A Week of This and That ...

It's been a funny week. I think I've done a little bit of many things, amounting to not much of any of them. Weather has been variable, too. Sometimes sunny and warm, but then a cold wind would drive me inside from the garden or deck. Then I would cut out and sew a couple of peg bags for the next market, read a few blogs, send an email or two to Sara in the Netherlands (she won 'Player of the Week' after last weekend's game), make a cup of tea, hang out some washing, ring ShellyC and stop her from working, do some more of the daily crossword, have a look at what else is growing in pots on the deck and get depressed because I don't know where to put anything, and wonder if there's anything worth watching on TV, but what would be the point since I'd fall asleep anyway.

Actually, the week wasn't totally wasted. I looked after Luca for a while on Tuesday and managed to pull out a few weeds in ShellyC 's garden before spoiling Luca's fun playing in a tub of water on the deck. A complete change of clothes was needed before going to collect Shay from pre-school. I drove home by way of son's house to check on the garden, and may have scored a speeding ticket in ShellyC 's car on the way. Now, why did I tell her that if a speeding ticket arrives at her place, it will be mine? Why didn't I just let her and Marcel each think it belonged to the other? No, they'd have worked it out pretty quickly. Russ came for dinner last night and today I took Sara's car to be serviced, since I hate to think when it was last done.

Today was cloudy with occasional light drizzly rain - a very English feel about today, and so perfect for gardening that I transplanted 16 climbing beans, nearly 300 lettuce seedlings and about 100 beetroot seedlings. Also thinned out radishes and thousands of tiny carrots. Richard bought a cheap ($1.20) packet of mixed lettuce seeds and I think every single seed germinated and brought all their family with them, too. There must still be hundreds in one short row but I've nowhere else to plant them so I'll just keep pulling them up and using them for salad now. There really were thousands of carrot seedlings - nearly a bucketful of tiny plants. Richard loves planting all these vegetable seedlings and hates having to discard any. I can't convince him that unless they are thinned out, growing them is a total waste of time. Our two rows of beetroot now have another row planted down each side, and the space between where the seedling tomatoes will go when big enough to plant out, is filled with lettuces. The Snow and Sugarsnap Peas have been cropping so prolifically that I usually only get to pick from couple of bushes each time and that gives me more than enough for two of us. It helps though that when Russ comes to visit he usually detours to the vegie garden where he has a feed of peas before coming into the house to see us.

However, the highlight of my week thus far has been the joy of discovering that I can listen to Classic FM from Radio BBC London via the Internet. Now we've been on Broadband since the beginning of the year, so why has it taken me this long to access music on the Internet? Probably because I never even thought of it. I only discovered it by glorious accident and now I have the most wonderful pieces of classical music playing all day and half the night. A lot of the music I probably have on disc already, but this way I don't have to choose what to play or change discs.

I know we have Classic FM on the ABC in Australia but I prefer almost uninterrupted music, with very little commentary (I loathe talkback radio). The BBC actually has a few commercials, but only a very few. There are hilarious ones advertising Digital Radios, and another one advertising .... wait for it --- The Hernia Clinic. Did you know that you can have your hernia operated on and be awake during the procedure? It only takes 30 minutes and you can walk away afterwards! So contact The Hernia Clinic. It's presented in such a 'jolly' tone that you feel like saying "Oh, goody, let's go and see if we can get one!" Anyway, I know nothing about what's going on in Canberra, but I know everything about what's happening in Britain, thanks to regular news bulletins.