copyright Chris N Wood 2012 All rights reserved
I began my day by filling the car with 20 bags of detritus that had been festering away in corners of my garden for a year or more – in fact some of the bags were already disintegrating ! One bag of earth literally burst as I carried it down my front steps – this was GOOD news ! I live in a terraced house and I have to carry the rubbish from the back garden, through the house, to get to the car. So – I avoided spilling a sack of earth over the inherited Afghan rugs ! Once the car was packed to the gunwales I drove off to the council waste disposal site on the edge of the City but in common with most of my excursions, it was not straightforward ! I got to within half a mile of the dump before joining a huge queue, which fortunately was moving but very slowly and it took almost 20 minutes to do the half mile as opposed to the previous 3 miles which were completed in about 5 minutes ! It was a hot and steamy day and I really enjoyed the last bit of my travels – particularly as the contents of the bags were getting very ripe ! Once I eventually got into the compound it was buzzing and I began to wonder if the other 25 sites in Hampshire were closed ! Anyway, to cut a long and boring story short, I emptied my car, then drove home and spent the rest of the day in the garden, trimming, cutting, loping, hacking and filling another 18 bags with the efforts of my labours. This is now residing in my car and patiently waiting for the next thrilling journey to the dump, which will be tomorrow morning ! I’m reminded of the last time I did this, and over night, a million tiny flies had hatched out and the car was full of them for days afterwards !
Whilst it usually rains quite a lot in Wales, the rest of the UK generally has a much drier time during what some describe as “THE SUMMER” ! This year was the exception to the rule and it has been exceptionally wet everywhere, with more than a months rainfall dropping from the skies in less than an hour ! Sadly it has rained and rained over the last couple of months – the outcome for many has been horrendous flooding but here on the South Coast, we have been very lucky – the only downside being that all the rain has made everything grow like crazy ! Both my back and front gardens have sprouted about three feet of verdant foliage ! My garden shed has been totally engulfed by wisteria but I quite like the dense jungle effect and although the above image is a digital development of my Bridge Tavern linocut I think it illustrates the concept ! So far – I haven’t done anything creative today and the image was made yesterday but I’ll shuffle off upstairs in a minute and break out some charcoal – I need my daily fix even if its only for an hour or so ! Good night for now everyone ! If you would like to comment on today’s ramblings please feel free to do so – otherwise keep schtum !
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