today in idle poking around

[kaberett]

• Watercolour pencils, because I really enjoyed messing around with them at a friend's the other weekend and I have the Succulent Dragons colouring book and actually I enjoy colouring in even if I'm still scared to actually sketch things of my own to colour and I'm... allowed to do things I enjoy badly. (Also I dithered over What Exactly To Buy to A & now I am apparently getting a present, so that's a warm squishy feeling.)
  
• Two kinda fancy paintbrushes acquired from a charity shop, at half price.
  
• I have utterly failed to locate (in town or online) any Suitable Large Planters for MY NEW FIG TREE, but I have enjoyed looking and will probably get A to take me to a gardening centre.
  
• Lots of thinking about shears. Need to check my neighbour's Box Of Tricks because if they have some I probably oughtn't to buy them, but Investigation nonetheless, leading to a clearer idea of what I want. (The difficulty is that so far as possible I'd prefer to avoid plastics, but pure wood-and-metal-and-enamel-I-guess tools aren't super easy to find.)
  
• I think I might have identified the plumbing bits I need to make the water butt slightly more robust.
  
• Apparently the bit of furniture I want (that I saw in a charity shop and that had vanished by the time I checked it was okay with A, grump grump) is a valet stand or butler stand. Now at least I can keep poking the internet for more.
  
• There is a semi-plausible definitely-ridiculously-located sun lounger on the eBays that I might attempt to go for, in that the single biggest improvement to my quality of life at the allotment would be "somewhere to lie down that is guaranteed to contain neither thistles nor ants".
  
• I am tentatively fairly sure that I can in fact afford to Just Buy a fruit cage, rather than scrounging around for bits and pieces to DIY it, which abruptly frees up a lot of cognitive function, hurrah.
  
• I have been doing a pretty good job of accepting support over the past few days, which gives me a framework to keep thinking about vulnerability and connection in.
  
• Over the course of the evening I have made both vegetable stock and bread, which is extremely satisfying even if the bread is Kind Of A Shape. Settled and grounded and yes.

Right yes okay goodnight.

Comments

[ewt]

Fig treeeeeee!

[kaberett]

It is currently in a bin bag and REALLY NEEDS A POT.

[ewt]

I theoretically have a pot you could use but the plastic ones are plastic (ugh) and the heavy clay one is, er, heavy, and also I am going to be away for a week which is not so good for the tree.

[kaberett]

Yes, I think a trip to a garden centre this afternoon is indicated!

[kaberett]

pot successfully acquired, now I just have to executive function moving it...

[lunabee34]

What have you done? Now I desperately want a valet stand.

[kaberett]

You're welcome!

[alexseanchai]

(looks like you lost your </a> tag)

[kaberett]

this is why I shouldn't hit post, then close the laptop and go to bed without checking :-p fix'd!

[aldabra]

Fig tree: put the pot on something you're sure is impermeable. I lost my glorious fig because it managed to detach the bottom of the half-barrel it was in and put a tap root into the landlady's front garden, which was a wrist-diameter by the time I found it. If it had also been on a concrete slab I would have seen that happening. (It did that in Bristol too, through the patio, but it was much younger then and I could cut it free with secateurs. If your impermeable thing is a patio don't give it a crack between slabs.)

[kaberett]

Pot is going to live (at least in the first instance) on the decking, which is a good 6" (and some weed suppressant) off the ground, so fingers crossed -- but thank you for the warning!

[vass]

Mmm, juicy dragons.

<3

[kaberett]

:D

[fyreharper]

Fig tree!!!
(No, autocorrect, stop Helping; I did not secretly mean gig OR dig there >_> )

[davidgillon]

"somewhere to lie down that is guaranteed to contain neither thistles nor ants".

This is a definite plus. I say this as someone who recently found an ant in the corner of his mouth!