Week 361: Danny xbox

August 2, 2025

I love florentines.
The hokkaido squashes and nasturtiums are out of control but I am letting them take over. First year I grew squashes I got a crop of three. Last year the crop failed because I was re-doing all of the beds. This year I have three thriving plants. Monty Don sez any plant can only really handle three squashes and you should decide which are your best babies remove the rest. Feel free to chip in here if you disagree with the Don.
I have vague recollections of my granddad, who did retirement in the ideal way – beautiful garden, grew fruit and vegetables, book binding, cosy soft grandparent business – also did some picture framing.
In Brighton there is a shop called Photomatic that is full of photo booths and for £3 you can have a pretty decent set of four photos. As is often the case with taking photos of kids, in the square of four rarely are all four of the photos great. Sometimes someone is out of shot, sometimes they’re just doing a weird face.
The other day I was looking at the quads of photos I’ve amassed since moving here 4 years ago and I realised that what I should really do is cut them into separates and frame the good ones, and what I needed was a nice 4x5 aperture mount to put them in. I started off trying to do this online, but it was going to cost £67, which seemed like a lot for some cardboard with some bevelled holes in it. So of course I bought myself a bevelled mount cutter and some mount board and did it myself.
The process was extremely satisfying and now I am looking at every flat thing in my house and wondering… could I frame that?
[Found cursive around my house, capitalisation and spelling as found] Suspects:
- Dr oleony
- Madam binx
- agent Murray
- Profesor Wrap and penuts
- Cotton bill
- Danny xbox
- Dame floss