Sepa seeks freedom

Sepa74

Thanks Lois. I appreciate the hug! Spoke with him about it yesterday, but he is almost brain dead because of the therapy, I think. He's processing a huge amount of stuff. But it's difficult when you don't know where it leaves you.

Went and did some conservation work this morning at the little wilderness area down the road. I'm exhausted now! It was so hot, looking forward to lazing in the back garden all afteroon, now. I should do a bit of gardening, but I'm too tired!

CathT

Your garden does sound fab. I have a large cherry tree (no idea what type, am assuming not poisonous) ans a decent sized plum tree in my garden but I've never done anything with the fruit.

Sorry things are still difficult with your OH, relationships are such a challenge.

pippa80

Ah Sepa - sorry to hear about you and the OH

Hmmm, now you've got me thinking about pulling up that bed sooner than spring! Our main gardening activity lately has been poisoning the bindweed (we were not getting anywhere digging it out) and deadheading roses.

Sepa74

Bindweed is horrible stuff! It's so invasive. Good luck with it!

Cath, you should definitely do something with the plums. Plum jam is YUMMY!!

I got my mortgage statement today. Yippee. I am really starting to see the benefit of the offset account and the mortgage is being chipped away faster and faster, so I'm really pleased.

I also managed to make up all the ground lost over the last two months. A holiday month always lowers my expenses because I pay for them out of my holiday fund, but it's good to see that being so careful each month is finally starting to pay off. Just need to keep it up!

I hope everyone else is having a good MS week.

summerday

It's lovely getting mortgage statements when you're working hard at being MF and making op'ments, isn't it? Sounds like the offset works well for you too.

Keep up the good work, wathcing your spending does indeed pay off.

Sepa74

Thanks Summer

I was thinking yesterday that I didn't congratulate myself enough - you can see I've taken 6 years off the mortgage, which is fantastic, although that was always the plan - I got the longest mortgage I could so I had maximum flexibility with payments, and then was going to overpay to bring the actual number of years down to something reasonable. The only problem with that plan is that I've spent money extending the lease and buying a garage, both excellent things to do, but both using up money that would otherwise have cut the mortgage length down even more.

Anyway, Gardening News!

My raspberries are nearly over, but I must have 100's in the freezer, which I'll make into jam / syrup at some point. The courgettes are starting to be really productive, and I've just got one more bag of potatoes to harvest. I think I'll do that today, and then tomorrow have a batch cooking session where I blanche the courgettes for freezing and parboil the potatoes. I'm a little worried about freezer space! Might have to put the spuds in the garage in newspaper and hope they're OK.

I'm going to get my first tomatoes this weekend! Hooray! Tomatilloes are starting to produce also, so now I just have to figure out what to do with them :eek:

The rhubarb is going wild! HUGE leaves which are taking up a big proportion of my little garden. I had no idea!! I need to move it, but as I've read it hates being moved that will be a job for later in the year when it goes dormant.

Strawberry plants still producing the odd strawberry, and the wild strawberries are just starting their second fruiting season. I really must think of something to do with them!! I have so many!

My rosemary has died! I have SUCH bad luck with rosemary, but this time I managed to pick it before it got too manky, so I've lots of dried rosemary to last at least a year. I might try again next year <sigh>

My fennel is thriving, which is nice as last time I tried to grow it, it was miserable! I have no idea whether it will actually bulb up, though, but the leaves are very tasty in salads, and of course the seeds are nice in baking.

I think the next thing to think about is winter greens. What a great excuse to start trawling through seed catalogues!!

I also need to do something about the compost. Horrible job! The rotted stuff will go on the beds to help fertilise them, so it's something I can put off until later in the year with a clean conscience, it's just that the box is getting very full!

Anyway, that's the round-up. My garden is looking very green and lovely at the moment

viola_brandywine

Sounds great Sepa, I wish I could say the same for my garden Unfortunately I have been doing on OU course so I've been neglecting mine for a while. Sadly means the bindweed is taking over and my tomato plants don't look too good. I do have some healthy tomatillo plants though but the only thing I know how to make with them is green salsa! I think I'm going to think about winter greens this weekend too.

Sepa74

Well, it's been a productive, but expensive weekend, although I squeezed all the spending into yesterday, so today has actually been a no spend day!

I made a decision about the sanitary ware for the bathroom (bath, toilet, basin)... cost £770 :eek: having said that, the new kitchen means the bathroom looks even more awful than it did before, so I'm desperate to get it sorted!

My electric steamer gave up the ghost a couple of months ago, and I'm really missing it. I've ordered another off Amazon (remembered to earn nectar points! Yippee!) and I bought 4 different types of seeds for my winter veg... can't remember what I go though, I'll have to wait until they arrive! Oh, I remember, one of them is called Green in Snow. I like the name :cool:

I also bought a mushroom log - not cheap, but I've had my eye on them for years, and this one happened to be on special. I will LOVE harvesting my own oyster mushrooms.

I harvested the potatoes yesterday, cleaned them and stored them in newspaper, and I blanched some courgette and found room for them in the freezer - although goodness only knows how! It is SO full.

Today I did LOTS of washing, did my bookkeeping as my VAT return is due shortly, and nearly finished another article. I also did a small amount of tidying up in the garden. After I've eaten and the last of the washing is dry, I MUST MUST MUST water the garden, otherwise disaster looms... my tomatoes will droop!!

I hope everyone has had a productive weekend

Hmm, my cat is snoring! Always makes me laugh :rotfl:

Radish72

Glad the winter veg is called Green in snow


Yellow in snow conjurs up something completely different

SAMMYE_2

Sounds like your doing great Sepa. What part of South London are you from? How's things with your boyfriend?