Week 25 of Furlough

25!! Almost the age that all great rockstars die. Next week I go back to full time hours at the start of October. What a weird, weird, weird year. This is technically my last week of part time furlough!!

 

Mental Ill-Health

I spent a whole 2.5 days BY MYSELF this week and it’s been horrible. This house is so quiet when I’m alone. I have been sad, I have been lonely, I have been miserable, but I have also enjoyed quality bra-free time with no judgement, and lots of chocolate and biscuits.

 

Physical Health

Still fat, still not happy about it, still not gonna do anything about it. I went over on my ankle so I’ve had it strapped for most of the week which isn’t ideal as I’m back to leading volunteer groups next week.

 

Homelife

I have finished all seven seasons of New Girl on Netflix. Again. Second time this year. Now I don’t know what to do. I’m not really a TV series type person and I could happily not have a TV. I do like movies though.

I attempted to make baked apple pastry roses and I shall never attempt it again.

David has been away so all of my teddies got promoted from behind the living room chair and up onto the bed. Unfortunately, David has now returned and apparently he takes priority over the teddies.

I have upgraded and bought a new duvet cover that is actually big enough for the duvet! Now it doesn’t get all bunched up inside the cover which is a massive pet hate of mine.

Crochet

I have finished part nine of Sophies Universe! I am running out of floor space to take the photos. I may have to start taking pictures of her on the bed (oo er). A lot of apricot has started to creep in even though this was supposed to be a highlight/accent colour so I am going to have a think about reducing that again. It didn’t feature very much in my initial row by row plan but I have now used a whole ball of apricot yarn. I still haven't gone up a hook size and I haven't blocked her yet, but she's looking just fine and doesn't have any major edge curling.

I have ordered some expensive super chunky wool to make myself a new winter cowl. It hasn’t arrived yet but I am quite excited!

 

Garden

We’re getting less light in the garden during the day now, so the tomatoes are slowing down with their ripening. Two plants are in the sun and I pick them regularly, and the other plant is in the shade and the tomatoes are still green. I have bought more bulbs (more!) so I need to get them in the ground. I need to get more compost to do the other planter, and top up the planters out the back but that’ll have to wait.

Allotment

This week I have shifted a load of shit. Five wheelbarrows worth to be precise. I paid for ten so I’ve still got more to move. I paid the allotment rent and fees, so also paid for some doodoo while I was in the shop.

The aubergine is growing well and I have tickled another flower. The cauliflower and calabrese are looking quite happy in the polytunnel.

I have cleared out the sweetcorn, some courgette plants, and a couple of tomatoes. I have also tidied around the new beds at the bottom of the plot as the ‘path’ was just nasturtium, nettle, and a rogue fennel. I think I am going to cover this path with weed fabric and then put down a load of bark chippings over it.

I was going to order my garlic for this year but I have spent lots of money this month (already! I only got paid two days ago) on getting my car sorted and on David’s birthday presents.

I picked the last remaining hazel nut (one of two) from my allotment hazel tree and I have planted it at home. I want to go conker collecting to plant a load of them too.

Work

Went over to the Leicester office this week and had a socially distanced working lunch  picnic in the park with some of the team. We chose a good day for it as it chucked it down for the rest of the week!

More piccies...

Week 24 of Furlough

Well, we’re into the last few official weeks of furlough – unless of course there’s a massive U turn and we end up back in lockdown, but I think even if we do go back into lockdown there will be exceptions. Can’t really ship everyone back to school for four weeks then shut them down again. The whole situation is probably going to get a lot worse before it gets even an inkling of better. We’ll see. Anyway. I go back to work full time, 35hrs over five days at the start of October. I have booked a week off to get over the shock.

 

Homelife

I have been cooking! Quite a lot. I am trying to get back on track with healthy meals because we eat A LOT of pizza. Like, dominos every week and then shop bought pizza once or twice a week on top of that. I am a fatty and it isn’t getting any better. I do put loads of extra veg on the pizza but apparently that doesn’t make it healthy. Who knew?

We have been using wine in cooking lately. Momma P and I had to ask a man in the shop which one was red as we are not wine drinkers. I did a shepherds pie, and then David also used a bottle in the pasta sauce. Yummy yum yum. Also hic!

I am still finding it hard (so so SO hard) not to snack. I just like eating. A lot. Regularly. Often. All the time, maybe. I just like food.

I found an earwig in my bed. She was alive! Until David flushed her down the loo wrapped in toilet roll. She is a she because she has straight pincer bits. Boys are curved. 

 

Crochet

I have finished part eight of Sophies Universe! She now measures 100cm across. I haven’t blocked her and I haven’t gone up a hook size. I am very much enjoying the pattern but I do need to concentrate. There’s lots of counting and double checking and missing stitches in the pattern and having to go back and read it all over again. I find the book quite hard to read as it isn’t laid out row by row, it is laid out as a long side chunk of text, and a short side chunk of text, so is easy to miss key stitches.

I do like my crochet chair but I feel like it needs something across the top. I don’t use the chair to actually crochet, I sit on the sofa for that, but I needed somewhere to put the blanket and the huge cushion, so now it is the crochet chair.

 

Work

I went up to Loogahbaroogah (Loughborough) for some work training. Three cheers for playing in the countryside with power tools! Also three cheers for leaving chocolate bars in a car in a mini September heatwave! (oops).

 

Garden

I have removed most of the sunflowers to try and stop the squirrel coming into the garden. The Italian White sunflowers are still flowering! They didn’t have a good start in life and I thought they were going to die so I’m really pleased to see them going strong. I cut a load for a glass on the table and now the plants have thrown out more flowers. Will defo plant more of these next year.

I had a bulb planting day. I redid the trough planters and put in fresh compost, new bulbs, and then topped them off with 10mm grit. I made a bulb basket. I replanted one of the planters out the front with fresh compost, some SwellGel bead things that are supposed to help retain water, and then packed that with bulbs too. Mostly dwarf varieties. I kept the nasturtium in this planter as they are thriving and starting to flower. I have also planted lambs ear with the intention of letting it take over. It is a favourite plant of wool carder bees and I would LOVE to have some here!

The garden has had over 200 bulbs planted in it now, in pots, troughs, planters, and in the ground. I have done a mix of daffodils, crocus, anemones, alliums, tulips, snowdrops, and some fancy other stuff that was in a mixed pack. I managed to get a massive blister on the palm of my hand from the handle of the trowel but of course I didn’t notice until it had already popped, ripped the skin, and then cut the skin under the blister, and it was full of dirt. Yay tetanus! I am now nicely healed one week later, just in time to finish planting the rest of the bulbs. I planted taller stuff at the back and middle of the growing area and am going to put dwarf varieties near the front.

The pineapple has been potted up too and is very happy in a bigger pot with fresh compost. I also mixed grit in to help drainage.

I repotted the sweet chestnut and oak trees that I planted for my birthday last year. I tried to plant a load of sweet chestnut, horse chestnut and oak for my 30^th birthday as a legacy planting thing, but something got into Mommas greenhouse and snaffled them all. When David and I went to the Isle of Wight last year I collected a load more seed and some of them worked! So they’ve all had new pots, fresh peat free compost, and 10mm grit to finish them off. They were three or four to a pot so they should be happy in their own space now.

 

Mental Ill-Health

I’ve not been too bad, I don’t think? I mean, my anxiety is still sky high, my dreams are still super weird, I’ve got little to no motivation to do hula hooping even though I super mega really need to. So, no change I guess.

 

Physical Health

See above! I am doing some of the exercises, but it isn’t daily and it isn’t all of them. I’ve been using tins of beans as weights and I have almost developed a bicep, but only in one arm. Such an athlete.

 

Allotment

The aubergine is growing well in the tunnel! Two other flowers have shrivelled and fallen off but there is another bud coming on a different plant so I might get a second aubergine. I have also put the trays of cauliflower and calabrese in the tunnel to free up space in my tiny greenhouse at home.

The tomatoes are nearly all finished. I acquired a washing machine drum to burn the plants as they have blight but although the picture looks good, the fire just didn’t take and so I still have loads of plant material to burn.

I have decided to completely redesign the top of the plot by the shed. I’m just not making very good use of the space and the slabs need to come up and be levelled off and put back down (don’t tell David). I think I have also decided to get new fruit bushes as mine have been on the plot since before I had it (11 years ago) so I think as part of the redesign I shall invest in new fruit bushes too.

 

Last Thing

It has been over six months since I lived in a house with a cat and this is not a life I want to live forever. Taffy has taken to roosting in the compost heap and she ran past my feet to get away but I just want to bury my face in her fur and smoosh her and brush her and poke her nose and tell her I love her but nooooooo.

 

Anyway, more piccies…