Did I mention Marguerite?

Must always have Marguerites in my garden.

You might call it the humble Daisy, I call them Marguerites. Essential, and lovely.

You won't be surprised to hear of course ...

that I made friends with a cat whilst in Spain.

And very friendly he was, too. Well deserving of a bit of petting.

My sister told me to wash my hands afterwards.

I'm not sure how much she actually likes cats.

Summer Swimming

Slightly off topic, but there's not a lot going on out there in the back right now.


Did you know that you can swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London? It's a very big lake in the middle of the park, and if you join the club, well you can swim year round. If you're completely insane, you can take part in the Christmas Day race. Obviously a tradition that goes back some years.







That must be cold. Possibly as icy cold as Lake Michigan in May.


So there's a part of the Serpentine that is cordoned off, and in the summer they open it up to the rest of us (slightly less insane).

But really, on a fine summer's day, it's lovely - a bit of algae floating around, and you have to share it with these guys.

They don't take terribly kindly to the humans invading their space - I mean, you know how geese can be. And frankly, there must be some goose excrement in there somewhere. But maybe it's good for the skin, who knows.




On second thought, perhaps I'd rather be swimming in the Med.





Perhaps jumping off the side of a catamaran (three times).







Or maybe even just lying in the sun.







Oh yes, that was nice.

Landscaping

While everything grows and needs little attention, apart from a bit of pruning here and there (not much watering, given our non-existent summer), my attention is turned to the back.

As is pretty well documented by now, the back of the garden is a mess.

The swingset is gone now, of course (although the trampoline is still there - Ginger likes to sleep on it, as you can see) but that hasn't improved matters. It now just leaves a big, empty, weedy space to fill.

Once we had mixed the cement on a board, placed on the soil, for the shed base, said soil would be worse than useless.

However, poking around one day, and nosing into the neighbours garden (given that two fence panels are down on the left), I spied this

and had an idea.

I had in mind that at some plumbing trade centre up by Lewisham Centre, there were pallets like this going for free.

Decking, anyone?


I crept over there to measure this, then measured the patch. Seems as though we would need maybe six of these, but I have to revisit my calculations.

Initially, once we get rid of all the crap up there, including the weeds, we will most likely put weed control fabric down, and gravel.

But I still hanker after some decking. It would make a nice patio for everyone to enjoy, and improve the look of the garden no end! I could even put some pots up there.

Watch this space!