FEEEEEEESH!

I woke this morning feeling a bit like I had been in a boxing match as my jaws were a little tender after my trip to the dentist but I guess that is only to be expected - it did prove a little bit of a problem when I went to shove some toast in for breakfast but then couldn't open wide enough!

We had a little time this morning before heading off down to see Mum and picking her up for pickleball.

I have had to move the fly trap - or Tom's stinky fly-trap as it is now christened.  Bassam warned me that when it starts attracting flies it smells and Tom did warn me too that I might want to locate it in the furthest corner of the garden.  They are right - the bag is now a heaving mass of dead or dying flies and they are decomposing in the depths of the murky fluid.

This does not however seem to have stopped the flies coming into the house nor the hundreds which seem to be living in the pots housing the million bells petunia.  I shall have to look this up - I reckon the plants must have some sort of bug which is attracting the flies - whatever it is, it is disgusting and we are going to need to move them from the near the back door or repot them with something that does not harbour any sort of fly or bug.  I can cope with most things but not flies hence buying the bag which I had hoped would be the answer to that particular problem.

I am concerned about the watering when I am away as I know that John will do his best but no-one ever seems to water the same way as you do and I am sure all gardeners feel the same.

At the moment the honeysuckle arch on the approach to our front gate is absolutely glorious.  We started it just before our silver wedding anniversary and it has taken nearly two years for it to get over the top.  The smell from the flowers is heady and I have noticed that my neighbour Argy must have been round 'cutting' as she had a floral arrangement with several flowering pieces.  I don't mind - the plant is actually Gregoris and Dora's and we persuaded them to keep it because although for most of the year it can be messy during the weeks when it flowers it is just fabulous.  I will give it a severe haircut on my return from the UK.

In fact the whole of the garden has gone mad over the last couple of weeks and all the cutting back I did whilst John was away seems to have encouraged the plants to grow back stronger.   I shall try and sort it before I go away otherwise it will just become out of control - gardening is my thing not John's and he plans to paint the outside of the house whilst I am away anyway so he will have no time for green fingers.

We had a relatively successful trip down to Mum's in that pickleball was really good this week unlike last week when I am not sure what was wrong but we none of us seemed on the ball and then Mum and I went down to Euroblinds to finalise the order for the black-out blinds she is having in the sunroom so that she can see the TV when the sun shines.  The quotation was confusing and Mum thought it was for the mechanisms only and then we had the price of the fabric as she hadn't chosen it but the quote was including fabric so it was much more reasonable than we had anticipated so blinds were ordered including the ones for the patio doors.  Not so successful was the man coming to pick up Mum's car to get the dints and dinks taken out but we rearranged for Sunday when John will be there to supervise proceedings.

We finished the day with an evening fish supper down in Latchi at Y&Ps with our neighbours.  We rarely go down to Latchi unless we have visitors so it was a bit like being on holiday for us and it was a warm and balmy evening so we sat inside but with the windows wide open and watched the boats in the harbour as we ate our meal.  It was a really nice evening.  We have been very spoiled as Lakis and Argy insisted on paying for our meal - mind you John had sorted out their water pipe being severed today.