Social gardening!

Day 3

Keith and I had to go to Tesco again this morning as we needed a few bits I had forgotten on Thursday. I bought the board game, Scrabble, so we could have a change from cards in the evening, and I also purchased a stick blender as I'm intending to make soup over lockdown. 

Lynn, who is our new chair of the Parish Council, had put out a plea for bulbs to plant in our middle green so I lobbed a bag of daffodil bulbs into the trolley as well! We headed home and drove around the estate, where I caught sight of Lynn working away in the bushes. I walked up and gave her the bulbs, and we had a long chat about the green areas of our estate, kitchens and hoarding stuff! It was a gorgeous morning with golden, Autumnal sunlight dappling the leaves. A perfect day to go back out into the garden!

Graham appeared with his dog, Dennis, and said that Keith had already made a start on the conifers, and I could hear the distant whine of the electric saw. When I got back, a heap of conifer branches was lying on the road, so I made a start and cleared them all into a plastic box.

Gardening can be very sociable, and over the course of the next hour, we chatted with various neighbours who stopped to say hello. Paul offered us a large rubble bag, and I half-filled it with the conifer branches and leaves. By the time we'd finished, both conifers were just stumps, and the garden looked so much better. The branches of the trees really affect my skin - if I brush against them they bring me out in an itchy rash so I wasn't sorry to see them go. We're not sure if they will sprout again as we didn't remove them completely, but if they do grow again, I will control them carefully!

As Keith was a bit tired from constantly sawing away at the branches, I asked Mike and Sophie to go to the tip with me. I had put a plastic sheet in my boot and had filled it with branches, plus there was another box full as well. We headed to the tip and found there was a considerable queue to get in!

It didn't take us long to offload everything, and I suggested going to the new Costa drive-thru near Kettering. Mike said he would treat us (he was the only one of us with the means to pay!) so we drove over and placed our orders. Sophie and I had hot chocolates - an After Eight mint one for her, and a Terry's Chocolate Orange for me, while Mike had a Frostino. We drank them in the brand new car park and gazed around at the industrial estate, which has been built on the site of an old car yard. I remember the old cars stretching away into the distance beside the A14, but it was cleared a few years ago, and some new warehouses have been built. I don't think any of them have been let or sold yet, but it's just a matter of time.

We headed home where I finished tidying the garden, and put two more big boxes of branches into the boot of my car. I didn't fancy going to the tip and queuing again so I left them until tomorrow. It was then time for a hot bath!

Before dinner Sophie, Keith and I played Scrabble, and I don't think we did very well! It was enjoyable, though, and made a change from playing cards! We then cooked dinner of beef stroganoff, which was delicious!

The evening was spent watching Strictly, and I managed to catch the last half hour of It's A Wonderful Life with Sophie sat beside me. She knows I cry every time I see it, and tonight was no exception! We then decided to watch Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, but gave up after fifteen minutes. It was seriously weird!