Constructive

Lazy start to the day today. I decided against three runs this weekend; I've only recently stepped up to three days a week, and am not yet going to go to four - being perhaps over-anxiously gentle on my foot and its plantar fascia (which does seem to be happy for it). Anyway, so we lazed around, went up to Leura, picked up the kids (who had made vanilla cupcakes for my birthday - and very nice they were too), and came home. At home, Missy-moo helped me put up the kids' garden planter box we got for her. She did a really excellent job of screwing it all together. I snapped a few pictures, and this was the one I thought best for blip. I almost went with this one, but after some umming and ahhing I decided the closer and more long/spread-out one was better overall.

Larger. - And almost straight from the camera; just a touch of 'clarity' popped it a bit.

Missy is now "helping" mrs tsuken make dinner (lamb-burgers).

Roses are replete with aphids. I was going to attack them chemically, but then I read a webpage suggesting one just wait and watch: predators will arrive shortly after the aphids and deal to them ... unless you spray, as that will kill the predators too. Now, today I saw some of the little wasps, and I think some of the mummified aphids waiting to beaten from the inside by the wasp larvae, which will then kill more and more aphids. I also saw a ladybird, which of course is another major aphid predator.

So we'll see. I'm giving them a week; if next weekend the aphids are just as numerous, I'm attacking them - just with the hose to start off with; next would be the soap and water my mother suggested; last resort would be chemical. But I really really don't want to run any risk of killing bees. :-/