Weather . . . Pouph! Meh. So dull and still that it looks like the World’s been left on pause for too long and the screen’s dimmed. Not even the blackbird tossing leaves around.
Did the Great Present Run yesterday: Down to Portsmouth to drop off pressies to younger bro and family and pick up gifts to take up to Oxford for Mum, sister and older brother. Drive to Oxford to drop off those and pick up pressies for younger bro and family. Drive down to Portsmouth to drop those off and then home by 4pm. Bit knackered today. 😀
One thing I especially miss about my childhood home was the back garden. Remembering how it looked from the back door, in descending order down the length of the garden was: the crab apple tree, the small (woody and inedible) pear tree, the slightly biggar ‘eating apple’ tree and finally the big ‘cooking apple’ tree that Dad built a tree-house in and hung a couple of old tractor tyre ‘swings’ from. If/when we forgot to empty the rainwater out before we swung on the we’d get a wet bottom and a talking to from mother!
Down the sides of the garden mum grew red currents and loganberries, with the blackberry bush, a gooseberry bush and the rhubarb patch at the foot of the lawn. Beyond that was Dad’s veggie garden with a juniper bush and some other berry bush along the bottom fence. Elderberry! Our neighbour used to pick them and make wine.
Around the dogleg was the Pet Cemetery – my sister’s cats (Jesse James and Mintaka), my older brother’s guinea pigs Little Jim and Squeaker, and my three hamsters (Hammy, Gingernut Fender Statocaster the Tuesday after the Bank Holiday after Easter, and Artemis).
Looking at it on Google I can see that all the smaller fruit trees have gone to make way for an extension, but the big apple tree is still standing. The entire veggie patch and the pet cemetery are now under two semi-detached bungalows.
Oh well.