Z goes out on a whim

To start with, my apologies for having turned on word verification. There's a whole spate of spam comments in Chinese (or similar language that I can't understand) on a lot of blogs at the moment and, whilst I haven't had any, I don't want them and nor do I want any of you lovely people who have commented and signed up for notification of replies to receive them either. As a lesser of two evils, please excuse it - I trust that Blogger will get on the case and intervene to stop them before long. Spam seems to come in waves, doesn't it?

Weeza wants to buy a bike. She still has her old one here, but she hasn't ridden it since she was at school. Phil cycles a lot - 15 miles or more a day as part of his commute to start with, and then he enjoys going out for a bike ride at the weekend. He biked over here last Sunday; 22 miles each way. There's some really pretty countryside around where they live and they want to get a child's trailer to go on the back. They are extremely expensive new, so they're investigating second-hand.

The Sage is just pouring me a glass of wine. Isn't he a constant delight? This morning, he asked if there was anything I needed, so I suggested he buy dinner to save me going out shopping. Then I went out anyway, as Wink was. We wanted to check her new satnav, which turned up impressively quickly - ordered on Tuesday evening, shipped on Thursday, arrived on Friday afternoon and all seems well. She left after lunch today and arrived at Warminster (not where she lives, but where her chap, Bod lives) just on 4 hours later. It's 230 miles to her house, but maybe a little less to reach Bod, I'm not sure.

The Sage has scrubbed the Jersey Royals, put them on to cook and is heating the grill for me. I think he deserves a kiss. He also mowed the lawn this evening, which is splendid. I daresay all of you have cut the grass (those who have lawns, that is) several times already this year, but we take rather the same attitude to mowing as we do to dusting - it soon comes back so you might as well leave it until it's worth doing. I did say that I'd take over the mowing, as I think our petrol mower is a bit of a beast (I can't start it as the pull rope is too long for me to keep a foot on the machine to stop it from being pulled towards me as I yank) and it's too heavy for him, but I was assailed by indecision as to which to buy last year, so ended up forgetting about it through the winter. I'll go out on a whim and get one, one day.

Still potting up plants. I've found another tray of tomatoes. Two more done, two to do. I've also been potting up courgettes. I sowed the Blue Hubbard squash plants and was a bit miffed to discover each packet, while saying 'average 10 seeds', only gave me 7. I might send a miffed email. I also sowed runner beans. 252 of them so far, with about another 60 to go. Indeed, we are fond of runner beans, but Al will sell most of the plants.

One thing I like to do, when on holiday, is buy packets of seeds. It's a memento of the trip, to grow plants from it the next year. I also, often, buy a little purse. As something I handle every day, I think it makes a cheery little memory of the occasion. I'm using the soft little leather one I bought in Krakow 2 years ago still. It cost about 40p and I've had to mend it a bit, but it takes coins, a few cards - credit, library, blood donor, debit, and some stamps, and I like it very much. I bought my last purse in India - in Udaipur, I think.