Invariably ... ... much time and discussion's spent on these two topics. Here they ARE again albeit from a refreshingly different perspective:

Thanks to my wife's natural talents as an 'agriculturist' her "green fingers" have made a TREMENDOUS difference to the appearance of my [now our] garden over the past 4 years (and a bit) since she first set foot on British "soil" in March 2009.

Now don't get me wrong ... I'd put one helluv an effort into converting - what amounted to one LARGE rubble heap when my late first wife and myself became the occupants of a brand-new house in *June 1968 - into a nice garden ... one I'd structurally altered many times in the 23 years between *then and the summer of 1991, a few months before she died.

However, for the greater part of 17 years following her death, I found I simply couldn't be bothered tending to the "showpiece" we'd created together. Oh ... ... I continued to cut the grass ... keep the ground generally neat & tidy, etc. But I didn't really add to the existing collection of plants or shrubs.

Anyway, Myrna and I are about to order a ton or two of gravel. So - in spite of the current heatwave - I've spent a good deal of the past week hacking away at the bone-hard earth surrounding the borders of her beautiful flowerbeds with the aid of a pick borrowed from a friend, levelling the ground in preparation.

's been MY work! And bloody hard graft it IS too in the blazing for a (more or less) lifelong penpusher rapidly approaching the age of 70!

"Benefits"?? Well ... ... if we've been the envy of the local neighbourhood ever since Myrna's arrival ... we'll soon be even MORE so!