Bush Envy

en·vy   /ˈɛnvi/ Show Spelled [en-vee] noun,plural-vies, verb,-vied, -vy·ing.
–noun

1.a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
2.an object of envious feeling: "Her glorious privet bush hedge made her the envy of her neighbors".

Yes, my neighbor has the Bush Envy. It is actually quite hilarious. Pete has been clearing the pit of a front garden. He's moved my massive flowering shrub thing(yes, that is it's Latin name), planted some begonias and busylizzie's(can you tell I am not into flower gardening at all?), then I bought him some bare-root Privet bushes on Ebay and he set to putting them in. The next door neighbor has been watching him with a glint in his eye, making snide little comments like "That line isn't straight", and "They'll take ages to grow you know", or "They are too close together", amongst other things. Alas, our hedge does NOT yet look like the glorious specimen above. It looks like this;



Pete has just seen the neighbor carrying a bag of compost into the house, so the war has begun it seems.



I went to stay with some friends I'd met online, up in Sheffield. The journey was immense. I travelled to Richmond by tube and met another friend, who drove us both up there. I think it took me six hours in total. It was lovely to be child free for a day. A week would be nicer though. Coming home was even worse as I was hungover. Yuck.


We also travelled back into London to watch the London Marathon at the weekend, as our friend Brian was running in it to raise money for Arthritis Care. He did brilliantly, considering we'd all laughed when he told us last year that he was applying for a place. He did say that he was glad we did all scoff at the idea, as it egged him on to finish.