Something about a Saturday

 

This picture is deceiving as it was a dull grey cold day totally different from yesterday.  Woke up at ridiculous o’clock and read The Snow Child in bed with a cup of tea for an hour and did a bit of scrolling. But once up it  didn’t begin well - the central heating boiler decided to break down.  It has worked well all winter then decides to call it a day on a really chilly morning. Luckily our boiler man who we have used for years answered his phone and said he would come on Monday - so we sorted out the emergency electric heaters borrowed one from a neighbour and now the house is warmish - luckily we still have an immersion heater so we should be ok for hot water.  A visit to the local co-op and the library which is my usual Saturday ritual - a warming bowl of soup for lunch. Made sure everything in the greenhouse was ok - covered the delicate plants like the tomatoes and cucumber were covered with fleece to keep them warm. The afternoon went quickly as I had a long telephone call - made chorizo pizza with jacket potatoes and coleslaw for tea - watched the film Glory in the evening - time for bed.

That Friday Feeling

 

After weeks of waiting I finally had a good day in the garden - the wind has dropped and even though the morning was frosty the wind chill had gone.  I decided to get on with sorting the container garden - planted up new plants got rid of dead or unproductive plants topped up the compost in the pots and gave everything a good water as the pots were really dry. Then I set to and pulled out all the bulbs that had gone over so I could use the pots for summer plants. Very tired after all that but I’m happy it’s done now.  The grass got cut too but the edges will have to wait till tomorrow.  We had a visit from the chimney sweep during the morning so that’s another job ticked off the list. Home made fish and chips with mushy peas and pickled onions for tea.  Watching Beyond Paradise and Shetland  this evening on the tv - then bedtime

Thursday Thoughts

 

Once a month or so I use Thursday to shop at Sainsbury for items I can’t buy at Lidl during my Tuesday shop.  This means I don’t have time to trawl the charity shops but I did visit Homebase Garden Centre and found everything was 15% off so of course I took full advantage and came home with a few goodies.  But Sainsbury’s was a nightmare - as I don’t use it that often I don’t know where everything is - I love kippers and they haven’t had any for a while so when I spotted them I bought all that they had.  But the worst bit was the self check out I had to call for assistance three times - the last time was when I tried to pay with my library card - what an idiot! In the afternoon my occasional gardener came to deal with the front house ivy - it’s a horrible job dusty and messy with bird poop but he did a grand job. Lasagne for tea and watched a Vera episode in the evening. And so to bed.

Wednesday Goings On

 Dry cold overcast day with just enough wind to dry the laundry. A bit of pottering about in the garden. Began looking in my preserves cupboard hoping to find an odd jar of chilli jam to no avail but I did clean out the cupboard and chuck away old jars of stuff that were way past their best so pat on the back for that. Wednesday visit to a friend for a catch up chat and her gardener was there and told me he’d be round to mine tomorrow afternoon to deal with the ivy on the front of the house which is rapidly taking over - thank goodness before it gets too out of hand. Beef casserole for tea from the freezer. Watched the last episode of  Sloborn series 2 which was excellent really interested to see what happens next when series 3 comes round. Still reading The Librarian it’s a bit of a slow story but sticking with it for now until I lose interest or become bored.

Tuesday Things

 

I’m not very hot on time management at the moment - time seems to disappear and I don’t seem to achieve very much.  I may have mentioned this before - the weather has a lot do with with it I suppose - it’s been so bad I have t been able to do things outside that need doing if I’m to keep up with all that needs doing - so I fritter time away indoors.  But Tuesday is grocery shopping day so that was the morning taken care of and after lunch I went into the greenhouse for a good hour and potted on all the runner bean plants which are growing at an alarming rate unlike the tomatoes which seem to be static.  By the time I had finished I was tired - I know it’s pathetic but it’s the standing and my knees that suffer. So I went in had a cup of tea and watched another episode of Sloland which was excellent and getting very intense.  Chicken Tikka Masala for tea watched an episode of Midsomer Murders not much of a challenge  to guess who the murderer was and time for bed.  It rained on and off all day but I should have made more use of the dry bits to get on but excuses excuses it was too darn cold.

Monday Musings

 Rain all day so a long soak in the bath reading my book The Librarian by Sally Vickers then a housework morning and laundry and binge watching Sloborn in the afternoon - finished the first series and starting on the second - not a lot of happiness in it to be honest in fact just the opposite but still enjoying it - not sure what that says about me.  Reading the paper about the cost of coffee and olive oil soaring due to bad weather and distribution problems - we will be back to Camp coffee at this rate - only older readers will know what I am referring to.  After the rain stopped at about 5 pm I walked to the top of the garden to get some air - there’s something about the garden after the rain - the birds appreciated the rain stopping and were singing away in an echoey kind of way - very clear. Made a chicken casserole for dinner and watched Blue Lights on tv violent and depressing but you get used to that on tv these days. We are still having a fire in the evening as it’s still chilly and we had an oil delivery today for the central heating - spending a fortune keeping the house relatively warm although it is switched off for most of the day. And that’s me done - time for bed.

It’s Sunday Again

 

The early tulips have finished and I have moved the pots off the deck into their summer quarters while the plants die back then I can decide whether to keep the bulbs till next year if they are big enough.  The later ones by the greenhouse are still going strong - the parrot type have still to bloom. I can’t decide what to replace them with yet.  The garden itself is transformative and lush in the woodland part as shown above I have Welsh poppies, self seeders, but I seem to have lost quite a few aquilegia - but I guess they have a lifespan like anything else.

Found a good series to watch on the channel 4 iPlayer if that’s what it is called based on an island I thought Denmark but could be Germany because Berlin is mentioned a lot anyway it’s subtitled - called Sloborn about a deadly flu-like epidemic caused by pigeons - sounds ridiculous but a bit like bird flu affecting humans - this first series is dealing with all the characters involved - but they are beginning to drop like flies.  You may think I have a morbid interest in these apocalyptic dramas - considering we have been through a pandemic - I honestly don’t know why they fascinate me so much - I guess it’s all about survival.