So what has week five brought?
Home Life
Home life is good. I have been feeling better and David has
been grumpy. I think lockdown is affecting him more than he realises as he can
no longer go into town to see his kids at work, or drop by their place for a
drink after work. We also haven’t been able to go to our usual haunts for walking,
and we haven’t been able to mooch in antiques shops for a while. We also
decided that we are missing roast beef dinners from Ember Inn pubs. I am a bad vegetarian.
I bought two balls of yarn to finish the edging of my granny
squares. I ran out of yarn with FOUR squares left out of 182. I am so annoyed. I didn't have 182 to edge but I think I edged around 60. I was
leaving really long tails for sewing and clearly I was making them too long,
but I have been burned by not leaving long enough tails for granny squares
before so I was maybe over compensating. I don’t want to cut the tails off to
use the yarn as I know I’ll need it. So, I need to order more yarn. It’s no
biggy as I can use the grey for other projects so it won’t be a waste of a ball,
but I just need to wait until payday again and then wait for delivery etc.
I bought some yarn to test out colour combinations to
finally start a Sophies Universe blanket, I think I have settled on two colours
which is not like me at all. I want to do something different and try something
new. A lot of my blankets end up using a similar palette.
I have started a new painting but not done anything to it
yet. I am great at visualising what I want to draw or paint, but not very good
at getting that thought out of my brain and down my arm and out of the paint
brush. I need to order more white paint.
Garden
The sunflowers are nearly big enough for planting out – I think
another couple of weeks and then I’ll stick them in. Some are only just getting
their true leaves. They are in pots in the sunny part of the garden and when I
plant them, I think some will be quite shaded by the shrubs so I want them to
get as many solar panels as they can before they go in.
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| Three types of sunflower + mint cuttings |
The veg beds are ready for the second sowing of seeds. Something
keeps going in the beds and rootling so I have lost a few leeks, beetroot and
carrots. I have covered one of the beds in chicken wire but I need to get more
Wilkos garden mesh to make an arched cloche type thing over the other beds, so
that peas, beans & sunflowers can grow through the mesh, air & rain can
get in, but squirrels and pigeons can’t.
The windowsill gardening is going great. I have a tray of
sweetcorn, a tray with yellow courgette and yellow & white striped
courgette, a row of sage (I have never grown sage from seed I am quite
excited), and also a tray with pots of aubergine seed. I have never grown
aubergine, Momma P usually does but as I no longer live there I wanted to have
a go. They might end up in her polytunnel though as I don’t have one yet – it is
still in the box in the shed.
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| Looooooooooooofaaaaaahhh |
I have upgraded the strawberry hanging basket. I found a pot
of saffron crocus bulbs so I have split them and put them in, and I have also
put a mint plant in the middle still in its pot to hopefully contain it. I then
put some pebbles over the top and around the strawbs. This is decorative, acts
as a mulch, and should stop things digging. The strawb plants are already
picking up and putting out fresh new leaves.
We also have a new hanging basket out the front from Davids poppa.
It is full of flowers and should fill out nicely. If I remember to keep it
watered.
I have separated a clump of ox-eye daisy at the allotment
and brought it home to split again and plant in the garden. These will come up
every year and be a good food source for wee beasties. The mountain cornflower
is covered in flowers and I have seen butterflies coming to land on it. We had
our first peacock butterflies this week – three of them! – and I have also seen
a speckled wood in the garden. I think I also saw a green veined white but
couldn’t get a good photo.
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| One of these robins was feeding the other |
Allotment
The pond is done! I ordered some pond vegetation from
Naturescape who we use at work. I ordered a dwarf white pond lily, and bunches of
curly pondweed, hornwort, and common water crowfoot. I had to order two bunches
of each of these but my pond is only big enough for one of each, so the other
bunches when into Momma P’s pond on plot 4. The water lily has been planted in
a pond basket lined with hessian, filled with aquatic compost, and topped with
pebbles to try and keep the compost in the pot.
I also bought a load of wildflower seeds from Naturescape
and have started some at home. I have started white & red clover, cowslip,
heartease, and devilsbit scabious. I have direct sown red and white campion
into the shrubbery beds. I am going to plant the plugs (when they are grown)
around my new pond on the allotment to make a wildflower area. I am also going
to put some under the plum tree where I have already started a wildflower area.
I might also just chuck some seed down and see what comes up. I have a good
crop of meadow vetchling under my apple tree which I never planted or sown, so I
always leave that to grow up.
David has fixed the shed. Again. He’s so good! The side
panels have been rotting quite spectacularly and this has allowed rodents to
get in. I opened the shed this week and got a whiff of death so decided to
empty and clean the shed to try and Find The Dead Thing™. I didn’t find
anything, but my shed has now been emptied, sorted, swept, mopped, tidied, and
things put away properly. It looks so good! You can actually get in it now! It
was during this mass shed sort out that I discovered the new rat holes so I did
my best to bodge a repair with planks of wood and bricks, but now David has
replaced the bottom panel on both sides with decking board. I think I have
decided to get a new shed next year. We had to replace the roof last year which
was a big job and cost £150, and took three days to do, but now the sides are
giving out and the floor is too, I think it’s just going to be worth getting a
new shed and maybe increasing the height of the base to lift it more. I have
had this shed for maybe eight years so it’s not done badly.
The bee houses are my favourite thing at this time of year; I
could spend ages watching them come and go. I have had to put more metal mesh
over both of the houses now as I have seen more and more woodpecker damage. Hopefully
this should reduce or even stop it. The mason bees can get through the holes on
this mesh but I have a feeling the leafcutter bees won’t be able too as they
are chunky ladies. I may have to get more mesh, we’ll see. Some of the tubes are
now fully capped off! Next years generation of red mason bees are ready to go.
It’s been a better week this week. We have ticked off lots
of jobs on the allotment and I have enjoyed pottering around the garden in my
pyjamas in the morning. I have potted up loads of mint cuttings from the
allotment and I am going to leave them at the end of the driveway for the
neighbours to take. I am very impatient and I want the garden to grow and be
full of flowers already! I can see in my minds-eye what it is (hopefully) going
to look like when all of the clematis come out, and the red hot pokers are up,
and the honeysuckle and buddleia are covered in bees and butterflies…
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| We've been eating salad from the garden this week!! We've had two so far. I am going to plant more salad leaves as it is a long way to go to the allotment to pick salad. |
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| I have splashed out on some solar lights and I LOVE THEM |
