A Sort of Progress

 Poppy - I had a similar conversation with an Amazon driver. I can't remember exactly the words, as it was a few years ago, and I may be remembering the dates wrong, but it went roughly like this... 'Hello, Mrs Sybil, you weren't in so I left the parcel with your mother.' I paused for a moment before saying, 'my mother has been dead for three years.' It turned out that it was a parcel that I had sent to my friend and her mother had taken it in. I felt a little sorry for the driver. A cold caller, however, doesn't get the same sympathy.

Sharon - I love my car, though you can't see as much of the colour as I would like due to dust. I've looked at these videos, and they are so lovely, but I wonder if I would ever have the courage to cut up a book, even an unwanted, un-needed, Readers Digest collection. 

Fifitr - I have had some awesome books from library sales. And how do you know that no-one will want the book? I talk about the Readers Digest books, the condensed novels where they've stripped down a book and it would be better to read it in the original, but it is still a possibility that someone would want that abridged read. 

Today has been slightly high gravity - the sort of day when things are more likely to get dropped. I've managed to knock the same pair of scissors into the waste basket three times so far. I'm trying to sew up some net curtains for the porch. I'll share when (if) I finish, but I keep losing the tape measure, the pins and the thread. I can't seem to get the phone to charge either. 

I also managed to take a chunk out of my finger just before planting out some herbs and then sewing some white fabric. Timing is everything.

I hurt my finger prising apart some pots for the herbs. Then when I tried to put holes in the bottom (for drainage), most of them split along the bottom. So I tried out a tip I saw. I got hold of some flat-packed cellulose sponges. I got natural ones because I thought I didn't want plastic getting into what I was hoping to eat. 

The Composty sponges are cellulose and come in compressed sheets. When you add water, they swell up.

I lined the pots with them, instead of using stones. They should help retain water.

I remembered to get a pic of the pots before they were filled. I'll try and remember tomorrow to get a pic of them with the herbs in - coriander, parsley and basil.

I didn't do a fancy job of planting them. I just bunged them in the pots with some compost from Aldi. The compost seemed very robust, with lots of lumps and bumps and a few stones, but I'm sure it will settle down. And on the plus side, I've now got the exercise of watering the plants every morning and night.

I've got some washing done, and I've sorted out some paperwork. I'm planning on a quiet evening with some writing, interspersed with swearing at the net curtain I'm trying to sew.

Hugs and good health to all.