Sepa seeks freedom

Sepa74

Oh, a couple of other things of gardening note... I have garlic running out of my ears (and I don't even eat much of the stuff!!) and the peas I thought were garden peas are turning out to be sweet peas... Pretty, but not terribly productive!!

However, they are thriving on my new, expensive, hand made hazel frames, so that's good!

pippa80

Ooh I'm jealous Sepa - your garden sounds fab! Ours is currently over run with bindweed :eek:. Next year I'm going to grow some veges though!

What will you use your syrups for?

Lois_E

Is there a socket in your garage? Could you perhaps put a chest freezer out there? Just a thought.

Your garden sounds lovely. I wish I was better at making time for gardening.

Sepa74

You should starting gardening, Pippa, I know you said you only have a london size garden, but mine is the size of a pocket handkerchief. I have some friends who only garden on a balcony (admittedly a large south-facing one) and what they manage to grow is AMAZING! You can grow your own vegies in even tiny spaces.

I use the syrup to flavour my porridge in winter, and at the moment I am eating muesli and yoghurt for breakfast and if I have temporarily run out of fresh fruit I spoon some syrup over it to flavour it too.

I am basically making jam (fruit + sugar + water) but because it's frozen I don't have to put anywhere near as much sugar in it (I basically just sweeten to taste) and once it's cooled a little I put it in plastic containers, so no faffing about sterilising glass bottles.

Occasionally it even turns out to have a jammy consistency - a complete fluke - in which case I occasionally spread it on toast and sometimes I go to town and have a crumpet!

viola_brandywine

The porridge flavouring sounds like a lovely idea, I think I will try that! How big is your sour cherry tree? Do you get plenty off it? I have a sweet cherry in a pot but the birds always take them all before I get much of a chance

Sepa74

My sour cherry tree is in a HUGE pot. I got quite a few off it this year, as opposed to 4 (!) last year. I made about 3 or 4 small pots of syrup, so was quite pleased.

The birds hardly got any of the cherries, but I imagine the two cats came in useful there.

Sepa74

I'm back from holiday. It was pretty full on... NEVER visit Paris in July!! However the last couple of days with my brother, SIL and nephew were lovely.

Unfortunately my mother caught a cold in the plane on the way over from Oz, and then got a nasty bout of bacterial sinusitis so she wasn't a happy bunny for most of the holiday. She is a trooper, though, and we still did a fair bit.

Didn't have the best journey home yesterday - flight delayed by half an hour and then it took another three quarters of an hour for the bags to come out. Grrrr. Didn't get home until after mid-night, and then didn't really sleep that well.

Have been going through my holiday expenses; they don't look too bad so far, although I suspect that there are a couple of large bills to come out eg the hotel bills. But that will be next month now

July costs haven't been too bad, and my MF date has now moved to March 2035, yippee!

The next thing to do is to decide on tiles for the bathroom

pippa80

Thanks Sepa - yes I definitely plan to grow some veges next year (and maybe plant a cherry tree out front). My dad wisely advised us to wait for a year and see what grew in the various beds - so we've identified which one will get dug up for veges!

Well done for keeping holiday expenses in check!

Sepa74

Wise Dad! If you've already identified where you will grow stuff next year, you still have time to put in some winter greens - it's brilliant getting stuff out of the garden in winter, it's SO good having really fresh, healthy, hearty veg at that time of the year.

No, I don't have a socket in the garage, and I have a feeling it might be a breach of the lease to put one in, unfortunately. Bit of a bummer. However there is barely room in there either, because I've let half of it out to a friend of a friend and his half is chockers!! He owed me rent for July... must chase him up about it.

It's been two weeks since I posted - the first time I've missed a week since I started the diary. Work is horrendously busy at the moment. Although the hours aren't so long I'm finding the work is so intense that it's really tiring me out.

Boyfriend seems to be going down the 'not into me' road, if that makes sense. We had a nice time together last week end, but he wasn't up for talking to me during the week, and I thought we made an arrangement by text to meet up this evening, but he said he didn't think it was a certain thing, and when I asked why he didn't ring me to check, he just said vaguely that he had a lot on his mind.

He's having therapy twice a week, so I can sympathise - he really does have a lot on his mind, but I'm feeling distinctly unloved at the moment

On the MS side of things I'm doing much better this month than last, but as I was on holiday for two weeks, that's not saying much!

I've spent about £70 on food this month, so that's a BIG improvement from last month, even when doubling it because of my hols.

I must get my quarterly mortgage statement soon... I'm itching for it! Aaargh! This MFW business is so addictive!

Lois_E

Sepa74 wrote: »

IBoyfriend seems to be going down the 'not into me' road, if that makes sense. We had a nice time together last week end, but he wasn't up for talking to me during the week, and I thought we made an arrangement by text to meet up this evening, but he said he didn't think it was a certain thing, and when I asked why he didn't ring me to check, he just said vaguely that he had a lot on his mind.

He's having therapy twice a week, so I can sympathise - he really does have a lot on his mind, but I'm feeling distinctly unloved at the moment

Hope he sorts himself out and things improve.
Hugs in the meantime.