I woke in the night to hear the rain drumming on the roof. When I awoke again in the morning the noise had stopped, and from the view out of the bathroom window it could almost have ceased raining, but when I got up and went out to let the chickens out of their house I found rain was still falling, lightly and persistently. We've had 14mm in the past twenty four hours, so have got off lightly compared to the north of England and the Welsh borders, but 14mm is still enough to be seriously disruptive to gardening.
I spent the first half of the morning potting on plug plants from their six by four trays into 11cm pots, and juggling things around to make room for the newly potted plants on the racks. Eight square pots just fit into a seed tray. The Digitalis thapsi and Verbascum I potted on a while back are starting to look much perkier, like proper little plants. I'm back on the traditional multipurpose compost, even though it does contain peat. The last couple of peat free brands I've tried have been disappointing, as the things potted in them have made noticeably slow growth. Of course it might just be down to the low temperatures and lack of light compared to a normal summer.
By mid morning I was starting to run out of compost. I would have bought more on my way back from the dump, if I'd been going to the dump, which I would have done if it hadn't been raining. I switched to admin and drill instead, and booked tickets for the Systems Administrator and I to see Arsenic and Old Lace at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. It's on in October. Do go, if you live locally, and support the Mercury. I've seen A & O L somewhere, probably Exeter's Northcott, a very long time ago, and remember it being funny. The performance with the slightly distracting sign for the hard of hearing is on Tuesday 16th October, if you want to avoid it. I had to ring the box office to find that out, since it isn't mentioned anywhere I could find on their website, but the online booking system is good, letting you choose your exact seats and not just a price zone.
While I was at it I checked the dates of Miriam Margolyes' one woman show on Dickens, which a friend had spotted was coming up in October at the Colchester Institute and suggested we go to, and discovered that booking had opened for that as well. Monday 2nd July appears by some theatrical convention to be the date when tickets for the autumn season are put on general release. Anyway, I booked that as well, since I could. The Institute's website says it is expected to sell out fast. I wouldn't know about that. I never went to a performance there before. In fact, I didn't even know that the Colchester Institute hosted that sort of thing. It is on Thursday 4th October, if you want to go.
After lunch it stopped raining, and I went and weeded the gravel. One advantage of having light soil is that you can get on it to work approximately ten minutes after rain. I've been too slow off the mark with the fine leaved annual grass, which has seeded itself, so there'll be plenty more of that next year.
And now it's time for The Now Show. Maybe tomorrow it will rain less.
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