Saturday 25th February 2017

And here is the weekend.

A dull and dreary weekend is forecast, enlightened by some egg chasing and the EA Derby. And we have work to do in the garden.

And, as you will not be surprised, we have shopping to do, and I have a hire car to collect. Lots of ands there.

After a coffee, Jools takes me down to the Eastern Docks to the car hire office, all is well, other than the car and paperwork is not ready. So there is some waiting to do. The terminal building is typical of the kind of space that caters for the poorest travelers; it is functional, clean but clear of any real comfort for those that have to wait or linger. here is a Costa coffee shop, but food there is really amed at the richer part of the traveling public. I mean a bag containing half a dozen bite sized shortbread pieces comes in at £2.55.

There is an FNG learning the ropes, and he has the task of filling out the green card which authorises me to take the car out of the country. Finally, the paperwork is done, but the car is still being cleaned. By the time it is done, it is quarter to nine, and so I go home waiting for Jools to come back from Tesco with the shopping, and breakfast.

Once she is back, we put the shopping away, brew another pot of coffee and warm up the croissants. And then, the idea had been to go to St Nicholas at Wade, but the wind had already got up, and it seemed to be a dangerous thing to travel too far in such conditions. Anyway, we had jobs to do in the garden.

Between the two of us, we drag the bag of topsoil, or what's left of it, down to the second of the raised beds. SOmehow we manage to get the bag over the wooden edge and empty the bag into the bed. It is still very empty and so we will need another bag.

Next up was to move the quince tree from its place in the middle of the "lawn" to a more sheltered place beside the shed. In time we will replant it, but it has not been happy since arriving at Chez Jelltex, the leaves grow, turn green and then over the space of a few weeks turn brown and drop off. We think it is either wind burn or lack of water. So, the first stage is to shelter the tree, hence the move. It it fares better, then we will replant it in the autumn.

Finally, there is the budhlya to prune. I say prune, I get the saw out and hack it to the stump. Looks harsh, but it always re-grows. And once cut, we have to trip the branches to get in the bags so they will be collected by the council. Phew.

And with that is is nearly lunchtime, I go inside to make rolls and brews.

THere is rugby on TV, Wales v Scotland. Or was it the other way round. Anyway, watching the game on TV and with the football on the radio beside me on the sofa. This is the life for sure. And no stress about Norwich, as they don't play until Sunday, so just sheer enjoyment in taking in all the sports.

In the evening we start to watch a new BBC series, Taboo, which we have been saving to bingewatch on the i player. We manage to get through two episodes, and for the moment we think we know what it is called Taboo, other than that, seems to be all all style over substance. But a lot of style, so that's OK.