~ keyboards and strawberries ~

the last few days have seen me doing an awful lot of shopping (aka spending an awful lot of money).. but not on tat!!

I’ve been spending on the garden. You know how it is when you have a hobby.. all those little bits n pieces that need spending on.. strawberry plants (12 of em, 5 honeoye, 2 cambridge favorite, 3 symphony and 2 pegasus varieties), 2 raspberry plants (Malling Promise), 1 Redcurrant plant (Jonkheer van Tets), 2 Blackberry plants (Black Satin) and 2 Blackcurrant plants (Ojebyn).

[more pictures behind the cut, as per usual..]

Of course, none of them *look* like those pictures.. in fact.. they look like the picture on the right. Very exciting. Except the strawberries. They at least have leaves… I was up at a god-awful hour to get these – 8.30am (very very am) because i also wanted to get potting compost from there and i had noticed they didn’t have a huge amount left. I also wanted to make sure i would get me strawberries – i had a feeling they’d be going like wildfire. So i was in there early, and, having loaded my trolley up with three 40 Litre bags of potting compost and 6 growbags, i perched the little coolbag i use to carry some shopping home (with the wine, squash and a few other bits n bobs in) carefully ontop of the compost, grabbed my bag with the strawberry plants in and carefully pushed the trolley out to wait for a taxi (Michiel would’ve had my guts for garters if the wine got broken..). Once home, to a very antsy Michiel (who was still waiting for the epitome of cool – see below) i walked Jess, watched with vast bemusement while he and the epitome of cool fell in love with each other, then packed him off to bed while i went shopping at Tescos (Michiel was so worried he was gonna miss the delivery man – again – that he stayed up all night to make sure).

While i was out wandering around Droylsden, I also was lucky enough to pick up a pack of 20 4 foot canes for £1.99 (which should keep me going for a while), and i got some more seed trays, some pea/bean netting, and some bright orange twine (i need to make a barrier around the beds to help keep Jess off a bit, and i think she’ll respect something brightly coloured).

The other huge news today has been the arrival of – yes, the epitome of cool – Michiel’s keyboard. Woop de woo, i hear you say, a keyboard! no, its not just a keyboard!!! Its “Das Keyboard”.. its black.. its smooth… its cool.. it has no letters on it (apart from the letters that make up the print “Das Keyboard” on the top). You type by touch typing. which means its either for uber-typists (of which i am one) or Uber-Geeks (of which Michiel is one). Michiel just allowed me a quick go on it… and i must admit, it feels verrryyyy verrryyy nice. Smooooooooth. Like the difference between driving, oh, i dunno, a very nice Aston Martin and a skoda (although purists may point out i’m being unfair to the skoda, which i probably am, i’ve never driven one after all). My old keyboard.. was the skoda (and my old Packard Bell keyboard, with a hole in the s key from my fingernails, was, as Michiel just pointed out, a Lada. And he’s reading over my shoulder again. A glance at the setup of our computers should reveal how he manages to do this so often – i use the one on the left, the non-cool white one.). Oh, and in finest Top Gear fashion, we’ll be getting The Stig in to trash it.. ahem.. test drive it. (*grins wickedly and goes into her best Jeremy Clarkson voice: “Some say he’s a housewife earning a fortune in “Bounty” ads.. still others say he’s Alan Titchmarsh in disguise….. All we know is.. he’s called The Stig!”*)

I’m now driving Michiel’s old keyboard, which is slightly better. Lets say.. a Ford Ka. gets ya from A to B, feels a bit better than the skoda. But its still nothing compared to Das Keyboard.. just look at the pictures.. and weep. As i am. bitterly. cos i don’t have one.

So now Michiel is a keyboard God. And we should all bow down and worship him. (I’m the strawberry goddess though. And i think i like the sound of that better. heh.)