In the end, I did none of the solipsistic, moochy things that were making me so despondent, and gardened instead.  I found some poppies on special offer in the garden centre (I only went for a bag of compost) and so bought 3.  They're very beautiful, so I had fun on Monday morning, taking photos of them.

I love how my camera captures each hair on the stalks and buds.  The opening bud is still trying to shrug off its little cap, today.

Then I decided they were so beautiful I wanted to make one, so I spent half an hour in the shed with various bits of mulberry bark, crepe de chine and velvet, before admitting that the creative spark seems to have left me for a while.  Oh well...

 I also seem to have picked up one of these.  It's a bit of a triffid, with largish leaves and this lily-like flower.  I can't remember what it's called, but there was a hole just the right size for it at the back of the bed.  Which is no mean feat, considering just how little bed there is, in this garden.

So then I tied back the daffodils, and planted the bedding plants.  These are begonias, which the snails are enjoying very much, thank you...  There were also sweet williams, snapdragons, and marigolds.  I expect the snails will enjoy the marigolds, too, when they've tired of the begonias.  Oh well, I never was a huge fan of begonias.

I filled various tubs, window boxes and stray pots with geraniums.  I do like a good geranium.  And a couple of straggly tomato and strawberry plants went into the bottom of the tub with the clematis in.  I don't think they'll survive -they got rather too dry in their little plug plant pots - but it's got to be worth a try, right?

And then the aquilegia, which is actually rather coming to the end of its season, looked so stunning in its shady corner that I took a sneaky picture of that, too.

And after that, it was just a question of throwing some alpines in the front (which was just a series of gravel beds, and now has  fig tree (with 3 figs) in a large tub; some window boxes of peas, beans and tomatoes, and an extensive alpine bed.  Looks less ordered, but much nicer.