Monday 2rd February

It doesn’t matter how much you tidy up, how much you throw out – things just keep growing.  The garden is the worst because this does literally grow with no help from you at all.  You trim back the bushes, try to keep on top of the ivy which will take over if you simply turn your gaze away for a minute or two, the lawn is mown every day in the summer.  And yet it just keeps on growing and then you need a ladder just to cut the tops of the bushes back.  In Walton only four years ago there was practically nothing, one old bush at the far end and a tiny forsythia tree.  We bought a few plants here and there, but now it is huge.  The Broom waves in the breeze and is three feet higher than the fence; the Marlow which has only about six inches of soil is over six feet high and needs constant pruning.  We put in a row of tiny white-grey bedding plants along the edges and now they are two feet high and really need ripping out and replacing.

But it is the same with everything.  We have just gone through the bedding ottoman and it was full of stuff we no longer use; old duvet covers I was too mean to throw out, at least ten odd pillowcases in varying degrees of grubbiness.  To the charity shop with the lot of them.  And yet the woman there said “Oh, lovely – this stuff always goes.”   So are we a nation of rabid buyers, even of tat.  At one time my wife was collecting all sorts of candlesticks, as along with soap she was selling candles.  When it came to clearing out I couldn’t bear to throw many of them and now have a mini-collection which one day we will undoubtedly take to the charity shop.  This stuff just keeps growing of it’s own accordion; it doesn’t need you to hum a tune.  Turn around and your house if full of junk.  Every Christmas you get a load more, and can’t quite bear to throw it out “My sister bought me that.” And back on the shelf or at the back of the cupboard it goes.

And the kindest thing you can do is leave enough money in your will to buy a skip for your family to throw it all in.