My home is a mess

Emm-in-a-pickle

Where have all the Messies gone? I hope everyone`s ok, and enjoying the holiday weekend.
I suspect everyone is gardening like crazy now the weather`s a bit better. My neighbours certainly are! They have a lawnmower that can be heard in the next county, and it keeps stopping and starting, so they`ll be at it for ages.
I`ve no intentions of getting anything cut here, there`s dandelions everywhere but they are NEEDED by my bee-grublings as the fruit trees are only just starting to blossom.
One week & 4 days till I`m driving again!
I`ve gathered some bits & pieces outside ready for a skip run, and the spare room of Doom is looking a bit less like the corner shop as we`re getting through food stock quite nicely.
Yesterday I had a little fling with Henry - only on the laminate LR & tiled bits, kitchen etc. and no ill-effects. Also wet-mopped, but had to leave bucket-emptying for OH later.
DGD and I are about to experiment making veggie-jelly, and the next new culinary venture I`m planning is couscous in the next few days.
Have a good weekend all. x

alec_eiffel

Couscous, rather you than me!

We were jaunting about yesterday and I didn't do much towards the end of the week so that's why I wasn't here. DH has just done the grass and I've had a bit of a primp about the place so we're not too bad for now. I want to deep clean DH' dressing room next week and do a few other bits and bobs. I think I'll finish my quilt top today so I'll press that and do a bit of ironing this evening or tomorrrow. That's about it/

Hope everyone's having a good old time.

bearcub

Afternoon Messies.

Sorry, I've not been around - very good weather, combined with lots of other 'demands' on my time, including a lovely visit to DD1 on Wednesday, where we helped her clear her garden of bags of garden rubbish, and campanula plants that were threatening to take over the world! We finished the day with a meal at Indian restaurant for which DD had a 20% off voucher. Very good the meal was, too.

Emms, I'm so pleased that your bee hotels have been well and truly used. I have a ladybird house on our fence, but I've not cleaned it out since its first year, so it's not been used at all. Is there any particular 'perfect' site for the bee houses? Now you're busy cleaning, I take it you're gradually picking up more work in the house? Take care, though, won't you?

Alec e, good to get all your quilting supplies into a cupboard. Wish I could do the same with my crafting supplies or, maybe, I just have too much 'stuff'!

New WM in place and working splendidly. The only thing that bothers me is that, reading the instruction booklet, I want to know how a WM can possibly be eco-friendly, when most of the programmes take over 2 hours? :eek: As it is, there are programmes that are particularly 'eco' but, as they work on cold water only, I need to get some liquid detergent. That could be difficult as I only use eco detergents, and there aren't a lot of liquid ones, certainly none sold around here. Will need a trip into town, methinks. Stunning weather, so lots of weeding going on, and OH is starting to harden off and plant veg plants. :j

jpscloud

You're right Emm, it's the dry and sunny weather - I've been pootling outside all weekend.

The fencing is sort of a forth bridge because it's like you finish at one end and then have to start again at the other - I have quite a big garden and the ancient fencing has been crumbling and blowing away ever since I moved in. Gradually, I've replaced it with reed screening and planted up hedging (all my wildlife friendly favourites of course!) with it.

So like the forth bridge which legend has is so long that when they get to the end of painting it, it's time to start painting the beginning again... I get one side of the garden sorted and then another side needs doing, if you see what I mean.

It's all about not having enough money to have a proper fence put in

Well, today I've made a bee hotel! :cool: I'm not sure where I can put it yet, but I'll try to take a pic when I have it up.

I haven't done a thing in the house so tomorrow I might have to do a bit of sorting out of washing at least.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend... happy bank holiday all!

Edit: I've seen loads of solitary bees (I'm not sure what type they are yet) on the blackcurrant bush, it's just started flowering and they LOVE it!

cheerylcanete8

alright, here's what you do: Get a notebook. Go into the kitchen. compose down all of the things that need down in there, beginning with foremost things, finish with chores like clearing and emptying rubbish. Then do your list, one by one. Then rest, a room is finished! extend on with you living room, bathroom, and bedrooms.

fannyadams

bearcub wrote: »

Afternoon Messies.
New WM in place and working splendidly. The only thing that bothers me is that, reading the instruction booklet, I want to know how a WM can possibly be eco-friendly, when most of the programmes take over 2 hours? :eek: As it is, there are programmes that are particularly 'eco' but, as they work on cold water only, I need to get some liquid detergent. That could be difficult as I only use eco detergents, and there aren't a lot of liquid ones, certainly none sold around here. Will need a trip into town, methinks. Stunning weather, so lots of weeding going on, and OH is starting to harden off and plant veg plants. :j

I have one of those WM (that rhymes with gosh) with a cold fill only and
The ECO programme is 3 and a half hours long (we put ours on overnight on the cheap leccy) but it's quite efficient with the water. I use ECO powder and it works just fine.
HTH
FA
x

Emm-in-a-pickle

Welcome Cheerylcanete, and thanks for the advice - if only it were that simple! If I stayed in my kitchen till it was truly `finished`the rest of the house would get worse than it already is!

JPS, I really like the sound of your fencing & hedging. Well done on the bee-hotel - remember to put it up with the holes facing South. I think your bee-spottings if fairly small, could be Mason aka Orchard bees, they like our redcurrant blossom too. So do the various Bumbles, with whom I am less well aquainted....
Bearcub, poor you, I HATE getting to grips with a new appliance, the last one that brought out the inner Luddite was the microwave. I know Tesco do a liquid eco-laundry but I`ve never tried it. I`ve stuck to persil liquid(stock up when it`s on offer!) with added squirt of liquid soda chrystals for mucky stuff and fast-wash cycle. I`ve been happy with that for ages, but recently I got some Ariel liquid on a whim - only used it once, didn`t like the smell at all, and gave it to DD. Glad you had a good visit to your DD1, sounds lovely.

I`m back to doing most of the `basics` around the house while avoiding the `heavy` stuff. OH is still in sweetly helpful mode, and DS is just back to his normal messy, coffee-slopping, put-nothing-back, dunno-where-the-bin-is self! He DID clean the bathroom inc bath & washbasin last week, but that was after DGD & then himself using it (ie trashing!) and he`d got hair & whiskers everywhere, and I had to get in a strop before he cleaned it.
I`ve been Idle most of today - unless you count the Fight with the sunlounger....I finally managed to get it to stay open at both ends, then carefully mounted it - only to find I`m not comfy lying on my front yet! All that for ten minutes sunshine on the back of my legs! Could have been worse, if we had a hammock...catching up on a bit of letter-writing in garden chair, but got a bit too warm so I came indoors for a cuppa.
Only 10 days till I can drive again.
Hope you`re all enjoying the day. x

ps - Alec E - is there something about couscous you`re not telling me?

jpscloud

Wow what a day! Absolutely beautiful. I've managed to cut most of the grass and do a fair bit of weeding. I also made lunches for the rest of the week and a stew in the SC for dinners - it worked really well last week and stopped me going mad on stuff I shouldn't buy or eat.

Changed the bed this morning, but apart from that and essential kitchen/bathroom hygiene, I've done burger all at the house again.

I ran out of steam before I managed to plant the potatoes, so I need to do that really soon or it'll be getting too late.

Emm I'm not sure if the bee hotel is in the right place, but it is facing south-east ish. It gets early and afternoon sun and I remember seeing some mason or leafcutter (not sure which) bees around there last year. I really hope it gets used! If I get myself organised I might put a couple up on the south-facing wall of the house as well.

Have a great week all!

alec_eiffel

Emm, yes there is, but I think it's just me. I like rice, wild rice, quinoa, bulghur etc but couscous I just can't stand it.

I agree with you about the "getting a room finished" thing too. When I first started I could hardly make a decision about what was the most important stuff to get done, what was rubbish and where to start. And there was nowhere to lean in order to make a list. Not that I would have been able to find a pen and paper at the same time anyway!

The garden looks loads better today than it did yesterday which is good. We must be over a hump now as we don't mind going out there to do a bit rather that it just being too big a job to face on our own. So that's a good thing. Due to our puttering on Sunday the house is in not too bad shape but there's a bit to do today - laundry, general tidying, I still need to put the spare room back together. I also want to do a bit of batch cooking, we made good use of the meals from the freezer this weekend and it was great. Made the weekend feel more relaxing knowing I didn't have to prepare anything and we kept away from the junk.

Have a good day everyone.

sonastin

Well we had an ultra-lazy weekend... followed by a really busy bank holiday to make up for it!

I wasted Saturday in the kitchen making OH's favourite tasty treats (1st ever attempt at a Battenberg cake - looked suitably home-made , HM doner kebabs for dinner) only for it to be largely unappreciated because he was suffering from man-flu of some description. He was suitably appreciative on Sunday when he was feeling better but the shine had worn off by then. The most exciting thing about Sunday was OH making my go for a bike ride :eek: If god had intended me to ride bikes, I'm sure he'd have made me with wheels. We didn't even get as far as the next village, due to a combination of being massively unfit and massively terrified. Perhaps next time I should wheel my bike to the end of the village rather than trying to cycle down the main road with all the traffic :eek:

Monday was a real clean up day. Bathroom got done again - before it got really manky as well :T Kitchen was thoroughly cleaned - including oven and windows. OK so the oven is a self cleaning one and I only had to turn the dial but still It got mighty hot in there with the sunshine and the oven baking its muck off. Which is why the windows had to be opened... which is why I got close enough to them to see just how manky they really were! Didn't bother doing the tops of the units because they've been done this year already :rotfl: but everything else in the kitchen got a good clean.

OH was the lucky one out in the garden but I'm pretty sure I'd be a lobster if I'd joined him. As it is, I'm getting a sunburn on my arm through the tinted glass of our office window. I think OH is right when he says I'd get burnt under a 60W lightbulb