raining, technology

Sad, but the exciting point of my day is right now when it is just so wonderful to use working broadband (I've escaped to a gorgeous cafe in Bridport to catch up) as nothing based on mobile technology is working at all at home today as it is just SO windy and rainy.

Experimentally, I am going to plant some heavy duty perennials straight into/onto the roughly dug clay in some areas of the garden as I don't believe it is ever going to dry out enough to cultivate properly. I have a feeling it could work if very well surrounded by mulch.

All the plants in the field in bags and boxes are fine but beginning to sprout and some are suffering a bit from mould from being damply encased in damp woven plastic dumpy bags.

I'll be running courses later this year on the Perennial Cutting Garden. I'm planting most of my perennials in the garden rather than the (uncultivated and currently unapproachable) field, and it is a chance to plan beautiful cutting herbaceous beds. Of course there's not nearly enough space to run the business just from the garden, but there's more than enough space to illustrate different cutting planting schemes.

So, in between the horrors of the continuing BT saga and impossibility of communication, lots of exciting ideas are brewing.

FFFFFFFFFFFor heavens sake BT

The MP has pushed it. It's all so ridiculously inefficient that I have my own complaints officer. Last weekend things finally were almost looking optimistic, and when a BT installation engineer arrived on Monday I was almost excited. He came. He left as the other engineers in another department at Open Reach hadn't done their job.
Tuesday. Word that the other BT Open Reach engineers would try to get on the case that week.
Wednesday. The other engineers said there was no capacity to add another line or broadband anyway. It all had to go to the Planning department.
Thursday. The Planning department said that perhaps I might be able to have a landline but broadband was not currently possible.
The complaints officer (in NOrthern Ireland, not of course local) can't talk direct to anyone at BT Open Reach it appears. He has to wait for word from a case officer somewhere. He can't update me because no one is updating him.
The MPs office can't push any further as the case is apparently already highest priority or highest escalation or something or other.

SO. It appears that nothing can be done. Or rather than no-one is willing to do anything. I am seriously annoyed about it all. And don't want to be having to waste so much time on it. And would really like to be able to pick up and send emails from my office rather than via the dongle from the one upstairs windowsill that has a mobile signal.

Everyone else in the village has phones and most have broadband. We used to have a phone and broadband in this house when my mother lived here and I only had that taken off nine months ago when we were hoping someone else would buy the house. We are not right out in the sticks in an inaccessible area. BT just are the most horrible horrible horrible organisation to try and deal with and I seem to have failed comprehensively.

Meanwhile. Today I receive another missive from BT telling me that my line and broadband (which do not and have not existed) are going to be cut off today because I owe them £255.67 as I have ordered for the line to be discontinued before the end of the contract. Where on earth do they get this all from.....

Regarding the way BT charge; I already had to pay a huge bill for the last phone line as they messed everything up there and the only way to keep any line at all going was to pay some huge bill which I was sure I did not owe, but they would have cut off the little service that was left if payment wasn't made. Instantly. They never sent me an itemised bill, I didn't even know what they were charging for.  I eventually get on to this complaints officer chappie about it and the bill was reduced by £140. I still haven't  ever seen that bill, nor had the refund.

Marvellous.

No phone.
No broadband.
No imminent hope of broadband from BT it seems.

So do I have to go down the satellite route, which costs a lot of money per connection and call? Will BT pay for that as they have so comprehensively let me down?

HELP NEEDED!

Frustration and flooding

So much for my great intention to keep the  blog updated with progress as I get stuck into the new gardens.....

1. Everything is still fairly much flooded so there is very little garden progress!
2. STILL NO INTERNET OR LANDLINE

The only way I can get on line is by sitting at an upstairs windowsill with a mobile dongle as there is almost no mobile

This has been preoccupying me rather...... the new line and broadband was ordered on 20th or 22nd November, promised for 12th December, and still nothing has happened, the most recent promised date has been 23rd January. In desperation I got onto the local MP last Wednesday, his office responded really swiftly, sending missives to the relevant people. BT responded on Monday by sending me a message to say that the line has now been PUT BACK BY ANOTHER TWO WEEKS!!!!!

When it's too wet to garden

If in doubt get the chainsaw out. Farewell hideous yellow conifer.

Another grey day

Wet again, no chance to do anything except a cursory pruning of a few roses. Perhaps I should get stuck into things inside and make some bookshelves!

HAPPY 2013

Happy New Year everyone from my new home and garden. After weeks of rain today the sun came out, the sky was blue, we walked along the nearby beach, all was right with the world. The witchhazel in front of the house is in full bloom, winter flowering cherries are out, and I picked three deep red roses.

But otherwise all is in waiting until something here dries out as the ground is utterly and completely sodden.

I'm going to start the year using bulbs and the first spring flowers from the old gardens, and use flowers from there as well as whatever comes up here for a while until these get established. First they need to get in the ground as they're still sitting in boxes after their journey down here, and their new homes are not yet at all ready for them. But all will happen!

Let's hope it's a wonderful year to come.