Week Twenty of Furlough!

Well a “three week furlough period” has hit the five month-ish mark. I still have maybe five weeks of part time furlough left and should be working full time again from October. There is a lot of stuff in the media about Birmingham going into local lockdown which would mean my volunteer groups cannot start up again which will be a bugger.

 

Mental Ill-Health

I am feeling better this week. We have been to the seaside!!

 

Physical Health

I am feeling knackered this week. We have been to the seaside!! We walked lots and swam in the sea a couple of times, and I was trying to keep up with my daily exercises too. I developed shin splints again and my knee has been twingey.

 

Homelife

We have been to the seaside!! The weather was glorious with the exception of Wednesday afternoon/evening, but we had a lovely time AT THE SEASIDE. We stayed in Trusthorpe but walked down to Sandilands, and up to Mablethorpe.

This week I have baked cakes as an excuse to a) bake cake but b) a reason to use up a courgette. These are courgette and orange cakes, with cinnamon.

I have completed part five of Sophies Universe blanket. This is quite a fun pattern to work on despite having to translate US to UK terminology and having to read, read and re-read the pattern. I am finding it hard to follow as it is written as paragraphs rather than rows but having the pictures to compare is very useful. I will have to order more yarn when I get paid next week as I have just started the second ball of white.

 

Allotment

It is courgette season! Or maybe marrow season. The tomatoes are starting to go red so they’ve had a splash of tomato food. The butternut squash has perked up and it rambling away with about 5 fruits forming. The other pumpkin/squash/butternut is going a nice shade of orange, and the little white pumpkin has a few fruits coming on it too. I do so love pumpkins.

Momma Pat’s Pumpkin Patch on Plot 4 is growing well! It looked so sad when we first planted it but now the plants are huge and sprawling, and there is lots of fruit forming. Spaghetti squash, pumpkin, crown prince (blue) pumpkin, butternut squash, and loads of courgette. 21 plants in total.

I am going to wait a couple more weeks before I try another sweetcorn as the one I pulled the other week wasn’t quite developed. I have dug up the potatoes this week as the plants had died back a couple of weeks ago, I have filled a fat ball tub with spuds which isn’t bad.

 

Garden

Came home from the seaside to discover that the bird feeder pole with hanging baskets was at a jaunty angle, one of the sunflowers was swinging all over the shop, and another was being battered by the winds. Some of the sunflowers are way taller than the fence so there just isn’t anything to tie them too now so they are at the mercy of the wind. One has broken but the flower head is trying to grow so I have tied it across the back fence panel.

I dug up the home potatoes this week and they were naff. All marble sized except for one. So, not a great attempt at growing my own!

The trough planters over the fence have all died off – why can’t I keep anything alive – so I need to have a rethink and a replant. Maybe I’ll buy more herbs…

The seeds I had sown in the trug planter have all come up and it’s looking quite full. The leeks, cauliflower and calabrese are also growing well, so that’s next summer on the allotment sorted!

The aubergines are starting to put out flowers! Better late than never, but I might have to give the plants to my father in law as he has a greenhouse. 

More piccies...

Week Nineteen of Furlough

It’s been a long ol’ year. I am only working three days a week and furloughed for the other two. Next month it changes to 4:1, and then I will be working full time 5 days a week from October. Part of my furlough contract states that I must take furlough days off as annual leave, so next week we’re on holiday! Yippeeee! A trip to the seaside to a bit we haven’t been before.

 

Mental Ill-Health

So the nice sunflowers I had in a coca cola cup on the shelf earlier this week dramatically fell off not long after I put them there, and proceeded to pour a pint of water all over the jigsaw that was still on the floor. I then had an utter meltdown and cried for about five hours.

I already saw the jigsaw as a sign of failure because I haven’t been able to finish it and I didn’t want to put it away as it meant accepting failure. But now it is ruined as it is made of cardboard. Several pieces have split and several more have completely de-laminated. Apparently I should’ve put them between heavy things and towels as soon as it happened to reduce the damage but I didn’t read that until a few hours later, after the jigsaw had already been drying in the sun.

This week, the doctor phoned me and I have been upgraded to 8-weekly calls, instead of monthly. It was fortnightly before that, so he must be happy with my progress. I am still on higher level medication but I still have wobbles (see above).

 

Physical Health

I have done two whole weeks of exercising daily. Part of me thinks my belly is smaller already and the other, more knowledgeable part, knows that this is just wishful thinking. I haven’t hula hooped much this week as it has been far too hot, and I haven’t walked much either for the same reason.

 

Homelife

We went out out again this week, over to the in laws to steal their tomatoes from the plants that I gave them, so technically they’re mine anyway, and then down to Ironbridge to play in an antiques shop. We didn’t walk up and down the high street but we did have a cream “tea” (he had coffee and I had hot choca) with lemon scones at the antiques place. I got me a new Mason Cash mixing bowl! Not as big as my old one, but after I smashed the new small one David got me…

I paid a visit to Momma P’s hair salon this week to chop off my crunchy frizzy ends (again). I am trying to grow my hair long but it is too hot at the mo, and the frizzy ends piss me right off.

 Crochet

I gifted the lockdown anxiety blanket and wasted no time with starting a new project! I have finally, after YEARS of wanting to make it, started Sophies Universe. I am now about halfway through part four so it is working up fairly quickly, but the rows are complex and I find the book hard to read to make sure I get all the stitches. It is also an American pattern so I have to transcribe as I go as US stitches have different names to UK so I have to stop and remind myself that a DC is a Tr! And a Tr is actually a DTr!

David mentioned that the next blanket needs to be a lap blanket for Momma B when she is zoomy zooming on her scooter, but fortunately I have already half-made a blanket and it’s been stashed at Momma P’s for years. I must’ve started this not long after I learnt to crochet, it is a scrap yarn mitred granny square blanket.

I am trying my best to not use social media at the weekends so having some crochet to work on has been really useful as I cannot hook and scroll at the same time.

 

Garden

The salad seeds wot I sown are coming up. I have salad leaves (mix), radish, spring onion, chard, spinach, and lambs lettuce. The second load of allotment garlics that were drying in the small greenhouse are now chopped and in the net bag with the first load. I now have a third load drying in the greenhouse as I dug some up from my selly oak work site this week. One of the sunflowers is now twice as tall as me (ish) and somehow didn't break during the thunderstorms this week.

Cauliflower

I am a lump :-(

I invested in a paddling pool this week! It has been SO NICE to sit out and just have my feet in the water – very refreshing. We had to go to Halfords to buy a pump with the proper adapter and the hose isn’t long enough to reach the garden, or suitable to fit on the tap, so I had to make do with two loads from the watering can.

This week the melon has flowered! It was very tiny but I potted the plant up last weekend and now it is having a growth spurt probably due to the heat. The flower is small but hopefully it’ll produce fruit. I may have to fast track the allotment polytunnel project as I still have 9 aubergine plants, and 4 capsicum (pepper) plants too.

We’ve had a crab spider lurking on the buddleia this week. They can change colour to hide in or on flowers, waiting to pounce on a bee or butterfly that lands.

Allotment

I de-duck weeded the pond, again, and it is now full of it, again. Maybe I can buy a pair of ducks off ebay and they can eat it.

I still haven’t tried the hammock as it has been too hot! The potatoes are ready for digging up but I have no need for them so I am going to either divvy them out to neighbours or foodbank them. This week I have harvested more courgette, and the first of the tomatoes. My pumpkin/squash thing is going orange.

Mom’s pumpkin patch on Plot 4 is looking good – quite a few plants are setting fruit now. She has got pumpkin, spaghetti squash, courgette, and butternut squash. My loofah keeps setting fruit and then losing it. Another polytunnel plant, I think.

Next door on the allotment have grown a monster marrow. I have size 8 feet.

More piccies from the week...

Cabbage white butterfly egg

2kg! Although it might be more as my scales only go up to 2kg...!