Category: homestEAd

work on our home and garden

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dear diary ~ back so soon?

I know I surprised myself that I am able to write this post so quickly after the last, but I wanted to say as soon as I could thank you for all your kind words – I haven’t answered them individually as I have to be conservative still with my time at the moment.  It was so good to hear from you all and that you are still reading in blogland….there has been so much movement over to places like Instagram, YouTube and Substack it is good to know that bloggers are still relevant.

It would seem by the abrupt change of weather that summer has now drawn to a close and I am sad to see it go but at the same time I am engaging in all that autumn has to offer. I have already taken the opportunity to switch out my summer outfits of sun tops for a few warmer fleece tops and lightweight jumpers.

And the warmer brushed cotton duvet cover has made its way onto our bed.

My pantry shelf has an abundance of autumn colour – it is a joy to walk in there – baskets of apples (given by my neighbour) and dishes of plums and tomatoes – none home grown I might add, this year I stuck to courgettes only as they do manage to take care of themselves and gave us a nice little yield.

Despite being hopelessly late in sowing the seeds I did grow some annuals, pure white cosmos and glorious vibrant calendula, but my favourites are definitely the mixed jewel colours of the zinnias, and surprisingly all of them continue to flower through the recent downpours, thunderstorms and hailstones we have had over the week. Even the Japanese anemones have stood firm.

The garden has taken a back seat again this year, our hopes to turn it around after ignoring it completely last year whilst selling the cottage are now on hold until next year. Our motto is fast becoming not another project for another day, but another project for another year…or maybe two!

Everything preys on my mind at the moment and feels like I am on overwhelm. As you can imagine, where time allows, I have done a lot of thinking about what and where I go from here since letting go of our cottage and our retirement plans to live there.  My vision of the future is still rather a blank screen at the moment and I am finding it hard to find myself, let alone know what I might do…I even bring into question what it is that I like doing anymore.  And of course since I hit 70 last year I have become acutely aware that time is in short supply and quite precious.  Making a wrong move or decision now could cost us dearly and I don’t mean financially.

I have another tale of woe to add to the one about the cottage but that is for another blog post, another day.  For now I will just tell you about my little accomplishments here and there over the year.

My mum has been rather good this week, which is fortunate.  No complaints or outbursts and has been complying with the carers to drink her water and take a little walk with her walker to exercise her legs and keep a little strength in them. We visited her on the Saturday of last week and took her to the local park for a sandwich and a chocolate muffin at the council café followed by a large ice cream cone.  Her appetite for an elderly person is enormous – she can eat far more than I do – is this a clue to her reaching 100 soon I wonder?  The weather remained dry and sunny so in all it was a pleasant day and worth the 6 hour round trip to see her.

She always has a few tears when it is time for us to go and it is worse at the moment as my sister is away on holiday and won’t be popping in to see her during the week. I still continue to ring her every day just before the final carer goes to put her to bed at 6pm.  The conversation now is very limited as she is in cognitive decline and little short term memory.  She asks over and over when my sister will be back and when I will be going up to see her again.  It can be so wearing.  This week has been good because I haven’t had endless calls from her in a panic during the day to ask the same questions, which means I don’t have to keep breaking off from things I am doing to answer her all the time and I can catch up with a few jobs here.

Presently, it is almost impossible for me to form any kind of routine in my life and until we have my elder daughter moved completely and her old house on the market I am reluctant to start any projects of my own.  We have finished all the decorating we intend to do in her new house and have now moved on to resurecting the garden at her old house ready for the sale pictures. Not easy during these sudden outburst of rain and goodness knows we need to get down to some cleaning, decorating and gardening here at home…it is well overdue.  I realised the other night that my only hope is to break down projects into smaller tasks of no longer than an hour.

My bedtime reading at the moment is a book I noticed on the bookshelf (The Success Principle by Jack Canfield) and it caught my eye as I don’t think I ever got round to reading it fully.  When flicking through I noticed in the list of contents a chapter headed ‘Clean up your messes and your incompletes’ and I immediately thought this is what we need to do as I feel like we are in one big mess and it is overwhelming, mainly because we don’t have the quantity of time to match the size of our mess!

So it has given me the momentum to try and get some of the items on my list completed.  The ironing pile was the first under attack… and some got done after sorting it into smaller piles of sheets, pillowcases, t-shirts etc.  There are surfaces, shelves and cupboards that also need attention – ‘stuff’ accumulates quickly; items that have not been put away after use and those that never had a home in the first place. I need to get back to my efforts to minimise our stuff – even though I buy very little I feel it is creeping in again… even seeping in again under the doors at night as we sleep! I really don’t know how it comes in other than by fairies.

I have managed to offload quite a few things since January – clothes on Vinted, bits and pieces on Ebay and a whole box full of old photos belonging to my MIL and given to my SIL after we scanned them onto our computer. She also took away an old retro chair that was intended for the cottage and we have no room to keep here.

However, today we will not accomplish very much on the home scene as we are actually having a day off to ourselves and going on a short journey with a packed lunch over the hill to Greater Manchester to visit the Moravian Settlement in Fairfield, Ashton under Lyne which is open as part of the Hertitage Week.

Oh well, as they say – Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Have a good week everyone x

PS…I have some interesting news as well, but again that will be another post, another day…maybe later in the week.

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dear diary ~ happy New Year 2023

A very happy and healthy New Year to all my blog friends and readers and may it be all you are wishing it to be.

You may have noticed I have a new look for a new year – I felt like a change and you may have noticed I have been tinkering around with my blog a bit recently and moving and deleting things. My blog roll is now under the tab above named ‘Lovely Places to Go‘ – I hope I have got everyone on there.

I have been planning and listing to excess in the last few days and it is time for me to choose a new Focus word for the year. Last year’s word Improvement worked out so well I intend to carry this on as well.

As usual many words went through my mind but the one I kept coming back to is Contentment. I Googled it to find the dictionary lists it as meaning;

Contentment: “a state of happiness and satisfaction”

When you feel content you are more likely to feel grateful for the small pleasures in life and it is usually these small everyday pleasures that make us happy. Sometimes life gets so busy here I often miss those little pleasures.

When I think back to both my grandparents, my in laws and my dad they were all very contented people and happy with their lot. I meet many people who are not, they always seem to be striving for the next thing but the enjoyment it brings once obtained seems fleeting.

Over the last few years I have been making a big effort to buy less and be content with what we have – it can be a struggle at times as the shops display such an array of tempting goodies to buy and it can be hard to walk away without slipping something into my basket, but all these little bits and pieces add up to more clutter and as the ‘stuff’ builds up once again will require decluttering at some future time. As I have continued to declutter through the house and at the same time tried hard not to buy new things in their place I have been loving the emptier spaces, though there is still a lot of room for improvement. It is quite noticeable now that many people, unless you are a true hoarder, are constantly decluttering – and I am too; yet I never remember either of my grandmas having these mammoth decluttering sessions and when I think about it I presume it is because they did not buy ‘stuff’ in the first place.

January is a good place to start. My first intention is to shop the house – I have been making lists of what I might need to buy and what I don’t really need to buy and this month will become the test. Where possible I will be using up, reusing, repurposing, recycling and even upcycling……anything to avoid buying.

I will be shopping in the pantry, fridge and freezer this month for food and only buying in any necessary groceries that we require as well as fresh fruit and veg, milk and bread. In fact I have bread flour never opened so this might be the time to make my own. I have a mind to run the pantry shelves and freezer down to almost nothing and definitely find ways of using up some of the bits and pieces left over from making birthday cakes and chocolates. I have quite a bit of coloured roll out icing which will go hard if not used, half a jar of mincemeat and a full tub of crystalised ginger…..I need to set time aside for a baking session.

The only item of clothing I really need is some new boots; mine can be a bit leaky in wet weather, but at a push I could probably make the ones I have last yet another year.

I have a stack of homemade and recycled cards now for most occassions and a stash of presents in the drawer so no need to buy these for a while.

Since I began knitting again I have collected quite a few balls of wool in the drawer so I am looking to make another jumper for one of the grandchildren and maybe have a go at some socks. I admire all you bloggers that knit those wonderful pairs of socks I see – maybe someone might direct me to some instructions suitable for a beginner.

In my mind there is no time like January for giving the house a good clean and I have a cupboard full of cleaning products to use up, mainly inherited from other people that I can’t waste even if I am not keen on them, and hopefully I can create a bit more space in the cleaning cupboard.

Once the inside is spick and span and I have cleared out and organised all the drawers and cupboards I will start looking at what seeds I have to use up to. I will have to buy seed potatoes though – but they won’t break the bank. We are still using our Christmas potatoes, they were well worth planting last Autumn and a real treat this time of year.

There will be no getting away from buying decorating products once we start on the laundry room and our main bedroom, but I think I might wait to do this until after all the upcoming birthday celebrations, Burns night and perhaps a trip to the cottage.

Looking forward to hearing all your plans and gaining some inspiration.

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dear diary >> busy doing nothing

Well I know I was busy all day but it felt like I had achieved very little. But….the pastry did get mixed and we now have some lentil pies and a quiche base in the freezer – I could have made more but silly me had not noticed the plain flour jar was running low. To compensate for the shortfall I added in some spelt flour and it has made a nice pastry. I used to prefer wholemeal pastry but it is quite heavy on our digestion these days so I switched to Doves Farm organic white which is unbleached. We don’t have pastry very often these days as too much of it does seem to take longer to digest.

I should have titled this post a ‘Tale of two candles‘ as I spent a good two hours in the broom cupboard trying to accomodate my excessive amount of assorted candles (many of them I inherited from my daughters) and make a ‘pleasing arrangement‘ as DH would say.

As always when organising storage there is always the odd thing that just doesn’t quite fit and in this case it was the very annoying two tall pillar candles. Too tall to stand upright on the shelf and just a smidgen too long to be contained in any receptacle that I have. In the end all I could do was lay them on their side -but this is not ideal as they roll about a bit.

The short stubby ones and the tea lights all fitted quite nicely into the 3 storage boxes and I found the best way of storing the long thin ones is upright in glass jars. To make room for the candles I had to adjust the three shelves in the broom cupboard so the top shelf had a larger gap to fit two stacked storage boxes and the bottom two shelves had a narrower gap. But whilst solving this problem I unknowingly created another and when I came to close the cupboard door the contents of the storage container fastened to the door were now too tall for the narrower gap between the bottom and second shelf and the handles of the cleaning and bottle brushes no longer fitted comfortably between the shelves when the door is closed but hit the shelf and stopped the door closing.

So now I have removed some of the taller cleaning brushes and will have to find a new home for them….argh!

I am quite pleased with the result though and all my candles are now in one easily accessible place. The two infuriating pillar candles will be lit as soon as the evenings draw in a bit more. I don’t really want it to feel like autumn yet as I think it is going to be a long, cold winter – what a shame we cannot bottle this summer heat.

My next task is to re-house the coolbags as I would like to get rid of the old kitchen cabinet in the garage where they currently reside. It is a base cabinet and sticks out a long way but does a good job of storing the cool bags and keeps them dust free. They would fit in the cupboard that has all our cleaning products like car shampoo and oven cleaner but I think the smell might spread into the coolbag over time. I am not sure I would want my picnic sandwiches to taste of metal polish or patio cleaner!! Another storage problem to mull over.

DH was busy ironing again – his reward was spending time at the computer (his favourite pastime). He also mounted the second water butt on some bricks with a slab on top which is much more stable than the plastic feet that come with it. This butt is not connected to a drain pipe but we pour in the ‘run off’ water we collect whilst the hot water is coming through in the kitchen. It is surprising how much you can lose down the drain. We are also keeping a bucket in the shower to collect any clean water there when showering. It rained…only a little yesterday early evening – I am hoping just enough to top up the water butt (as we have a hose pipe ban here now) and freshen up the borders and planters and save me having to water today.

Today we /me/or he is making Leek and Potato soup to use up the plentiful supply of potatoes I have and the remains of the leeks. If I have chance I will prepare the tomato soup ingredients at the same time.

This afternoon we are downing tools and going up the road to see two friends of ours K&R. R has recently come out of hospital after an operation and at the moment cannot drive so they are both stuck at home as K had to give up driving because of a macular problem. We have been taking K with us when we go shopping to help out as she is well in her 80’s now but today we are just visiting and having a cup of tea and a catch up chat.

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dear diary >> a matter of opinion

DH and I agree on most things, but it is of no surprise that we have a difference of opinion when it comes to what constitutes ‘pottering’ and how long it should continue for. He thinks two hours of minimal activity is all I should be doing at present and of course he is right but I am an all or nothing person and once I begin a job I can’t bear not to see it through.

And I get sidetracked easily.

I am a great supporter of the Lean method where continuous improvement is part of the approach. I am always looking for better ways of organising and storing things and often have a move around much to DH’s dismay! Sometimes, even I have to acknowledge a task will take far longer than I have time for in a day, but if I stop what I am doing then I know it is going to end up as another project on the unfinished task list as other urgent housekeeping chores call for my attention.

Yesterday, I maybe overdid it a bit. I only intended to sort out the collection of small plastic plant pots in the greenhouse, that I had washed before our holidays, and keep only the useful ones. Dobbies, one of our local garden centres, have a recycling point for old plant pots so I have put aside the ones I don’t want to drop off on our next visit.

We have quite a useful space at the side of our house behind the shed where we can keep our wheelie bins and bags of potting compost tucked away from view. I also put the old mini greenhouse here as it is a sunny positon but much cooler away from any direct sun which is great for potted cuttings and hardening off. I keep the larger empty plant pots here too and anything a bit unsightly but the whole area was a bit of a mess because DH had not been able to get to his ladder easily and after he put it back in position the objects he had to move did not quite make it back in their place (need I say more…). So I started tidying up this area and as I went along I found a few problems that required a little DIY from DH whilst he was doing other bits and pieces in the greenhouse and now the area is looking much cleaner and quite tidy.

Before our holidays DH put in some ‘Christmas potatoes’ – I am not sure if they will actually be ready for Christmas day but they are growing well and needed earthing up. My few outdoor tomatoes are at last turning red – it has been a long wait. I haven’t grown this variety before, a dwarf stocky bush tomato that does not require the removal of side shoots called Totem. They are very sturdy plants that stood up well to the strong winds we had a month or so ago. The Zinnias in the top photo have been battered by wind and then scorched by the sun… but are holding on, they are such beautiful rich colours and one of my favourite annuals. I have more in the front borders and they are mixed with a rather lovely colour called ‘Green Envy’. I was quite pleased to see that Carol Klein recommended this variety on her Summer Gardening program (I just love her enthusiasm for plants it is contagious) it is such an unusual colour but looks good beside the vibrant reds and purples. The plants that have done the best this year on the patio are the geraniums – they seem to thrive in hot dry weather but then they do grow an enormous amount of them in France and Italy.

Today I must, must, must make the mushroom and lentil pies to freeze and the quiche bases (I know I have been saying this all week!). I will rub up the pastry mix this morning and then do the filling in the afternoon. If I get chance I have had an idea for storing those candles I mentioned. I need to gather them all together in Marie Kondo style to see what I am dealing with in terms of space required. I do have quite an assortment of candle holders too and maybe I don’t really need all of them. We shall see.

I am hoping that DH will be doing a bit more fixing and mending. When we got home from holiday I found my watering can broken. It is a Hall’s plastic red one with a long bar attached to the spout that you hold to carry it and it had snapped clean in two as you can see in the photo…..rendering it unuseable and there was no way it could be glued back together. It seemed such a shame that it would be of no further use and would end up in landfill at the tip. However DH to the rescue – he came up with a solution…..

…… a bit of a Heath Robinson fix (just like his dad) using this strong metal strip of rust proof aluminium and some screws or maybe they are rivets. I am delighted though and so pleased it could be repaired – in fact it should be stronger than before even if it does look a bit strange.

Have a lovely restful Sunday everyone. x