Hallelujah!

This must be incredibly boring for you but, for me, it's a reality survival show sponsored by Skating on Thin Ice courtesy of Idiot Productions. Who will win? Will it be me or the house?

I've been assured by the company that the fencing panels will finally be delivered next Wednesday. I'm here, ready and waiting with my paint - Cuprinol Wild Thyme since you ask - and my brush. I'll finally be able to leave the front door open and let The Whingeing One out into the front garden and if he continues to whinge after all that, well, I may just barbecue him*.

There's been more unpacking, more taking stock of what needs to be done and a long list of 'finishing' jobs to be done next week. I'm wishing now that I hadn't told P, the builder, that that's all there was because every time I walk round or unpack I find more things that I can't do or are too heavy to hang on these walls without industrial strength fixings and macho-man tools. My tool-box is pink.

Once the fences are up I'll be able to concentrate on building the raised beds and pretend that all is well - I love gardening. Getting to grips with late-Summer veg will take my mind off the leaking pipes/gutters, the central heating, the tanking, the exterior paintwork and all the other structural work that's needed. Gardening, growing something from seed, nurturing and planting out then finally picking, eating, cooking, sharing, freezing, pickling any surplus is the best thing ever. I always feel better when my fingers are in the earth and my feet are scrunching grass.

There's still no sign of the camera and I see no point in continuing here unless I find it soon since photographic details of progress and step-by-step guides were the thinking behind the blog in the first place. It's pretty much like tumble-weed over here anyway.

Be warned - I bought a 'garden thermometer' on Ebay - nice and big and cheap.  It's rubbish - 10p made in China, probably.  According to the scale at the moment it's anything between 13 and 23 degrees C or 32 if I put my finger on it because the tube containing the mercury is moveable.  Aaatishoo - bless you! It's 13.

*  Don't fret - I haven't yet fathomed out how to put it together.   Goddam these exploded views!