Beating the Slugs

For this year at least.

Colchicum montanum, a nice deep pink form, planted out in the new sand bed out front.  There are others in the older bed, planted three years ago, still appear every year but are quickly found and demolished by slugs and snails which are not yet resident in the new bed.  This one's planted far enough from the edge and has no other tasty plants around it so it's escaped attention so far.

A mostly at home day.  Admin morning mostly dealing with chasing the ever incompetent efficient departments in Birmingham City Council.  The gutter repairer team turned up two hours early, despite my having rung first thing to check times and as Ruth was still asleep, they didn't gain access.  The gate was open, my is number been on the file in case of a problem - but someone forgot to put it on the notes for the team.  Would be less annoying if it wasn't the fourth time they've turned up and failed to gain access in similar circumstances.  The last time they did get in they found the previous team had incorrectly reported the problem and so they didn't have the parts :-(   You couldn't make it up!!   And then there's the ongoing saga of her adaptations to be done under a Disabled Facilities Grant.  She's been living there for eighteen months since we applied and still no sign of work starting and some parts of the job could take another year or more at the current rate.   Again a litany of poor/no communication, different departments holding things up at every stage through what often looks like negligence or worse.   We've been here before, two years ago it was about getting a suitable care package funded and it only got sorted after I wrote a complaint directly to the head of Social Services for the area.   I'm thoroughly fed up and Ruth is struggling to keep her sanity intact ... and her health.  If the latest salmonella is a re-infection as seems likely, it's probably due to her having to prepare food in an unsuitable, un-adapted kitchen.  Rant over.

Otherwise, lunch at Jamie's after which we did some research into his moving to Brighton to be near Clara.  So many obstacles for a disabled, neurodivergent young person on top of those others have to deal with.  We've found lots of promising links and spoken to an agency that supports people like him.   We're not expecting that it will be easy but it's good to be making a start.

An hour in the greenhouse tipping out pots of unusual bulbs, a walk for Meg, a cuppa with J, J & J at the caravan and the latest lot of blackberries cooked up into Bramble Jelly.  Good day despite the rantable bits!