A time to reflect that we’ve quite enjoyed slowing down and staying at home. We’ve even had time to paint the shed…
I’m going to let you into a secret. I’ve quite enjoyed staying at home. It makes life so much simpler. Already I’ve got into the habit of not needing to go out for coffee at the weekends, or pop to the shops because I’ve run out of wine, or go to the garden centre just to browse the latest ‘must have’ plant. I’m especially enjoying the alarm not going off at 5.30a.m because Him Indoors has a train to catch. Overall it’s been a positive experience.
I’m less sure about the new slogan ‘be alert’. Why, do we need more lerts? And what do we do when we’ve become one, whatever that is? After all you can’t actually spot the virus, unless you have symptoms. And then it’s too late. Personally I think we should be developing a tablet that reveals whether you test positive or not. Similar to those plaque disclosing tablets we all had to chew on when we were at primary school. Then it’d be easy to see. Perhaps it’d also help us clean our teeth properly too.
Despite my flippancy, and aware that we do need some sort of normality, we’ve concentrated on tackling areas of the garden that have been ignored for years, having been relegated to the ‘sometime in the future’ list.
Already the shed in the back garden has been given a new coat of paint: bright blue, you can’t miss it, reinstating its epithet of ‘The Beach Hut’. The paint has been languishing in the under stairs cupboard for well over a year. I’m surprised it hadn’t solidified. It also ran out with a third of the shed door to go, which lead to a discussion about where you should actually start when painting a shed. To avoid looking at it before we could get more paint, I abandoned a bag of manure in front of it, giving the impression I just hadn’t got round to putting it away. Luckily Homebase opened this weekend, which is handy, since I’d got fed up with tripping over it.
The Beach Hut has also had a major, long overdue, clear out. The sheer volume of stuff you can cram into a six by eight wooden shed is simply breath-taking. I could set up my own plant nursery with the number of plastic pots we discovered. A pity then the tip is closed. Actually the nursery idea’s not a bad one. If you see plants abandoned at the bottom of the drive, please help yourselves. They’ll need a good home.
Apart from the plastic pots, we found a plethora of soil testing kits, four bottles of Baby Bio, labels (plastic and wooden), assorted trays (some with lids), four garden chairs, three balls of string, two deckchairs, and a metal wine cooler. Add to that the lawn mower, a comprehensive collection of garden tools, various plant supports, six buckets, an impressive selection of terracotta containers and some very potent chemicals. Oh, and one of Him Indoors’ bikes.
A rather rusty swing ball, and the garden Jenga were unexpected discoveries; both of which we thought were long thrown away. Rodents had chewed through the bag containing the latter. Clearly they’d been keen to have a game while we weren’t using it. It had also gone mouldy. Naturally we discovered this when we picked up the bag and the bottom fell out, scattering wooden blocks all over the shed floor. Now, it’s drying out in the hall by the back door before I can repair it. Just another inevitable trip hazard.
Evicting stuff from the shed and turning the garden into a jumble sale was easy. Putting it back, while resisting the urge to chuck it in haphazardly, was much harder. But perseverance paid off. Him Indoors even went so far as cleaning the windows, flooding the neatly arranged interior with sunlight. Even more exciting is that everything’s accessible; providing you move the mower and bike first.
We rewarded ourselves with a large gin and tonic and dusted off our swing ball skills. Him Indoors is now favouring a minor hamstring injury, while I have bruised knuckles. Clearly, we’re as rusty as the swing ball pole, but if anyone fancies a game, get in touch. I’m taking bookings for a one on one tournament in the back garden, whilst practising being alert and socially distant at all times.
The risk assessment for Jenga, however, is taking a little longer to work out…
The Oakwood Chronicles 