The nice thing about the vinca is that the top spreads out from a small base, so I only have to dig up a few sets of roots to clear quite a large area of ground.

Yesterday evening I had a few minutes in the study, and tipped out a lidded basket of stationery stuff which I put into a cupboard. Some is still on the floor, I admit. I will not need to buy another envelope for years. I inherited some of my Dad's business white DL ones, though the glue has dried.

The basket will be used for some of the fabric stash in the spare bedroom/box room, so I can separate half finished things from pristine material. I've inherited a part done patchwork quilt from my Mum, rather sad, as I found that she had made mistakes in her pattern at the end before abandoning it - she had a brain tumour, which she kept hidden for a long time, but this must have been one of the signs. I'm going to carry on with it for my niece, who liked the one I have had bequeathed to me. Mum had worked hexagons into rhomboid pieces, and I don't know whether she intended to make a sort of starburst with them in the centre, or put them together in interlocked rows. I'll have to see how the colours develop.

I'm going to the dentist (I'll have to ring the surgery to check which day, as I have it today on one calendar, and tomorrow on another.) I lost a white filling between my two uppr front teeth a couple of weeks ago. And I have a problem with the amalgam filling in a molar. I was hoping to put this off until some house money came in. Ho Hum. It used to be that pensioners had their work done free, but I don't expect it would cover nice white fillings outof sight round the back.

Penny