Only the strong survive

Husband has always done most of the gardening. I'm good at clearing; he's good at growing. But over the last year or so I've taken more of an interest, partly because of Husband's ill health, but partly because I'm getting old and appreciate these things more.

So you might remember that last year I bought and erected - almost by myself - an arch for a rambling rose.

Almost immediately it struggled. I should have taken Jabblog's advice and invested in a strong one straightaway. During the last but one or two storms it gave up completely.

But at least now I know that an arch was a good idea and still is a good idea. I just have to persuade myself to part with lots of money. When I first erected the arch it was about April and the rose was already growing its own way, so today I've been out there pruning off the big branches that were leading it astray, and plan to keep trimming it to make it grow my way. We'll see how successful that is. It might be possible to make it make its own arch. Well, maybe Alan Titchmarsh could.

I also chopped down the raspberry canes. "To about 6"," Husband said.

Some are a bit taller, some are a bit shorter; you have to be hardy to survive in a garden where I do the pruning. Every time I see something that looks a bit dead I hack it off. And then take a bit more for luck. "It'll encourage the plant to grow," I tell myself. In the photo above, right side, top half, the buddleia (?) looks very dead to me. Husband assures me it is resting. We shall see.

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Yesterday in Zac's Chef Claire and I were discussing our reluctance to spend lots of money on nice things. I think it was bed linen that set us off. We both agreed that the ones we really liked were far too expensive and we couldn't justify it, so we settled for second-best. Or third-best on one occasion when something was in the sale. I've never really liked that duvet cover. We should buy things just because they're lovely and we like them, we said.

So today I messaged her and said I was going to act on that. "I'm buying a new teapot!"

Our old teapot is cracked and stained - but it works. But I'm going to buy a new one. That decision was the easy bit. The hard part came when I started looking at teapots. There are so many beautiful ones! I'm currently leaning towards a dog one - a bit of subliminal messaging as well - but I haven't decided completely yet.

And I'm going to buy a new doormat! There's no stopping me! (Until I get to the shop, see one I like and then spot a cheaper one . . .)

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I've almost finished reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. When I began I wasn't sure but it's grown on me. I think Sissy is my favourite, but Francie comes close.