My Garden (30 years ago)

I came to live in Eagleton 31 years ago although I've lived on the Isle of Lewis for half a century. When I came I bought a house 7 miles outside Stornoway and the commute to my job in Stornoway was very quick because the road was good and there was no traffic.

Just over 30 years ago I moved to my current house on the Eye Peninsula just above The Minch (the sea between the Island chain and the mainland of the Scottish Highlands).  The main part of the house was built in 1927 with various alterations made since then enlarging and modernising it. I have been exceptionally happy living here and I hope that I will be able to continue living here until the end comes (which, of course, it inevitably will!).

When I came, the 'garden' (the house stands in just over ¼ acre) was virtually non-existent. The front was like a building site and the back grass area was dominated by four huge pampas grasses. The latter had to be removed with a mechanical digger. The front took years of hard labour with a wheelbarrow, removing rubble and replacing it with lorry loads of topsoil which had to be barrowed manually onto the garden.  

Given that in the early days there was no labour allowed on the Sabbath and I worked full-time, my days were very long. Fortunately in those days I was also very fit. (I'm still fit, thank heaven, but my body has been in use for 80 years and isn't quite as amenable or capable as it used to be).

The garden is pretty much as I want it now but when I was thinking of some alterations a week or two ago I had a sudden realisation that my proposals would take quite a few years to be at their best. So I decided on a more 'immediate' approach to alterations from now on so that I can, hopefully, enjoy them.

I'll show you some current photos in another post.

Toilets

The first time I went to France (about 60 years ago) I was at a service station on the autoroute (motorway)  and popped into the toilets which had both urinals and individual cubicles.

As I was standing at a urinal a lady walked past me. I had a minor panic attack thinking I must be in the ladies toilets until I realised that there were both sexes represented. Having been brought up in the UK the idea of shared toilets had never occurred to me.  To the French it was normal.

In the UK this has become a huge question with the issue of which toilet trans-sexual people should use. The decision in the Supreme Court was that you use whichever is appropriate to your biological sex. 

I haven't been following the matter but the issue seems to have revolved around women's safety.

As Peter Cook used to say "It's a funny old world, Dud."  Funny peculiar not funny ha ha I assume. 

Making Life Difficult

One of the apps on my iPhone, Patient Access, has just refreshed. It's an app used for ordering medication from the doctor and suchlike. It's very useful.

This morning I switched my iPhone off because it had altered the order of the of app pages for some inexplicable reason. All was okay when I switched it back on until I went into the Patient Access App. It required me to sign back in. 

Fine. Nothing unusual there. Except that they have introduced two-factor authentication. That should be simple but it wasn't because it suddenly decided that I'm not who I am.  After an hour or more of time I cannot afford to waste on such things, it was sorted.

I'm fortunate enough to be computer savvy having been involved with computers since I did a computing course on my second degree when I was about 22 (l o n g  ago!). I've used and battled with computers ever since.

However, it took me well over an hour to convince the app that I am me get it all back up and running . How on earth anyone with no interest in or ability with computers copes with modern life I have no idea because everything we do these days seems to require some sort of computer input and if my experience is anything to go by it gets harder and harder each day.

Tomatoes

I love tomatoes. I have eaten tomatoes most days for years........until recently.

I bought some (I always buy "The 'Best" salad tomatoes) in a different supermarket (there is a grand choice of 2 in Stornoway) to usual.

The skins were so tough that eating them was a chore. Peeling them (using the usual boiling water method) proved virtually impossible. I put them aside for mixed grill.

Back to my usual supermarket and, lo and behold, they were no better.

Okay, I realise that they are all grown in Spain under greenhouse conditions and that they have been bred to reduce damage. However I am perplexed as to why, all of a sudden, I have become so aware of the hard skins that I may well curtail my eating of tomatoes until all my different varieties grow in my polycarb later in the summer.

I will, of course, keep my eyes open in the Supermarkets and hope for improvements. There is no real substitute for a good ripe tomato in one's salad.