Blimey, it's halfway through July already....

Things continue apace... today about 20 plants hand reared from seed by my lovely assistant (no not Debbie McGee, but Fereday ... who has never been known to sport a leotard or sequins .... though I can see the potential for confusion because he does sooooo like shiny things .... ) were 'homed' at one of Fereday's client gardens. The not-so-bronze fennel looked particularly lovely, really bushy and fluffy and very, very green.Fereday tells me I am going to have to buy him loads of shiny things to compensate him for (and distract him from) the turmoil which will undoubtably ensue with the move down South. He tells me that a marriage is an investment, afterall! Smart arse! True to my broker training, I remind him that returns may go up or down and that his capital isn't guaranteed! But we will get 'new shoes' for the car before we drive it down. I'm now experiencing a bit of an irrational panic: I think my subconscious is convinced that we need to buy things up here because everything is going to be more expensive down South - if we aren't careful, the Pickfords' lorry is going to be full of tinned food, loo roll, sugar, television sets, new car tires, and toothpaste. Still, it would freak out the new neighbours sufficiently to ensure that they keep reasons for excursions onto our property to a minimum - I'd love to live somewhere where finding tennis balls, footballs, and lolly sticks in the flower border just doesn't happen... I did think about falsifying our ages to get us into a retirement community, but we'd just be trading one set of unwelcome garden finds for Wherther's Original sweetie wrappers!The glass display counter which I bought on a whim (blogs passim) has actually turned out to be quite a good nursery for growing from seed and the more exotic crops are doing rather well in it. My peppers are looking very healthy. Unfortunately, even with the offer of a set of Hen Party wings from Claire's Accessories, I couldn't quite convince Fereday to dress up in a stripy yellow and black jumper and 'do the business' on them with a paint brush, so we got both plants outside on a couple of the hotter days when they began flowering to let the bees and other winged thingies do their thing. I'll give the jumper a go again next year, but I fear Fereday will always refuse to be 'bee-pimped' ... sigh .... Anyway, hopefully, I'll be harvesting peppers soon.And, I've made an appointment for some ritual humiliation - posh hairdressers next Thursday. Absolutely dreading it .... I'm going to have to say that I need something easy to manage because I can't coordinate a brush and a hair dryer at the same time (because I don't have a third hand ... or a hairdryer actually .... but we'll keep that between ourselves), a style which will always look tidy and professional, a cut which removes the 'hippy-ness', etc., etc., and some impossibly polished robo-woman who is so sleek she could intimidate a siamese cat is going to have the perfect opportunity to wallop me by suggesting I put a bag over my head. Even if she doesn't actually say it, she'll be thinking it .... and I know she'll be thinking it .... and she'll know that I know .... There has to be no worse feeling - it's like you're happily swimming away in your bucket one minute, the next minute you look up into the barrel of a shotgun!

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