Nick has read my last post and taken issue.
I have to concede that he does have a point where I mention a sketch on the back of an envelope.
I don't know whether I've mentioned this, but I do have a tendency to over-engineer things, so the back of my envelope may have transformed into a large-format laminated scale drawing.
This is a picture of one of my favourite things:-
Most drawings find themselves being laminated at one time or another. As does anything else I find lying around which I consider to be a useful piece of paper.
Mrs Champion loves this aspect of my nature, particularly because it turns something recyclable into something which isn't. I love it because it means I have something durable to scribble on which is wipe clean. Provided, of course, I don't use one of my many indelible pens (see "Hendrix is up!") which invariably I do.
So Nick may have been working to something like this:-
The other thing that happens - and this is the same thing I've discovered with publishing your own book - is that you produce the hard copy, print multiple copies because it is a perfect thing, and then spot the error which renders it and all of its counterparts redundant.
This is how I have a book shelf straining under the weight of Scapegoat copies, variously categorised as:-
Wrong cover
Right cover several major spelling mistakes
Right cover, better spelling, but look at this grammar rule I've just had pointed out
Almost perfect but I'm not happy with the formatting
Almost perfect, but now I'm not sure about the cover
The same applies to the drawings of the garden.
This is where Nick does such a great job. He glances at my beautifully crafted, perfectly measured, laminated scale drawing, shakes his head and then tells me how things are done in the real world.
If anyone would like to buy a job lot of either laminated garden drawings or almost perfect but not quite books, I am open to offers.