My local council gives away plants to ratepayers at a rate of three per year; yesterday was one of the distribution days so off I went to see what they had. As well as my own rates notice I had my sister's, as she didn't want any more plants but said I was welcome to collect extra for myself; and also my son's, as he and Jess had something else on yesterday. I'll keep five of the nine that I picked up, and Jess can have the other four.

It was like Christmas, wandering around the displays and choosing plants. After much chopping and changing I settled on a yellow-flowering callistemon, a white flowering hibiscus, a golden buxus, agapanthus and storm lilies. I've planted the latter two today and have decided to keep the buxus in a pot for now, but can't decide where to plant the callistemon and the hibiscus so they'll have to live in their pots for a bit longer.

Two tv shows quoting tv shows last night - firstly at the end of Scott and Bailey, when Janet says she went to the pub in the afternoon, her boss remarks "what do you think this is, Life on Mars?" - and then in an episode of The Thick of It (of which I practically inhaled two seasons last night!) Malcolm is barking out orders, "Glen, you can..." , "Ollie, you can..." "Terri, you can..." "Bodie and Doyle, you can go around the back." It was so unexpected it just cracked me right up.

(edited to fix HTML)