Sunday chez Hadley:

  1. 7.30am start with small child who has way too much energy at that time of the morning.
  2. Fill holes in wood underneath patio door - soft wood, ice, rain and snow don't seem to mix too well.
  3. Take hammer to deck to return protruding nails to their rightful locations. Remind self that deck really needs some new creosote, wonder idly what creosote is called in USA.
  4. Water bare patches of what used to be a lawn in vain attempt to encourage grass seeds to germinate.
  5. Mow lawn, carefully avoiding bare patches.
  6. Persuade strimmer to start after whole winter off and then clean up edges of lawn.
  7. Put excess compost into bags and stack neatly. When bags exhausted shovel remaining compost off gravel pathway and onto nearby flower bed. Attempt to persuade remaining compost and top soil on path to sink underneath gravel with vigorous raking. When this fails to work resort to hosepipe. Remind self to put down a tarpaulin before future deliveries.
  8. Scrape back ineffective mulch on border to trees. Lay down weed retardent cloth stuff and then return mulch to prior position. Hope for better results this time otherwise chemicals may be added to arsenal - napalm seems like a good bet given the excessive zeal of local flora.
  9. Abandon any ideas about going for a bike ride due to aching back and legs.
  10. Get hair cut. Remind wife of previous incident with unsheathed clippers and sideburns, obtain assurances that more care will be taken this time.
  11. Remove winter glass from front door screen and replace with summer mesh screen.
  12. Water bare patches of what used to be a lawn in further vain attempt to encourage grass seeds to germinate. Try to avoid squadrons of enemy mosquitos by spraying them with water. Remember that what goes up must come down and remind self to not spray directly upwards even when faced with Stukka mosquito squadrons.
  13. Write blog in hopes of some sympathy