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Took all these snaps after returning home from work. A gorgeous sunny day. And the garden looking raggedly lovely.

I’ve planted or sown tons of poppies. And I have a ton more poppy seeds. But like almost everything I/we do, flower related, we seem to get a rather low/slow rate of return.

We need to improve our cultivating skills. Roses are a good example. Ours are always ragged and leggy. I think it’s cause we don’t prune often enough, hard enough, or in quite the right way!

Talking of pruning, what happens to all our secateurs!? They either grow defunct way too soon, or simply vanish!

Throughout the garden are a number of fruit bearing plants. Here’s a selection of images of them.

I ought to find out what varieties of apples, pear and plums we have, really. But for the time being it’s enough that we simply have them at all.

The fig trees are usually superabundantly laden with fruit. But on this occasion I struggled to find any to photograph.

I got the water feature below free, at the local dump. Back when you could do such things. It’s not a beauty. But birds (and even Chester) do use it. I can’t wait for our pond to fill and start attracting critters! But first the liner needs fixing/sealing…

The dandelions open and close with a regular pulse. It’s a shame they lean out over the lawn the way they do. Perhaps I should prop them up somehow, Monty Don style?

I’ve been trying to grow umbellifers in our garden for years. With no apparent success. Finally, we have some. I don’t know if it’s native cow-parsley, that’s simply self-seeded, or something I’ve sown? Whatever, I’m just glad we’re finally seeing some.

And more leggy roses… shading a few mo’ umbellicles…

And here are a few shots of the green room. Here the growth of the wisteria is going well, unlike our front, where it appears to have died. I need to look at protecting/fixing some of the wooden framing of the green room. But overall it’s developing nicely.

The wheelbarrow just visible above has a flat tire, which goes down as soon as you load it up. Not sure what to do about that? Makes it entirely useless.

As ever, there’s tons to do. But overall? The garden is looking alright. Kind of lovely. In it’s raggedy-arse way.

After a nice lie in, catching up on some Euros matches I’d missed, I finally got around to redoing the weed-suppressing and pond-lining. Including underneath the little bridge.

I’m glad I enlarged the two main pond areas, and made them both – and the connecting channel – deeper. Hopefully when I join the two parts of pond lining, I can create a watertight seal. And this time the pond won’t simply drain away.

I’m thinking I’ll use some kind of waterproof mastic sealant. I’ll join the two halves, and then – belt n’ braces, and all that – add a strip, band-aid plaster style, along the length of the join.

But it’s off to Wisbech Mozzers, now. A-delivering for to go. Bought this, for liquid refreshment:

I’ve arrived rather too early, as is my wont. Better early than late! But that can lead to extraneous expenditure. Right now, for example, I’m very tempted to have a mac’n’cheese lunch, at the Morrisons café. But I dursn’t, as I cannae afford such indulgences

Charlie – or later on, Charli – Persip isn’t quite as high profile name, drum wise, as Blakey or either of the Jones-es (see the Drum Night at Birdland discs, below).

Persip came to my attention just recently, on Hank Mobley’s Peckin’ Time. I feel I ought to check him out a bit. Maybe on his stuff with Dizzy Gillespie?

These instrument focussed gigs don’t always create the best music. But they are of course of interest, perhaps especially to those of us who play the featured instrument.

This post is a place to collect a bunch of recent stuff that doesn’t merit an entire post of its own.

I wish someone would put out a Complete Dr Strut, Remastered CD set! Otherwise I suppose I’ll have to get it – 1979’s eponymous debut, Dr Strut, that is – on vinyl.

Dr Strut were signed to Motown, no less! And their music is terrific. Tight funky jazz fusion. On the above pictured album, they do a sublime version of the otherwise unrecorded ‘Canadian Star’, by Becker & Fagen. And their drummer, sadly deceased, was the wonderfully named Claude Pepper!

The old green Ford, in the gallery above, reminds me of Leslie Nielsen’s/Frank Drebin’s Police Squad car. I a aw it delivering in the (?) area. On the same day, I think, and not too far away from the lilies, at the top of this post.

I treated Teresa and myself to lunch at The George, in Whittlesey. A Wetherspoons pub. Ham n’ eggs, with a latté.

We tried to look inside St Mary’s, but it was shut. So I’ve only got these exterior shots:

I’ve now got a hefty double shift, delivering out of the Peterboro’ Amazon depot. I hope they’re both nice easy routes, in pretty places.

Teresa has taken the day off, and is accompanying me on both shifts. ‘Compassionate leave’, looking after her effed-up casualty of a husband.

Had a quick peek in Bob’s Records. Not vast amounts that hits my musical bullseye. For example, the jazz selection wasn’t too exciting. And, like everything these days, vinyl is way too expensive.

But actually there was a respectable amount of music I really do like. E.g. lots of groovy vintage John Mayall. Some Sergio Mendes. And a Live at Newport, ‘72, featuring various artists – Curtis Mayfield, Les McCann, Herbie Mann, etc. – that I’d quite like.

LATER…

Well, the first shift was pretty ‘orrible. Esp’ the first chunk, which was lots of flats in central Peterboro’. Proper ‘orrid!

Between shifts we stopped in the environs of Mandeville (I think?), for a bit of refreshing greenery scenery.

The second shift was all over the shop. But more largely countryside-ish, which I far prefer. Both shifts I had to return a few undelivered items to the depot. I don’t like doing that. But I think it’s preferable to taking a chance on leaving stuff at an address and risking a ‘not received’ outcome.

We got back pretty late. Around 9.45 pm. The above is the view from the doorway of J & B Fish Bar, when I picked up our order of Chicken Chow Mein and Mushrump Foo Yung, for our late supper. Mmm… yummy!

I’m soooo grateful to Teresa, my darling wife for taking the day off to be sure I was ok. I had a very rough night and following morning. And having her by my side today really helped me get through things.

Dammit!

I’ve been drinking small amounts of alcky-hole, in the last week to ten days. By and large it’s been ok. Small amounts, and I’m alright.

But on at least two occasions, last night being one such, I went too far. I’ve got a bit of a sore throat. And that and my general low mood prompted me to buy another small bottle o’ Napoleon brandy.

And, predictably enough, just like last time, this proved foolish. Fortunately only extreme depression, loathsome tidal waves of self-pity, and a heightened desire to quit this wearisome life were all that followed.

I say ‘fortunately’ there, when perhaps one might wonder why, because it could’ve been a lot worse. I could’ve relapsed into other worse forms of self-abuse. I could’ve blown more money, that, as ever, I don’t have.

I wound up waking up at 3am, this morning, and having yet another chat – they’re daily at present – with The Samaritans. This time over an hour long.*

I worked yesterday, and that part of the day was good-ish. But sandwiched between extreme depression, total a-motivation, and a newly arrived weird sore throat, it didn’t stop me from re-lapsing into alcohol abuse.

So it’s back to tee-total, for the fore-seeable. Perhaps for good?

Teresa overheard some of my telephonic misery, about which I feel pretty awful. One good outcome of that, however, is that she’s taken a day off, ‘compassionate leave’, to keep an eye on me.

* If I ever attain sufficient levels of stability and happiness- not looking too likely, to be honest – maybe one day I could volunteer as a Samaritan listener?

I took Chester to Amical vets, for 9am. The lady vet shaved the area where he appears to be in pain. Nothing too clear, nor terrible, or even very visible. A couple of little light red marks. Not altogether clearly a bite. A tiny amount of swelling. And a bit of a raised temperature. Hmmm!?

This visit to the vet cost me £145! Phew… modern life, eh!?

Once home, I gave Chester his first dose of pills, in some Webbox. He guzzled it all down, pills included.

I then went out to the garden, and removed eleven buckets/tubs of soil, all of which have been dug out of the pond (although only about half today). And this lot isn’t all that I removed, in creating this feature.

I deepened both ponds, and the connecting channel. I then did my best to remove all the roots and stones that I could. Especially any on the bottom. I also compacted and flattened the soil.

If I don’t get another delivery shift. And I’ve had no joy trying so far. Then I’ll see if I can add weed-suppressant matting, and pond-liner, before I have to leave for my evening shift.

I have to blow my own horn (oh, how I wish I could!), re my recent ragu. It’s simply delicious. We’ve had three meals out of the batch I made most recently.

The three meats – beef, chicken liver, bacon, – and three veg – onion, carrot, celery – plus garlic, bay leaves, a little wine, and plenty of time cooking. It’s such a satisfying thing to cook and eat, if it comes out right. And this time it certainly did.

LATER…

Ha! Rather than do more pond work, I fell asleep, after watching the Romania vs Ukraine Euros match, on catch-up.

Oh dear. Teresa fell over and injured her head. I’ve had a car crash, and several ‘life crashes’. And now Chester has something up with his right-rear leg.

Teresa noticed he was out of sorts. She was worrying that he was sleeping too much. I was like, ‘Nah, he’s fine. That’s just what cats do.’ And, sure, they do naturally sleep a lot. But Teresa was right.

We investigated, and it quickly became apparent his rear end was not right. And he was meowing more often and more plaintively than normal. Finally he got out of his chair, and limped over to his food bowl.

Clearly he was trying not to use his right-rear leg. Bless him! Limping gingerly along. We’re tried to gently examine the area, and I’m taking him to the vets shortly. But I can’t see any obvious wounds.

I do hope he hasn’t been hit by a car. And that nothing serious has happened to him. Teresa and I have no spare money. What is the vet going to do/ask for?

It’s a bit of a crappy cheapskate way, perhaps? But it’s via affordable sets like the above that I’m able to get my ears around lots of new old jazz, at present.

If money (and space!) were no object, I’d love to have a swanky record player and hi-fi, and get these gorgeous babies as 12” vinyl. But that ain’t viable, under current circs.

And then there’s this’un:

All of this, plus the recent Freddie Hubbard and Dex’ G, has reminded me how much I love classic Hard Bop.

As well as the obligatory Miles and ‘Trane, some of which – Kind of Blue, Blue Trane, etc. – falls into the hard bop genre, I’ve got a ton of recordings by such quintessential hard boppers as Art Blakey and Horace Silver, and now also a fair amount of Freddie and Dex’.

But of course there’s tons more to explore. Cannonball Adderley, for starters. And then maybe a load of the more obscure names, be that Gigi Gryce, or Leo Parker.

It’s astonishing just how much music in this vein was made, between the late forties and mid-to-late sixties. Even on into the ‘70s, perhaps? And it appears I love it so much I simply can’t get enough.

Well… an addiction to Hard Bop has got to be better and more wholesome than many other types of addiction… surely!?

Well, misery and self-pity were off the charts this morning. But fortunately getting out and working helped me simmer down, eventually.

Another cue-card I had out today, was ‘Calm Down’. And, oh boy, did I ever need to!

Initially work wasn’t actually helping, but was aggravating. I’ve had a dip in my ‘standing’, which is the Amazon Flex way of rating performance.

Although I think my record should remain perfect and unblemished – as it had been for a good while – apparently one or two packages were not received. I’m questioning this.

But it seriously bummed me out.

My shift started with delivering in an area with extremely poor – for which read basically nonexistent – network coverage. This makes delivering much harder. And I was starting to get anything but calm!

So I checked into St Leonard’s, Glapthorn, for a five minute cool-down (whilst re-setting the app). It didn’t have the most potent effect. Not being the most glorious of churches. But it did help. I think?

Not much interest in the way of woodwork, or stained-glass. Mildly interesting mix of Anglo-Saxon style curved and Norman/Gothic pointed arches. But prob’ the best things are the font, some remnants of wall painting, and a few carved stone corbels..

I couldn’t linger long.

And to follow, a few pics from out and about, in the pretty countryside…

On the outskirts of the village of Woodnewton, I espied an unusual sight, in someone’s front room… organ pipes.

I knocked on the door and enquired. The gent who lived there very kindly showed me his massive organ (titter). He even sat down and played with it…

I thought my drums were loud. This thing was pretty damn powerful.

Sadly the short video I took totally fails to capture the sound in the room. In fact it sounds pretty poor, I think. Pity!

This unexpected encounter did more to lift my mood than the church visit, which surprised me. I think what I liked best about it was just how out of the ordinary run of things it was. And that the guy was friendly enough to share his front room and his music with a complete stranger.