Stratford Festival

Last week a number of tickets to various shows at the Stratford Festival were made available by a co-worker. Evidently undersold shows have certain allotments of tickets printed out and given away to acheive appropriate 'bums in seats' levels, I imagine for the purpose of making every performance appear packed to the paying showgoers.

Not one to turn down an opportunity, I was able to secure tickets to both Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare and The Misanthrope by Moliere.

Titus Andronicus is a very impressive, startling, powerful, and disturbing tragedy. It is Shakespeares first, and is a completely fictional tale about a Roman military leader returning from war, his actions, and the consequenses that arise.

Last week, this plant wasn't there... I swear!

The Sand Box

About six summers ago I decided to build a half decent, durable sandbox for Rudi, the summer he was three. I am happy to say it has survived in quite fair fashion, and just needs about six or eight bags of play sand to get going again for Alexander.

The sandbox is anchored with four by four posts on steel post supports driven into the ground, with two by twelve inch boards for sides. I liked the idea of having the side boards intersect and 'pass through' one another with the corner posts on the outside of the sandbox, rather than the inside. The alternate walls are made up of twinned two by sixes, and are keyed into the two by twelves at the post junction.

Alexander hams it up a bit on one of the seats in the first photo... The log to the right is cut to length and will soon go to the treehouse. The second photo is a detail of the intersection of the side boards at one of the corner posts.

The Bean Support

Every year in our little raised bed, Katherine plants a number of things, including a variety of tomatoes, as well as a number of beans, including climbers.

Last year the climbers completely outgrew my pathetic attempt at a support, which was just six foot tall or so. This year at Katherine's request I built a real support, which hopefully will be able to keep up with the Wisley Magic and other climbers that have begun winding their way to the top!