Time machine garden

An old red telephone box in Stonehouse high street has been turned, not into a library or a defibrillator housing, but a 'time machine garden'. Someone obviously comes in to water it. There are old watering can and other plants on the shelf, and a small explanation about the uses for lavender (the other plant).

Autumn flowering mini-cyclamens, seen here, are among my favourites. We grew them in the grounds of the first house I can remember living in, in County Dublin.

I was in Stonehouse to attend a summer social for young adults, in the capacity of support worker. Never did I think I would be teaching people to disco dance at a silent disco, in full daylight! I can barely dance without tripping over my nose or my elbow. One has to be game for a laugh in this job.

Afterwards, CleanSteve and I drove to Gloucester to get fresh tofu for him, and to look at fencing and decorative gravel. I found both builders merchants and garden centres a bit run down or disappointing. It's the shortage of lorry drivers, makes everywhere half empty. I want to regravel the hard standing that we recently cleared, and fence it with fencing that can be removed if necessary, and then put some planters on the new pretty gravel. So far it looks as if it will be pretty expensive. I've saved up my private childcare money, but don't want to spend it all at once on one project! But I want to get something done quickly-ish in case we have another lockdown.

A friend came round when we got home, and said she'd ask a friend about fencing, and gravel, and try and get me an old chair for rh bottom of the garden. I've now cleared the troublesome hedge away (see yesterday) but I still can't see the sunset because of the neighbour"s trees. Still, it's good to be out in the green spaces, doing what my former WEA tutor calls 'punk gardening'. I think he's spot on. The sounds of children playing, dogs barking, neighbours chatting, and pigeons cooing, are completely different at the bottom of the garden, in the woods, from the set of sounds we hear from the back step, which are more light and twittery. We even have a little train that runs across the other side of the valley at regular intervals. I take no credit for that, but I like the sound, ev n if we can't see it because of our neighbour's enormous trees. She says she'll cut down more sycamores when the leaves have gone.