Our two watering cans are in a sorry state. To be fair they were never top quality and they are quite old now. And at least one of them has been run over by a tractor. But all the same, it’s selfish of them to fall apart.

We happened to be in Brico Boussac, Weldom as was, today and I spotted this wonderful looking arrosoir. There were some clones of our existing waterers, i.e. China’s best green plastic ones, although they had sneakily been labelled as arrosoirs Parisiens. They were about as Parisian as I am. Temptingly they were half the price, but I decided to give this new model a go.

And guess what? It’s made in France. Seriously. It’s a long time since I’ve bought any non-food item that hasn’t been shipped here all the way from the People’s Republic. I’m hoping it’s going to prove to be sturdy and long-lived.

Nowhere is China mentioned!

The design is good by the way. It waters gently and evenly. I’m impressed!

Marshmallow llamas next. Caiti rustled these up on Sunday when the rest of us were out with the cycle club. Aren’t they awesome? Now she has her sweet making thermometer, there’s no stopping her.

And finally Dave, my rather old touring bike built for me by Dave Yates that I mentioned yesterday. I retrieved him from the spooky recesses of the barn. He hasn’t been ridden for several years now. Caiti rode him for a while but outgrew him when she outgrew me. Dave has a 16.5 inch frame, I seem to recall, which was my size. I’m only little! You wouldn’t think he was 25 years old. The paintwork has worn tremendously well. Quarter of an hour with a rag and some polish and the glint was back in his eye. He shone in the sunshine.I gave the chain some TLC too.

I need new tyres and replacement padded handlebar grips, then he’ll be ready to go. It’s about time Dave hit the road again. He’s a smashing bike. Chris and I think he cost around 400 GBP, which would be equivalent to around 1,000 quid today. Crikey! That was a lot for two newly-weds to cough up. He took all our savings at the time but we were young and irresponsible and preferred to have good bikes rather than any decent furniture to sit on! Definitely the right decision.