pumpkinstrokemarrow

First run of chicken wire hung, second and upper run up and half tied. Just got the lower ties to put in. The activity was enlivened and speeded up by assistance of BH acting as apprentice and by construction of a Heath-Robinson like contraption to facilitate the unrolling of chicken wire a metre up in the air. Need for contraption arising from the considerable weight of a 50 metre roll of the stuff and it's tendency to crease when bent. Very hard to get the creases out. Picture of contraption to follow in due course; hopefully on next sprogvisit. Not so sure about a picture of the fence itself as the chicken wire is surprisingly invisible in some lights: so let's hope the deer have good eyes. Maybe I should string some of the crime scene police tape I found somewhere around it to improve visibility. Also odd how differant the fruit trees look from inside the cage; entirely differant feel to them. Much more domestic and orchard like than it was before.

Have been given a bare root vine. Stuck it in at the end of the clematis fence. We will see if we get any grapes - and whether they are eatable. Maybe they will wind up in chutney like the surplus plums.

Visited by some would-be allotment trusties today. They are busy setting up some cross Epsom allotment garden coordinating committee to harass the council to do better - or better still (and this seems to be the flavour of the month) to make all the allotment gardens into self governing outfits more or less free of the council. Not so sure about the merit of this last at all. The council don't do a bad job as it is and I am not sure I want some busy trusties patrolling the allotments every Sunday making remarks about the state of ones verges. There used to be one of these when I had an allotment near Friern Barnet (mental hospital to one side, heavy duty isolation unit the other) and he accounted for the one time I was seriously tempted to clobber someone with a spade. Quite a scary experience (for me).

Three senior moments between the two of us in the last few days: one of which was to put the boiling water in the tea cup rather than in the tea pot. The other two have vanished - which is not good considering one was rather spectacular and the other was only a few minutes ago. Still, it could be worse - and maybe I will remember what they were when I log out.

Postcript on the recent bonfire. After the rain there was pretty much nothing left, just a few bits of charcoal. No great lumps at all. Not bad at all given that we left the fire when it was still just about in flame, a glowing heap about three foot across and one foot high.