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I have just emerged from a six day sciatica ‘episode’. I knew I’d pay for all that toil the week before.   But thanks to the miracle ministerings of Manuel the cranial-osteopath my nerves and spine are back in the right place and it’s just plain old sore. We can all manage that.

Today I hope the builders will come and take down my shed.   And in the meantime I must move plants.   And just before I was going to sleep last night I remembered that I have lots of narcissus bulbs buried under the soil where a new structure is poised to be built. So they have to come up pronto.

Lunchtime. And no, builders are not here. So Madame is resorting to doing it herself. Sigh.   There are times when I wish I were twenty years younger and acutally enjoyed wielding a crowbar. But there you are.

I did the dainty lifting of all the agastache plants first. They are sitting in a nursery bed on the potting shed slope. And I have unearthed the bulbs and even found two more euphorbia wulfennii seedlings to move into a new part of the garden later. Oh yes, and found two lupin seedlings that can serve a decorative purpose elsewhere too.

But by morning tea time I realised that it was I who was going to have to get on with the work.   And I am well pleased with the quarter of the wood already yanked out.

Artur was not happy that his favourite nesting spot on the whole farm was disturbed. His corner of the potting shed on the soft nests have been a wonderful spot for months now.   But umbrage has been taken and he is now lying in the sun in the calabert barn now well away from the noise and dust.

It’s a shame he doesn’t like invertebrates; I’m unearthing years and years of exciting little colonies.   Well the wasp nest wasn’t what I’d call exciting. More like rear back and run.  Â  And the only thing I have resorted to dealing with in a chemical way.   The rest of the spiders and bugs will just have to rehouse themselves somewhere else.

Lunch today will be my first meal of the first chestnut crop of the year. They are way too rich to eat for long. But the novelty won’t wear off for at least a week. And then I’ll just cook them and shove them in the deep freeze for a bit.