Bag of Bones (Stephen King) Writers block, death, and horror!
Make Time (Knapp and Zeratsky) A re-read – a great productivity book on how to make the best of the time that’s available through common-sense planning.
The INFJ Handbook (Baker) I discovered I was an INFJ through the official Myers-Briggs assessment – hopefully this will unlock the reasoning behind my quirks, and how I handle strengths and weaknesses of being one!
Prime Suspect (La Plante) Recently watched the TV series (again) and thought I’d give the book a go. It’s great!
Well all the builders have finally gone – and not on the best terms… with jobs about 90% done. Disappointed with the landscape gardening company – went really well for 2 weeks then they overran, then tried to cut corners on jobs and it shows.
That said, the majority of the work was good, and we now have both turf and a new patio area sorted.
I’m on hols this week so I’m working on painting all the sleepers. I found this really good paint called Bartoline – an “almost” creosote-like paint that is really making the plants stand out against that dark background.
As well as painting the sleepers, I’ll be giving everything a dig over and a bit of TLC, as it was all pretty well neglected while the work was going on. had a pleasant surprise with the sunflowers, the multi-headed ones have really come out great! Lots to do to get things looking good, movement of trees (2 x Ceanothus) and reorganising the plants in the garden. I’m looking overall for a “cottage garden” feel… despite being have strong architectural feel. I think it can work. Lots of planning, and general love needed!
In the mean time, the canna lilies have really fired up this year and are looking good. The raspberries are producing well, and the tomatoes (Roma) are amazing!
The shadier part of the garden requires a complete rework, and the front of the garden – stone rings – will need to be completely revamped and brought back to life. I’ve got about 1/2 tonne of topsoil from the building works to help with that so it’s all good! Not all success sadly, 2 clematis plants are in a really poor state so will need more than a bit of coaxing to get them happy again.
The Morning Glory has gone mad also, strangling the pear tree and generally looking a bit too wild! It really needed to be contained through an obelisk or similar, but everything is good learning and experience.
Sunflowers have done amazing!
The hot weather has caused issues with the lawn, not the best time to have put a new lawn in(!)….and Marley seems to have created his own little runway so he run off some steam between walks, but it’s what it is. No worries. Watering for about 2 hours of an evening to keep things running smoothly. It’s looking good!
Really placed with the overall shape – tidying on the pointing and TLC needed throughout!Guess I’d better buy a lawnmower now!
So, onwards and upwards. The exterior of the place will be done next year, to make everything (hopefully) stand out, the interior in a few weeks. It’s definitely starting to feel like our own place.
So. The start of the 25/26 season and a frankly dreadful start against newbies Sunderland.
What’s worrying is that we had a reasonable summer transfer list, and good pre-season results.
But the 3-0 opening day defeat at The Stadium of Light doesn’t bode well for what has been a horrid couple of seasons since David Moyes left.
As usual, it’s time to keep the faith and hope that Graham Potter can turn things around. Best we can hope for I think is mid-table this season unless there is some dramatic and frankly unexpected revival.
I’ll also be rooting for my birthplace team Dagenham and Redbridge as they try and do something after demotion to the National Conference Southern League at the end of 24/25. A loss and a draw thus far. 21st in the League.
It’s gonna be a fun season! Got to keep the faith. COYI! COYD!
A new addition to the Proton family, available from https://proton.me/authenticator, this is the only tool you’ll need for your 2FA requirements. I particularly love the fact it’s available as a Windows app also.
Set up the Proton Authentication on your phone – if you’re using another authentication tool (I was using Aegis) you can export codes as a JSON file then import them to Proton Authenticator.
Finally….. if you’re using a desktop and a phone version of Authenticator, you can sync your 2FA codes across devices. It’s not turned on by default. Simply go into Settings for each device you’ve got Authenticator installed, go into Settings and select the “Sync Between Devices” option. You’ll need a Proton account for that (you can get a free account with no obligation – I use Proton anyway so wasn’t any great shakes)
