Progress

This is how it looks now.  I think it probably is eremurus.  I don't remember planting an octopus (see TonyG's comment).  And I can't see the leaves now as they are completely covered in self seeded euphorbia.

W has worked really hard today.  It all started with me wanting to sort out the USB leads in the top drawer of the filing cabinet.  After we had done that, I asked about a shoe box that was in the drawer, and he opened it and sorted it.  He then proceeded to sort another, and another, and yet more - until half of the top drawer of the filing cabinet was empty.  I suggested he could move boxes from a shelf into this space - instead he proceeded to sort those as well!  So we ended up with an empty shelf, and a partially empty drawer.  

AND not content with this, we then proceeded to sort out a filing cabinet of W's business stuff in the office.  So we now have an empty 4 drawer filing cabinet if anyone wants it.

AND, after all that, W emptied a 1 tonne bag in the front yard that we had filled with turf and soil when creating a flower bed a few years ago.  The plan at the time had been to get it taken away, but in fact, we're now glad we didn't, as the now rather good quality soil has been used at the bottom of the garden to build up the spot from which the laurel stumps were removed, and which will be planted with some yew and other goodies.  

We've planned another trip to the garden centre tomorrow.  Now that we have a definitely functioning camera pointed at the goldfish pool, we'll risk buying more "otter food", and we'll look at some ground cover plants for under the yews.