First fruit

First fig was delicious.
Have cut off dead branches from last year.
NOTE: Do not leave a green fig on the tree at the end of autumn as the branch dies ( the small fruit blackens and rots while the twig datkens and passes the dead stick test).

Gunned drive again after rain. Also gunned ants living above the kitchen drain under the damp course. Treated front and back drains with eco drain clearer.
Anemone Monterosa mulched, houseleek and both fuschias potted.
The rest is still to do.
Didn't imagine a to do list and a diary would be such a problem, and I've mislaid the latest OCR so I shall tidy up some more and see if something emerges.
BBC free garden planner is crap if you have a wall where they fix the viewpoint and a plot which is very three-dimensional, still I did draw a garden nothing like ours and nothing like we want.

Never try to teach a pig to sing,
it makes one look stupid
and it irritates the pig.

Dotar

After the blackout

New secateurs are great. Gunned weeds on drive.
The square composter is full, and in a week I have emptied the round one to bins and refilled it, though it should compress somewhat.
All grass has been mown this week and I have cleared the rear fence and some of the east bed. Frogs throughout back garden.
Shady bed weeded, uncovered Japanese anenome hybrida Richard Ahrens. this reminded me to check the front garden where there is another, hybrida Monterosa. The latter is rising out of the soil, will add more compost.
Found, two primula (primulae, primulas?) on the grassy knoll and the rosemary.
Too late I have identified the scarlet lily beetles (they are lilioceris lilii) and learnt the effective way to discourage them - pick the critters off and squash them one by one. There is a good Royal Horticultural Society site.
Revised to do: Move water bowl to sunlight, pot fuschias and houseleek. Find site for bee nester. Trellis. Seed planting list.
Inside, one rack is now in the kitchen.
To do: Get plasterer for living room, curtains and rail for rear window, clear rear bedrooms, decorate hall, landing and stairs, clear bedroom chair and downstairs floors.
Virtually its still all to do. Flat screen for kitchen, OCR and voice recognition, newsgroup downloads. Second screen and keyboard. Links and characters in this blog.
Spooky was treated with Wilko cat flea drops this morning and is now sulking in the garden.
Onward.
I hope I never get so old I get religious.
Ingmar Bergman.

How simple?

The two racks are built, that just leaves siting them and filling them and clearing the rooms around them. that last is far too big to be simple, more planning required.
The rear and front grass has been mown this week but the side area still needs cutting and I have only just started trimming and clearing the east bed.
Virtually, Forte Agent 2.0 is being installed but I've stopped because I don't know my news server so I can't register. Add "find how to do non-standard characters on this blog" to the to dos.
Still till I started this entry I didn't realise I may get there despite the weather.
Add re-pot house leek and get secateurs.
Add kill weeds on front drive.
While we are alive we should sit among colored lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.
Jack Vance
Ought to learn more about layout too but that is not a priority yet

Simple little things for now.
Outside: mow the grass, clear the bed against the east fence and plant the new fuschias there.
Inside: assemble the two new storage racks and clear one section of the spare room onto them.
Virtual: install optical character recognition and voice recognition.
Achieved: this blog is working.

Start

The midden is home to Spooky, a black 16 year old cat, who keeps a couple of humans, the Unicorn and me, to care for him.
I have let things slip and the purpose of this blog is to record the plans and progress of the development of a twentyfirst century home for us all. Initially there will be three areas:

The inside. This will relate to the building and its fixtures, fittings and furnishings.
The outside. The garden, the boundaries and beyond.
The virtual. The hardware, the software and the uses of the computing and home entertainment facilities.

Now Spooky wants attention and the sun is shining so I shall go and do things.
2004/July/3