Trendy Bates and a New Lamp

The weather was super-dreary yesterday, with cloudy skies and spitting rain. Even so, I had a moment at work in the morning when I thought, "I have to get out of here!" So I took a quick walk down the St. John's Wood High Street, and on my way back I passed these flats with their unusual windows.

Never mind what led to my moment of desperation. Let's just say I spent a lot of my walk thinking about how happy I am that I only have to survive my work environment for two more months. And not even that, because we have two weeks of break time during those two months. Deep breaths!

On the high street, at the Oxfam used book shop, I came across this Penguin boxed set of H.E. Bates novels. I haven't read anything by Bates in ages, but I liked the few books that I picked up in charity shops soon after we came to London (despite the dubious racial references). So I bought these. I might not read them all but we'll see.

I have no idea who that woman on the box is. The covers of all the books also feature attractive young women who probably have nothing to do with the plots. This set was published in 1973, and I guess Penguin was trying to make Bates trendy.

(By the way, if you click that link above, you can also read possibly my earliest blog reference to our avocado tree, describing the planting of the seed that produced it. So that tree will be 14 years old this summer!)

And remember those tiny teasel seedlings that were growing inside the seed head? Well, I carefully tugged them free and put them into their own soil in a seed tray. More teasels for the garden! (We don't really need more teasels but I couldn't watch those seedlings inevitably die, stuck in their spiny pod.)

Also yesterday, my replacement bedside lamp arrived via eBay. This is an identical match to the one the painters broke. Some of you mentioned in comments that they should have paid for it, and I suppose that's true, but it wasn't much money -- about £30 with shipping. It wasn't worth it to dicker with them. I just wanted to move past it!