My companion this afternoon

Now that I have a bare trellis awaiting climbing plants, I thought that I could decorate it with my solar bees (even though I don't know whether the solar charger still works), which have been mostly dormant since the builders arrived. But where were they?

For months there's been a entry in my diary, 'sort boxes in bedroom', which I push forward from one week month to the next. Yesterday I changed it to 'Look for bees in boxes in bedroom' which proved to be much more motivating.

I emptied a box, made a pile of pictures I might want on a wall and another of textiles I might want on a wall. But there were no bees.

I emptied another box, created a smaller box of mailing, packaging and present-wrapping stuff, made a pile for Oxfam, weeded my housebuilding file (that was stressful) and threw away heaps of papers. But there were no bees.

I mended the handle on my filing cabinet. Predictably, there were no bees.

All this while, it was sunny outside so I gave up and went to separate the red from the yellow tulips. At least I knew that my fork and trowel were in the shed. Ah! On the same shelf as the bees!

So I strung them up on the trellis, and have to admit that they look approximately as plastic-tat as next door's ivy.

Then I split the tulips. Sadly the wind last night scattered the petals and it didn't occur to me until too late to look at my aide memoire so this will almost certainly be a task that needs redoing next year. There were far more bulbs to replant than I expected and this evening, while my bed is still piled high with heaps of stuff to sort chuck, I am knackered.

Meanwhile the bees are not glowing. I've pressed the on/off toggle and will hope for the best tomorrow.