:: a little miracle in the garden

The daphne bush that's been struggling along weedily for five years or more is finally flowering! I can hardly believe it.



The brown marks are from a recent bout of frost. It's been a very mild winter though - I wonder if that's it? Or maybe it just needed time. Lots of time.

I still haven't done anything about building raised beds in the back yard. Well, I did go to the fencing place up the road at the weekend but it was shut. I'm now thinking log rolls. We'll see. I thought I'd found the ideal thing in Homebase: sturdy wooden frames hinged at the corners so they fold down flat for easy transport, and clips on the top so they can be stacked to make a higher frame. Sadly it turns out they're not for sale - they belong to the (foreign) company that ships garden supplies to Homebase. Sigh.

It's been raining heavily this week so I've been back on eBay. A breadmaker this time, a Panasonic. I've been thinking about getting one of these but they're nearly £100 new, bit too much to justify. This was £40 - second hand but looks in good nick from the photos. It hasn't arrived yet. I also got a lovely bag for guess who.



How could I see that and not buy it? She is an angel.

Depressing news locally: vandals have burnt out the wooden part of the lovely new walkway through Ferry Glen. It's the second arson attack on the path: last year they burnt the bridge. It was replaced by a metal one, not as nice but at least impervious to fire-raisers. And now this! It's quite a long stretch, and the fire also damaged surrounding trees, as you can see:



Bertie, being a drongo, thinks that because he walked on the walkway a while ago he must be able to walk on it again now, even though it looks and smells funny.

The fight-back against litter also continues. A while back I joined a group effort at the roundabout by Tesco (as a reward they gave us lunch in the staff canteen), and this inspired me to tackle a really nasty corner near my place. I've dubbed it Vodka Valley - there must have been a dozen or more one-litre empties, as well as lots of beer cans, Buckie bottles, crisp packets and Rizlas.



I'm probably going on another joint litter-picking session on Sunday. They're a nice bunch of people and it is kind of satisfying.