Sage

This is about one tenth of the sage bush. It has defeated the mint, overwhelmed a bunch of crocuses, and even shaded out some irises. I have already waged war against it once this year; tomorrow I will summon up the strength to subdue it. I like value for money, but that sage was the worst 1€50 I ever spent.

Reinforcements, garden-wise, arrived this morning, in the shape of our garden philosopher*, who will deal with the heavy boring work with power tools, freeing me up to do some fiddly pretty things with flowers (and wrestle the sage).

This morning waking up felt like cruel and unusual punishment, but not as cruel as waking the kids up. It didn't help that CarbBoy had 'forgotten' some homework, so he had to get up earlier than would have been necessary if the very strict "do all your homework on Friday night" rule had been adhered to.

A nice moment this evening though : CarbBoy's homework was to learn all the Spanish he's done so far. I'm useless to help with that and he quite rightly didn't even bother asking me. But he is starting to see the point of a big sister, when TallGirl patiently went through it all with him, before trotting off to tackle her own homework mountain. I rewarded her with mince and tatties. Trust me; that's a real treat.

Basketball this evening for CarbBoy, and I have made the radical decision to give the big basketball party a miss this year, so that we can have a proper family night for Mr B's only proper night home next weekend. Now, we just need a good movie or two to watch. Any ideas? Sort of a funny, romantic, historical thing with plenty of action and, ideally, two decent car chases. And we like a good catch phrase.

Tomorrow, I am told, I will be mostly baking. Tonight, on the other hand, I am involved in a long, painful battle with a humongous hornet in the library. With my throat burning from the fierce Spanish death-spray, it really is in the balance as to which of us succumbs first....


*He studied philosophy and is now a gardener - feels like a logical step to me.