We were at it again this weekend, up at silly o’clock for a Saturday morning and heading to Home Depot to rent an aerator.

We got to the store before 9 and they were already out (it is the season!), luckily the guy rang up another store and got them to hold one for us. So we drove across there and loading the thing into the car.

Getting back I drew stone duty, wandering round the garden picking up sticks and stones, while DmentD got the fun job of working the aerator, a tiring, frustrating job by all accounts.

Loading it back into the car we had a bit of a mishap, the machine, heavy enough on it’s own, had two 50lb weights attached to the front.. loading it into the car I went to get in the back so I could hook the handle over the seats and walked into one of them.. Making it fall, quite nicely, onto the big toe of my other foot.

There were lots of ‘what ifs’ and ‘should have dones’ but it basically boiled down to I didn’t look where I was going, as I kept telling DmentD while he felt bad. Still, there was no time, I grabbed our ice bag and changed my shoes to my school boots with the reinforced toes. And I sat for the journey back to Home Depot with one shoe off and the ice pack on it.

We got help unloading the machine so I didn’t have to, but the shoe had to go on and we had to go shopping. We bought a lot! Seeds for the vegetable planting, bamboo ready to support the beans and peas and tomatoes, planters (aka big buckets) for the tomatoes, pots for the herbs, plants to adorn De Jockamo in the garden and an asspot of soil!

We got back and DmentD fertilised the lawn ready to plant new grass seed while I iced my toe some more!

Finally (at three in the afternoon) we got lunch, at Central Market while we were there to pick up garlic and peanuts. Back at the house DmentD sorted out the tree fertiliser and some other bits and pieces (like filling in holes in the ground!) while I filled the buckets with soil and planted the garlic in them. They needed starting now, and with the bed(s) not ready yet we used the buckets the tomatoes will eventually get put in.

I then planted the seeds we’re starting now indoors so they can germinate. The peas (sugar snap) and beans (the closest to runner we could find), the bell peppers and jalapenos, Brussels sprouts and peanuts.. Yes, we’re going to attempt to grow peanuts, it sounded fun and we have the climate for it.

Later in the year (at the appropriate seasons) we also plan to grow tomatoes, onions, broccoli, and jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

The herbs are doing well, we have all bar one (the spearmint) sprouting, it’s all very exciting. It seems a little strange at how excited we get, getting home each evening and seeing how they’re doing and what’s grown!

De Jockamo looks good with his plants either side of him (I kind of want to paint tiki gods on the pots), eventually we want to surround him with bright colours and exotic looking (but hopefully easy to keep) plants. And we finally bought a little plant to go in Persephone so we’ll see how that does.

We finished the day by going to see Watchmen. A late night showing at half 10 (though they had later!). We were both excited to see it and both thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t want to say too much for anyone who wants to go see it, but it was awesome, they completely nailed Rorschach.

And at the end of the day, this is what my toe looked like!

This week at school has been fun, we’ve spent the whole week working on the same cake! It involved a lot of skills and a lot of new things and wasn’t really everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked it.

It was a two tiered white cake, covered in rolled fondant that we had made ourselves. We made a topper from pastillage (that we had made) and two sprays of gumpaste flowers, we had to have a certain number of flowers and foliage. Again it was with gumpaste that we had made ourselves.

We made royal icing and piped cornelli lace on the front, and some filigrees that were stuck along the border of the lace. We then stuck some gumpaste ‘holders’ to the side of the cake, and piped extension work all the way round. This means that the icing only touches the cake at each end, the middle is suspended.

I took a lot of photos of this cake, you’ll need to go to the gallery to see all of them, but here’s a few to get you started

I did alright, I’m happy with the final product. You could see the sugar I had stuck the pastillage together with and my gumpast flowers had some rough edges. My lace was too square, it needed to be more rounded and flowing, I managed to avoid sharp corners but just couldn’t get it rounded, so it looks a little Aztec-y. My extensions drooped a little so my icing wasn’t stiff enough and my bead borders were a little inconsistant though they are getting better, at least all the beads looked good this time!

This week we’ll be making our sculpted cakes. Sadly with the theme of Food, I was rooting for Jim Henson but never mind. I’m going to do tea and biscuits. A mug of tea with a plate containing several biscuits, including some cannibalistic gingerbread men.