Lined up

 Our mini grand tour means it is 3 weeks since we did our weekly collection of veg boxes. We haven't seen the grower for a while, but I'm sure he is as frustrated with the spring as the rest of us. (Last night our neighbour had a paraffin burner holding off 2 degrees of frost in his greenhouse). Nevertheless, he obviously has faith that better times are coming. These have appeared since we were last here, right beside the car park. Lettuces are common enough in gardens and allotments, but it's not often you see parallel rows long enough to be disappearing into the vanishing point. It will be fun to watch them grow as the weeks go by - then, no doubt, vanish, and reappear in our box at some point

I've had disproportionate pleasure buying four solid iron curtain poles for the refurbished living room, dealing with a no-nonsense man from Accrington, Lancashire. Not a town or area I know, but it's clear from a skim of its history that us was part of the crucible of the industrial revolution, with early development of the engineering sector. It was also a place with plenty of radicalism, where battles were fought for the rights of working people, so I can imagine I'm enjoying part of all that inheritance

Reading on, it was also the home of one of the ill-advised WWI 'pals' battalions, which was first thrown into active combat on the infamous date of 1 July 1916 - the first day of the Battle of the Somme - the battle in which my own grandfather was wounded. More than half were killed on that day

I hope the poles live up to expectations; I'll install them with care, trying to keep them parallel