The summer (ought) to-do list

Last night's storm has left us with a refreshing 23 degrees and overcast skies. Thundery showers.

The to-do list is getting out of hand :

• tackle the ironing pile which has reached, if not Everest proportions, then at least K2
• lavender : cut back, make sure all the thousands of stems are facing the same direction, tie into artful bunches, festoon the house; alternatively cut off the heads and stuff into any available pouch-like object - handmade lacy lavender bags sent from England, pillow cases, M's socks...; alternatively allow to go to seed, swamp everything else in the garden and obscure the steps as part of an artistic 'wilderness' planting scheme
• roses : dead-head, weed around, tie up and fertilise with very expensive liquid feed then watch the hail knock them down
• tie up everything in sight : the tomatoes, the cucumbers, the three jasmines, the ten oleander, the children...
• locate and air the summer duvets; air the winter duvets and shove them into the space where the (less bulky) summer duvets lived; fail, then change mind and opt to use sheets and blankets (if I can find them)
• put away all the children's clothes that aren't suitable for summer, filing for age and gender; when the 20ft room in which this operation is to take place gets too full, move house
• pantry : take everything off the 20 shelves; wash the tea towels that cover the shelves, iron and put back; get rid of the slug trails on floor, walls and ceiling; ditto cobwebs; clean containers and put everything back in a different place just to give il cuoco a taste of his own medicine
• omigod -- sweep the chimneys...
• build an elaborate and imaginative train set, watch AJ (or B, or the cat) wreck it, build another elaborate and imaginative train set, return ten minutes later to view another Island-of-Sodor catastrophe, build yet another somewhat less elaborate and definitely less imaginative train set, return twenty minutes later, put train set away
• do photograph albums for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
• arrange a birthday party, potty-train a toddler, teach AJ his ABCs and his 123s, proofread husband's latest blockbuster...

Did someone say something about summer holidays?