I will be extra careful

The deck has been finished.

It looks only slightly worse than it did before they started – which is not a bad result for the large amount of money they charged.

At least we now know that I did not do such a bad job last summer – we just have the wrong deck timber and stain.

We have been buying lots of flowers and plants. This is the triumph of hope over experience but I am letting Cate do all the planting so that I will not feel responsible for the plants that pop their clogs.

We have planted lots of flowers around the fountain – in the middle of a grass patch. Logic would dictate that you would kill the grass before planting but that is too easy. I now have to kill the grass without killing the plants – this is much more of a challenge.

I honed my skills by killing the grass – and some hollies – in the front garden. That damn roundup just goes everywhere. I will be extra careful when doing the fountain grass – but there are no promises.

We had our relatives for dinner on Friday and my dinner was awful. I overcooked the chicken – and when I was seasoning the potatoes Bastisi (Not Batasi as I have been calling it) – the lid fell off the seasoning jar and covered the whole lot in a layer of Australian Native Spices.

The potato thingy was barely edible but everyone put on a  brave face and said how delicious it was. I filled them full of wine and after while they forgot about it altogether.

But my goulash soup was OK.