Time at Home

Hi there everyone 😃

After we got back from the lodge at the beginning of the month we have the luxury of three weeks at home before heading off for a long weekend, meeting up with old work friends, in Pickering.

Our first few days back were spent unpacking, washing, shopping and just generally trying to get organised as we knew we’d got a couple of busy weeks ahead.

We came home on the Wednesday and it’s always amazing at this time of year what a difference a couple of weeks makes in the garden. It had really filled out and was starting to look more like the garden we know and love …

The self set ferns that we’d dug out of some of the pots and planted up were going great guns. We added the job of planting them out into the garden onto the ever increasing list of garden jobs …

The grass had looked a bit of a disaster before we went away … having had a bit of a moss treatment and rake …

Normally it looks more like this …

When we got back it had made a valiant effort and looked like it might just be salvageable …

Inside … the spider plant that had been gifted to me as a baby was thriving. Not only has it had offspring of its own … each tiny new plant actually has flowers … they are tiny but perfectly beautiful …

On Thursday we did shopping and errands for us and our elderly neighbour. We also took mum, as she’s been unable to drive for a couple weeks following the first of two cataract operations. 

On Friday I did an extra shift at food bank as they were short … whilst Martin bottled some beer. When I got back I made up a batch of peanut butter granola and a speculoos tray bake for the freezer so it all felt quite productive. The grass also got its first cut of the year.

Saturday was another productive day. I spent a couple of hours at craft group working on an embroidery project that must be in its third year …

… and Martin fixed the downstairs loo which had stopped flushing … so needed to be taken to bits and have a new part fitted. It will be nice not having to go upstairs to use the loo or, alternatively… keep filling a bucket to flush

When I got back from craft group I did some more batch cooking. This time it was chilli and bolognaise for the freezer, whilst Martin raked more moss out of the grass … sending it back to looking a bit of a sorry state.

On Sunday it was bank accounts and paperwork for me and the first stage of jet washing for Martin … followed by a bit of planting … peas, French beans, zinnias and morning glory. We also managed to pot up a clematis that we’d bought before we went away and some dahlia tubers …

On Monday I had a nice summery and healthyish breakfast …

… before getting cracking on my third lot of batch cooking … cheese leek and potato pies, whilst Martin jet washed the brick edge round the grass. We then had an afternoon of potting and pottering, with lunch in the garden in the sunshine with mum … getting to use the first of the salad leaves …

Tuesday was time for a visit to the dentist and a little bit of gardening once we got home … weed and feed on the grass and a bit of cutting down. It was lovely to see the first of the Rhapsody in Blue rose in full bloom …

It was a nice easy tea … home made lasagne with some of my batch cooked bolognaise from the freezer … which actually ended up feeding us for two days which was a real bonus. 

On Wednesday I was back at food bank and Martin did a marathon pot saucer washing session … a job that we didn’t get round to doing at the end of last summer. 

Thursday and Friday were taken up with new windows being fitted at the front of the house. Something I’ve been really nervous about as, after much deliberation, I’d decided to switch from hardwood to UPVC. Whilst I would much prefer wood again there were just too many benefits to having UPVC to make it a viable option. 

Obviously it’s always a bit disruptive having any ‘men’ in to do a job but it actually went fairly smoothly and I am pleased to report that I am pretty happy with the final result. I’m even more happy that it hasn’t really resulted in any additional jobs being added to the list. Don’t you just hate that? You get something done … only to find you’ve created another stack of things that need doing …

Whilst they were doing the windows Martin and I did manage to get a few bits done in the back garden. Staring with repositioning some of the pots …

It is actually starting to look quite nice out there now with quite a lot of the early summer colours starting to show …

On Saturday we were off out to see Alison as The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, which was fabulous … even though a lot of Monty Python humour just passes me by. We went to the matinee with mum. David and Bobby and had tea at McDonalds and then went back to David’s for an evening of game playing …

Sunday was the first kind of free day we’d had in ages and the plan was to get the front garden tidied up, following the window fitting. There were lots of forget-me-nots to pull up and daffs to dead head. We were set for a good day of gardening … only to wake up to the family WhatsApp group full of messages offering the option of an afternoon BBQ back at David and Alison’s … celebrating ‘The Lady of the Lake’. Well that was too good an opportunity to pass up so we had to limit our gardening to the morning.

We did actually get on quite well and managed a good clear up of the borders and gave the box ball bushes their annual trim …

We did have to be very careful of this little guy though … who we stumbled upon quite by accident …

We spent a lovely afternoon at David and Alison’s. The whole family was there and it was lovely to spend a bit of time together just generally eating, drinking and chilling in the sunshine.

Now it’s Monday and we have been to the opticians for eye tests and shopping and we are just building up to doing a bit more potting on. 

The house is a tip and the ‘to do’ list is still long but I guess we will gradually work our way through it … but whilst we have sunshine we will definitely be making the most of the chance to spend time outside. Here’s to another productive week 🍻

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