BASKETTCASE

We've worked really hard today and I am disappointed with this photo. The trouble with photos is that they don't convey the image you have in your head of how it is all going to be when seeds sprout and leaves grow to fill in the spaces and soften the hard edges. I've sprinkled clarkia, godetia and cottage mixture this afternoon after the hard graft of digging and humping soil. In my head the carpet of flowers is already there, but in the photo I have to admit it doesn't really look a lot different to the last picture I posted.

We have a huge skip on the lawn at the front, and Dave spent his afternoon barrowing rubble and subsoil into it. We have a man coming on Monday afternoon whose job is setting up memory rooms in old people's homes and day centres. He has offered to buy quite a lot of Dot and Rod's stuff and we are hoping he will be interested in some of Mum's. It's different from trying to sell things as antiques, because the things he wants are the things that trigger off memories of the youth of people who are now in their eighties and nineties. We are hoping to offload a dozen pairs of spectacles, ranging from round ones with stretchy sides to coloured winged ones from the fifties! There are old driving licences, various tins - Oxo, Huntley and Palmers biscuits, toffees - tin trunks, lace fichus, paper patterns from the '40s, dressing table sets and so on. Well, we shall see.

Tomorrow we are going with Dot and Rod to Peter Beales roses at Attleborough. We are planning to dismatle our herb garden which has become very overgrown and full of bindweed and self-set comfrey. The idea is to level the ground, lay a weed-proof membrane and plant roses through it, then lay slate chips between. We have found slate chips very pleasant and easy to weed, as they don't break your nails to bits like gravel and they get lovely and warm to kneel on! Anyway, the idea of going to Peter Beales is to inspire Dave with their stunning displays. June should be a good time to go as the climbers and ramblers will be at their best. It will allow us to make lists of what we want, and ideas about trellises and arches. That's an autumn job as the bare-root plants are cheaper than pot-grown, and it means we can have another trip to the rose-gardens when the present works are complete.

We are really missing the family. All we have now is the odd tiny sock, a pirate's cutlass, story-books in our bed and various baking tins and kitchen utensils coated with damp sand. And of course lovely memories, snippets of nonsense songs and repartee, and a sort of smile around the house - 'Gramps' and Grandma's house.' Roll on the Birthday weekend!