Woodchip? Did someone say woodchip?

Because if anyone did I'm likely to have a funny turn. It seems I've been doing nothing but hauling w**dc**p for more than a week. I did manage to speak to the men doing the chipping to ask if they could leave some up my end of the allotment... they were on their last half load so just got to them in time, and every little helps. But having put it on all the paths on the back plot, I've now committed to lining all the paths on the front plot, in between the raised beds as shown above (click to enlarge). At least it's levelling out all the paths and the slugs will hate it. Should hopefully last for a couple of years, since it's really fresh and chunky, and I'll then be faced with replacing it... hopefully by then there'll be more of it available. It's taken me ages (and I'm not finished yet... fortunately there's loads of it left) but I'm balancing it against all the time it'll save me in summer cutting the grass.

Of course one thing leads to another... the feathered fiends have been scratching around and already some of the w**dc**p paths on the back plot are looking considerably wider than originally intended, so I'm boxing them in with wooden planks. Must say it looks really neat and provides a nice edge to the beds. Then I thought I'd need some spare w**dc**p for future repairs, so I'd better put up another couple of compost bins to store some in one. So that's another few hours work I hadn't planned. Where will it end?

Sadly the w**dc**p has come from trees cut down around the cemetery. When Linda and I go for a walk up Old Ramsey Road the ones bordering the road would whisper in the wind... unfortunately they won't be whispering any more.

I've been looking for a small trophy to replace the one David and I used in our twice weekly squash battles, but which broke some while ago. Managed to get three for £2.99 from the YMCA charity shop in St Ives, so I can now have one each for the squash, my weekly raquetball tussle with Barry, and finally for my once fortnightly pool and darts massacre of David and John at the Legion Club in St Ives. That's a whole lot of winding up of sons/son in law to be I can generate. Here's a photo of all three... probably the last time I'll see them all together!

David had recovered enough from his pulled muscle to start the 2009 squash competition on Tuesday. Played out of his skin to beat me 3-1... oh dear, another year of struggle!