeners are the toughest people on earth. Carrying twenty bags of soil up through the house to the front garden. Lorraine and I did more shovelling, raking, and potting of plants, taking down a raised bed and so on. All in pleasant sun. Then at the end of the day laying down membrane over what used to be the lawn, to accommodate a million stones. No trips to the dump today, as the Brighton marathon was being held, and there were ant lines of runners threading about, so many of the roads were closed. No skin off our noses however as we had loads to do. Quite enjoyable to be working out in the fresh air, and I felt better at carrying the heavy bags again today. No need to go to the gym. Sat on the top of the decking and drank a beer at the end of the day in the sunshine surveying the building site of our garden, and feeling fairly pleased with our progress. It is good fu...

A day of work in the garden. Finished digging up the lawn. Finally perfecting my spade technique with the last row or so. Then dragging bags of earth up through the front of the house and into the car, and off to the recycling centre near the racecourse.  Hard work. Sacks of earth are not light. Who knew? Home and the main job finished, Lorraine and I had hot showers on our aching backs, and luxuriated in a bit of a doze. Spoke to Toby on facetime, who is in Boston joining Romy for the weekend, who is on a short and prestigious business course in Harvard. Lorraine and I then sauntered down to the Shahi where we had a cheeky curry there, for the first time in ages, and enjoyed a couple of lagers. Sabir gave us a warm welcome, and everyone still remembers our orders. Walked home then, for a spot of match of the day. Chelsea not playing today, but poor Brighton, the Seagulls, got thumped  0-5 by their visitors Bournemouth, and are now teetering near the relegation zone.

Lorraine and I had great fun today, falling on the garden. There are big plans for this year, if the stars align. Lorraine had an idea for a pile of pots set one upon the other in decreasing sizes full of gravel mixed with compost and she poked in the succulents we bought yesterday. I mowed our little lawn and planted another fern, and Lorraine created order in the rest of the garden. At one point she nipped indoors and returned with a jug of Pimms rattling with ice and full of bits of fruit, and some bits of cheese and cut up apple, and some Italian dried bread snacks and we sat outside for the first time this year. It was hot in the sun, and cool out of it. A luxurious afternoon snooze late in the afternoon, as I still feel a bit drained and sore throated. Called Mum, and chatted about meeting up next week, then sat with Lorraine as she cooked, which is always fun. Watched two TV documentaries, one about the golden age of Children's TV, and another Deep Ocean voiced by David ...