I really like this ultra-camped-up shot, which looked quite different out of the camera – then the (fake in case you hadn’t guessed) pearls were creamy white and didn’t look in any sense ‘metallic’ which I think they do now.

The reason for the caption is that I am coated in a layer of mud from feet upwards about as far as chest level, from spending the day in a cold swamp otherwise known as our veggie garden. So, I look like I’ve been mud wrestling and therefore the somewhat tenuous link with a photo contrived only to keep me in pbase material for the day.

It was, there can be no doubt, entirely my own fault that I have had such a vile day. It was, also without any shadow of a doubt, me who was champing at the bit this morning when we got up to no rain, wanting to go and get on with that veggie garden.

DM sulked and pouted. After I’d been called a slave driver, a witch and a few other things besides, he submitted (only after I’d threatened various BAD things) to getting booted up and coming out to the garden to build two more of the veggie beds. That’s now four of six done and I’m hoping that tomorrow numbers five and six will also be done.

The final leg of this journey for us will be less painful because most of the cutting of wood is done, only four more cuts to make according to my estimations, mind you – even only four means getting the workmate out and the circular saw….all of which is a chore in itself.

Anyway, we sawed, drilled, hammered, dug and rotovated from late morning until it got dark and started to piss down, who knows which chicken came before which egg at that juncture. We’ve been able to keep an eye on our chickens while we worked too.

Talking of chickens and eggs, we have a new addition to our little flock – Mo! (Not, on this occasion, named after a character in the Simpsons, on this occasion because she was the last one standing after a little series of disasters befell her five pals so we were asked if we’d take the lonely girl into our brood – so, she’s the ‘last of the Mohicans’, hence Mo).

Our brood have not been a credit to us – they’ve been behaving vilely towards her – she’s not allowed to join in the games or roost on their perch, but they’re now looking at her with less suspicion so we’re hoping that by the end of a week in our care, she’ll be a part of the flock and happy. One of the strange things that’s happened since she joined us is that she’s laying…..and all of a sudden, now ours are too – they’ve been very tardy this year and these are the first eggs we’ve had.

So, I’m like a pig in muck – and these are the pearls that have been cast before me…….(contrived or what?)

Now all I am waiting for is the water to heat up so I can get clean and 'Bob's your uncle' I live to fight another day.....let's hope that tomorrow's weather is nicer or I'm going to have a helluva job getting 'is nibs' out there again.

A manky ball was last year's subject....and a tale about things going wrong here.....nothing new there then?