Busy

We have been quite busy lately.

Out the front of our bedroom window there is a small garden bed, which had a bush and some spiky, grassy things.  The bush was quite pretty but the spiky things were ugly, and spiky.  And it was all quite inconvenient for getting in and out of cars

 So Jim dug them out.  I bought some weed mat and some pebbles.  Alas, it turned out that the pebbles would cost in the order of $1000 if I bought enough to completely cover the now empty garden bed.

I can think of many other things to spend $1000 on instead of pebbles, even though the pebbles are rather lovely.  So I ordered a metre of gravel from the local gardening rural supply place for $110.  Then I shifted the pebbles, covered the bed with weed mat and shovelled gravel all over it. Then I scattered the pebbles over the top. And then my back, knees and ankles stopped talking to me.  Loudly!

Now the little garden bed looks like this

We had no idea that drain (at the front, to the left)
was there until Jim dug out a load of spiky things!

And we still can't use the front bit of the driveway properly:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all that gravel, although we might dig out the agapanthus by the front gateway and put the gravel down there. It would make getting to the letter boxes much easier.

It was a busy day on Saturday too.  Lindsey and I made our usual morning visits to the mushroom farm and to the Elaine Farmgate Shop, travelling in separate cars so as to be compliant with the current Covid restrictions. Then we returned to our respective houses and got ready for a Zoom lunch with Freyja and Simon to celebrate her birthday (which is actually today, but Saturday was more convenient for having lunch).

I have never had a Zoom lunch before, and only a couple of meetings/conferences.  I was not especially happy about having a Zoom lunch, although in the event it was a very pleasant hour. It was telling that Lindsey and Ian and Jim and I were wearing winter woollies and sitting inside in our Mount Helen abodes, while Freyja and Simon were sitting outside in t-shirts in their Westgarth courtyard. (Westgarth is an inner suburb of Melbourne). They had sunshine. We did not. We did, however, all have lovely lunches. 

I think my lack of enthusiasm for a Zoom lunch was born from being scarred for life by Christmas video calls when I was in England and video calling was in its infancy.  I would call someone who would then plonk me in the middle of the Christmas dinner table, where I couldn't see anyone much and couldn't hear anything over the hubbub that is our family Christmas dinners.  Nobody plonked me on a table at Freyja's birthday lunch and I could see and hear perfectly.

After the lunch finished I made my way out to Delacombe to collect my supermarket order. I haven't done a click and collect supermarket order before, although I have for other things. I got there to find that my order wasn't ready and wouldn't be for at least an hour and probably longer. So I went to Dan Murphy's instead and bought plenty of wine supplies (Just In Case) and went home. I went back when I got a text message telling me it was finally ready.  But next time I think I'll just go and collect it all myself.  If I go mid-week and not at lunchtime the supermarkets aren't particularly busy. And usually the local IGA fills most of my needs. I don't often have need to visit the big supermarkets