Very jolly evening.  Rose’s brother is over from Trinidad and they all came in for dinner this evening.  So LT and I spent much of the day cooking an Indian meal, the only disadvantage of which, with the five separate dishes, was the amount of washing up.  We are counting the hours until the new dishwasher is delivered on Thursday morning.  At least it makes us appreciate mod cons.

At the front of the house there’s a garden comprising three circular beds in an area of gravel, backed by two long raised beds.  One of those is well grown with established shrubs, but the other is very dry and poor and everything but weeds eventually died off.  So we have soaked newspaper and cardboard and layered it on top, hoping to smother most of the weeds.  We tried digging out all the earth, but I truly don’t think it’s feasible.

I hope we have found a new handyman.  I know his parents, which is how I heard about him.  He seems very good and capable and, if it works out, we can give him a number of jobs.

But now, it’s pouring with rain, which is quite good as the garden is fairly dry at present.  Dinner included beans, aubergines and tomatoes from the garden – it’s all winding down now, of course, but there’s still quite a lot of vegetables.  And the raspberries just keep on keeping on.