Early gardening

Today didn't quite turn out as I'd expected. Yes, I got a loaf made in time for lunch, yes I washed all the towels and even hung them out a bit, though to little effect other than the nice smell, yes I went down to the chemist for a regular prescription about which they texted me this morning. All maybe a tad later than I'd envisaged, but bed was very appealing and I felt drowned in sleep. Evidence of my yielding to temptation arrived: I'm a devotee of the clothing company BAM, particularly of their wonderfully soft sweat tops, and I'd ordered one at half price in their sale. It's very light and of a forgivingly generous shape - I look forward to the kind of weather when it'll be appropriate. 

The unplanned bit came in the afternoon and was all the fault of the neighbour with whom we share the stone wall down one side of our garden. It's been covered in ivy all the time we've lived here, and over the years it's just ... matured. Sometimes it's hard to tell which is supporting which, but we attack it annually with varying degrees of enthusiasm and woefully inadequate tools. Today, Himself came back in the car to find Him Next Door cutting out the ivy at the far end of his side because it was pushing stones out, apparently. (I can't help wondering if it would have done so if he'd not been quite so savage, but there you are.) 

Anyway, that was the end of any thought of something as frivolous and useless as a walk in the afternoon. Instead, we spent an arduous two hours climbing wee ladders, leaning precariously over the wall to get great tendrils that were tangling in the wisteria, waving the long-handles loppers myopically at some distant object. In the end, we filled two large containers with branches and bits, tendrils and twigs (see what I did there?) and dragged them into the shed to await transportation to the recycling centre. (It'll have to be tomorrow or the gale will prevent it till next week.) We were both completely knackered and dusk was well and truly advanced. I've tried to convey some sense of the activity in the collage, though you'll have to imagine the deeper gloom because the camera irons it out and I forgot to reduce the exposure. 

We had fish for dinner and made it to Compline, a service which tonight reminded me of how peaceful it can make me feel - despite everything. I'' need that peacefulness tonight as son #2 races home from Canada in what looks to be a record time ahead of the storm. And tomorrow I'll revisit the garden with a critical eye and hide the watering can ...