The face of someone who's realised there is space for another rose in the garden after all!That was before I went to the garage to get the branch lopper to cut away a rogue bit of bush and was distracted by the bamboo.
Yesterday, as I tried to chop a bit more of the top of the bushes shading some of my roses, I noticed that, behind the bushes, there was a lot of wasted space. If the bushes were cut down and a lower hedge planted it would a) give more space and sunlight to the garden, and b) make it easier for us as we age to keep them trimmed. I didn't mention this idea to Husband as I didn't think he'd agree.
Then, this morning in bed, Husband said the exact same thing!
So, as I say, I was distracted by the bamboo that I'd started chopping back yesterday. Next thing I know I'm in the bushes lopping away, eventually realising I might have taken on a job not best suited for a relaxing Saturday afternoon. But it's fun!
Anyone want some bamboo canes!
* * * * *
For Christmas, or maybe my birthday, Daughter bought me a book on punctuation. It claimed to be a fun read. I began it, stopped, started again, stopped, before picking it up again yesterday because I wanted to check on the use of the Oxford comma, and I remembered it was the next subject to be covered.
First thing I discovered is that it's called the serial comma in America. After that I must have blacked out. No, it was helpful, and gave some good examples. On the other hand I am now querying every comma I write. And on the other hand, I think some people are just a little bit obsessed. I do care about my punctuation and will re-read things and delete or add commas as I feel appropriate. Which leads me on to the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash. Now that's where I got really confused.
You might have noticed I used an exclamation mark after 'Anyone want some bamboo canes'. I would have used both exclamation and question marks but the author pointed out that it's obvious that it's a question so exclamation is all that's needed. The interrobang, about which I wrote with glee in 2024, was also mentioned.
* * * * *
I've thoroughly enjoyed two books recently. Us Against Them is the second part of the Beartown trilogy by Fredrik Backman. I had previously read books 1 and 3 not realising there was a book in between and being puzzled by the talk of events I couldn't remember (not entirely unusual). I've now ordered book 3 to read again in the light of my discovery.
And I just finished my second Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith. Although each novel is a different story the characters develop and change through the series. The books I've read were, it turns out, the last two in the series. So I've ordered book 1 so I can start again. The next book comes out later this year and, as it was left on a cliff edge (is that right? Cliff hanger?), emotionally speaking, I can't wait.
7 comments:
You need to get a panda bear as a pet so it can eat all that bamboo and keep its growth trimmed.
Robert Galbraith is JKR, transphobe, under a pen name. No. Thank you.
But good on the roses.
Both Hubby and I have read Robert Galbraith. I may not agree with her politics, but writes very good books.
Clearing growth is very satisfying. Clearing up afterwards is not. 😎
Eats, Shoots & Leaves was a fun book using British English. I quite enjoyed it. It's a few decades old, but it will be in your library.
I purposefully skip some commas in blogs because they can seem a bit pedantic, but it's always a question.
And I love to toss out the occasional ‽
I'm horrible with punctuation often writing long sentences without any at all. I rarely end my comments with a period either but will use them somewhere in the middle of the text. Odd isn't it
Having lived in the USA for all of my 87 years, I should have recognized your reference to "serial commas". I did not. More than commas, I tend to omit periods after common abbreviations: Mr, Ms, Dr, and etc. I absolutely use the Oxford comma.
Post a Comment