Lockdown: The Positive Thread

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
8 days ago after a trimming:





This morning
Starting to take shape




Go Ian! Go Ian!! Go Ian!!!
#teamiandotcom
Oh this one isn't Ian

Does this plant have a name?
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.



And thus it passed that it should henceforth be known as: Sanity



Those mystery bulbs that turned out to be gladioli are gonna be purple

First ones have sprouted
Kewl, we have pink glads out the front that have started blooming

Of course now you are duty bound to bung on a few earlier tracks from The Smiths when they are in full bloom



In my previous pics I've posted of my plants and stuff in those white planters..........

This is a pic of the new planter I've had made, and on the left you can see the remnants of the original planters and the scaffolding the council is still yet to take away.
On Monday they're fitting a new fencing system where the original planters were.

The council came out last week, and gave us only 24 hours notice... and basically chain-sawed the planters out and then left.
My trees, plants, bulbs, seeds... all gone.



Same planter, other end...


I've had 2 of these planters made, just waiting for this first one to dry then I can move the balcony round and stain the other one.

Oh, but these planters were free... I charged the council for them, I also made them pay for the 700ltr of soil to fill them as well came to £1100 altogether for the planters and soil so basically, because the council are stupid, they're already £1100 out of pocket and they still have to cough up another £1500 because I've sent the council another bill for killing my garden by giving not enough notice for me to be able to dig everything out first



⬆️ Wow, amazed they paid.
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This is the other one done now

Once dry, all I gotta do then is raise them on some lumps of wood so I can finish off the bottom of the legs.




⬆️ Wow, amazed they paid.
They didn't have much choice. I told them they can either replace my garden with a new one at their own cost, or their scaffolding wouldn't be standing long.



Should charge them extra for having taken your Sanity - I'm sure any judge would hit 'em hugely for that if it went to court
Poor Ian too



Ah luckily the bonsais are fine as they're in their own pots

It was the main planters that got ripped out... so my conifers and seeds, bulbs etc that were in them were simply ripped out and thrown in a skip.



Registered User
1. I got to work from home for two months!

2. My wife has been killing it in terms of her career. She's a hospital admin and the government is throwing hospitals money hand over fist, and since hers is a non-profit, they just throw all of that money into bonuses.


3. Because of that two months of online work, several colleagues have quit or were fired because they simply don't get computers. I got a nice raise out of the deal (nothing like my wife's, but it's better than no raise). It seems that this has shown a spotlight on a lot of dead weight.

4. I get a lot more free time. A lot of the make work stuff that I usually had to put up with has been canceled, and it turns out that a lot of those meetings weren't really necessary.



5. Since there have been no actual lock downs in that people have to stay at home or get fined or yelled at by a Karen, I've gotten quite a kick out of seeing what it has done elsewhere around the world. That might seem a bit twisted to take enjoyment from the misery of others, but I've never seen much empathy when the shoe was on the other foot.



Being a country boy, I got a bit tired of hearing from my city mouse friends talk about how wonderful it is to live in a big city and have all of those quaint stores, exotic restaurants, and bars within walking distance, or how much their property is worth now, as opposed to how little they paid for it back in the 80s. I'm thinking that maybe I should call some of them up and ask for an equity update, or maybe ask how much their rental units have been pulling in since the rent moratoriums.



1 get a lot more free time. A lot of the make work stuff that I usually had to put up with has been canceled, and it turns out that a lot of those meetings weren't really necessary.
“Busy work” - always hated it. Useless waste of time.

Always tried to avoid meetings or outright say I wouldn’t go.



My Bonsai has new sprouts for the year...

And, just at the back of the pagoda, is a new branch it's fired out in the last 2 days.




Sadly, the Ian Tree has died.
Life found a way, but has sadly passed on.



Awwwww, even though we never met I still feel there was a bond of kinship between us - requiescat in pace Ian!



Yeah I was hoping for some mini apples from it

That darned Bonsai though has been through everything.
Rain, snow, a frost that almost killed it... blistering sunshine and heat... and also me chopping her down every year in Winter... she keeps on kicking back, and usually with a vengeance that I have to clip her literally daily during the Summer.

She's not even grafted.
Most Acer need grafting to a stronger root system if they're potted and turned to shallow-pot Bonsai.
This girl has taken everything, and keeps coming back for more.

This year she's even grown a new branch, first time ever... I think as a middle finger to my shears.