I’m meant to be making changes to our garden in order to make way for new sheds. I had a long weekend in Scotland helping to clear fifty years of stuff accumulated in a family garden shed and I’ve realised that I aspire to having sheds with everything methodically laid out like the new shed we moved the best stuff to be kept into.

A family member who is better at organising and building storage were a key factor in doing this. We also replanted some shrubs from pots into the ground. This also showed some immediate results as the plants buds opened. I want the family member to spend time with me in Letchworth but again that might be a distant hope.

We have plenty to do, though! Our garden in England is seriously needing more attention. We are several weeks into setting traps to catch any rodents hovering around the back garden and it does seem like our rescue dog has been effective in keeping the population down.

Currently there has been a refuse collectors strike in Birmingham and knowing how close we have come to vermin, I feel for the residents there. We have put a non return valve on our drains since moving in nine years ago and as statistics show you’re never more than a few metres away from small creatures in any town in this country, anywhere you live is never fully free from the possibility of vermin encroaching. You just have to keep moving things around as they don’t like change.

So I’ll just have to stagger the jobs and make it a little less of a challenge to finish it in a timeframe. Life is also about enjoying being with others. And family more than most.