"I've had this brilliant idea...

if it works," the Senior Cat told me.
He was making a list of things he needed to do while he was out. 
"Yes dear?" I am  used to his "brilliant ideas". Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. 
This was to do with gardening. The Senior Cat's gardening is done in "self-watering" pots at waist height these days. At  93 and a bit unsteady on his rear paws he's also a bit old to be digging. Our friend S.... does that when he comes in for a couple of hours once a fortnight.
The pots were a "brilliant idea". The Senior Cat spends a lot of time looking after the contents.  We get useful things like parsley, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and lettuce - and more. I can't say it keeps us in vegetables now but it certainly gives him a lot of satisfaction and I find it extremely useful when there is enough of  whatever it is I want. 
But the pots need to have their watering wells filled frequently in the summer - at least twice a day in hot weather. The plants also need to be "fed". The Senior Cat's latest idea involves small "bags" of his patent plant food to be released slowly through the water in the wells. 
What to use for the bags? He has been using some small gauze like bags for another purpose. He bought them in the "cheap shop" in the shopping centre. Oh yes, he would get some of those. 
I pointed out that, for this purpose, they were not exactly cheap. He said he would just get one pack of 5 and see if the idea worked.
And, he purred off on his little gopher to go to the bank, pay a bill and go to the cheap shop.
He arrived home just before lunch. He was, as I knew he would be, tired. He  had not been to the cheap shop. It had been too late to go and well...yes,  he admitted, he was too tired. I know he doesn't think of  himself as being 93 but I know he is.
I said nothing apart from my intention to return some books to the library and pick up something they had put aside for me. But, I had been thinking. 
I went to the library. Then I prowled into the charity shop and looked in the little space where they keep things like curtains and haberdashery. I was thinking that an old light curtain might be useful. I found something that might be even better - two metres of what is, I think, called "butter muslin". It's the sort of thing they used to wrap around cheese. The tag said, "$1.00". I bought it...and two small glasses to replace those the Senior Cat has broken recently...another dollar. 
I came home and I explained my "brilliant idea" to the Senior Cat. All he needs to do is cut this  into squares, put two together, and then put his "food" in the middle and tie it up to make a little old-fashioned "poke". 
He thinks that idea might work. 
I don't know whether his will work but he can try. If it doesn't then all we will have wasted is a dollar. We won't even have wasted any time because both of will have managed to learn something from his "brilliant idea".