h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Glorious 12th... The roses and the roses and the roses... And the grass growing, and the bindweed weaving, and the nettles stinging.

We had a good time yesterday using the shredder to produce mulch. This time O/H tried cardboard. And the result is not bad at all, but hard on the machine.

The whole activity if viewed at accelerated speed like old Chaplin movies would be hilarious. I am on my knees pulling up offending weeds, then I bring a bundle to O/H who puts them into the shredder and when the bag is full I put the whole lot back where it came from. This is best done much earlier, but we're doing what we can.

The conversation invariably turns to : why can't we find young people who would be glad to earn a bob or two to do this for us as a summer job. But no-one is interested. I would have thought with an ageing population, gardening and garden maintenance would be a gold mine. Professional firms cost an arm and a leg. We've had several estimates and are still wondering who can afford those prices.

Now for a bit of mowing and deadheading and then back to last pile of essays to mark (hooray).

A postscript for Douglas and Sue. I've bought the Fischer-Dieskau 80th birthday CD+DVD.

I've seen it in the shops. It's funny, but I seem to have an aversion to buying CDs that come with 'bonus' DVDs. I listen to music, rather than watching it. Even though the 'bonus DVDs are add-ons, I feel that I'm buying something one-third of which is no use to me, and my Aiberdonian genes kick in...

Re. the lack of garden labourers - so your part of the country hasn't yet been overrun by accession state itinerent workers then... Or maybe they only do plumbing.

Douglas

It's Sviatoslav Richter Douglas, how could I resist?
And no, we have no itinerant workers. And a lack of plumbers, Polish or otherwise. Words can't express how I felt about the xenophobic scare-mongering that one had to listen to during the campaign, from the 'non-istes'. Pandering to people's worst and self-defeating instincts. Britain's policy re immigration is much more sensible. I don't know about Scotland.

At a policy level, Scotland wouldn't mind more immigrants. At a policy level, however, Westminster calls the shots. There are many xenophobes in Britain (and in Scotland), but I am told by overseas students in my class that they find here far more welcoming than some other european universities, for example, those in Germany... (no points-scoring. Simple recitation of observations heard).

Douglas

Martine, I hope you're removing flowers/seedheads and roots from your weeds before you mulch them. You /really/ don't wan't them to reappear next year!