Ignoring as far as possible the World Upside Down for the moment, and observing at some distance Civil War Re-enactment working its way to some sort of conclusion on the political front....there is only so  much analysis and discussion one can take in, I find... we've been concentrating instead on planting vegetables. 

Nothing on a grand scale. We only have a small back garden, and although we might have put beetroot [the leaves and stalks are very decorative] or feathery carrots out in the front garden among the flowers, convention dictates that we plant food crops mainly behind the house.  This year, we have tomatoes, peppers, herbs and potatoes.  Strictly speaking, the potatoes aren't in the garden but set into four large containers - they look like shopping baskets. All we have to do is to earth up the plants as the grow and hey presto! we shall soon be digging out a huge crop of spuds. Allegedly.

The problem was where to put the baskets.  We had one plant in front of the dining room until it grew so big it blocked the light through the window. So we moved it, with two others, in front of the conservatory, where all three plants now appear to be having a competition to see how high they can grow.  The fourth bag wouldn't fit, and so we put it behind the gate.

Where, in the night, someone's very hefty cat took a flying leap off the top of the fence and flattened it...is this instant mashed potato?

Currently The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir By Bill Bryson see related