make do and mend for tougher times

Sunshine4

Our peaceful street is not peaceful any more.
We had two young girls move in to the house next door last week, this weekend as been a nightmare doors slamming all hours of the night and cars in and out and blowing the horn each time.

The guy on the other side has spoken to them three times so far as he has a baby, but one of the mothers turned up yesterday to talk to him sounded more like shouting at him.

One of the girls aunt owns it,so looks like they will be here a long time.
Also the house on the other side that she owns, has had three boys move in today. So lots of cars and drinking in the street.

We had recently being talking about moving to a smaller place, so I might start looking in to that this week.

My OH is very nervous around young drunk people.
As four years ago a 21 year old drug addict jumped him from behind and broke his nose , 4 cracked ribs plus brusing all over his body.
It has taken a long time for him the recover, took him about 18 months before he would go out on his own. So I dont want him to feel nervous about living in his home and street. My OH is 66.

GreyQueen

Glad it was good news not bad, LB. I hate getting late night phone calls as I'm sure it's terrible news and have trained the folks not to do that to me.

Lined curtains, hmmm? Excellent and the right side of winter, too.

I went out to little Mr T just before it closed and bumped into a pal just coming back from there, we live on nearby streets and were doing the same thing; getting some snacks in.

I also got 1.5 kg of carrots reduced down to 69p so I shall be peeling and chopping them and bagging them for the freezer. Lots of little bags to fill in the corners. Being thrifty requires both opportunism and some measure of work, doesn't it?

My new underbed storage trollies (MDF cut offs and £land caster wheels) are now under the bed and I have discovered that there is room for one more so Mum will be fossicking in her wood shed where she thinks she has some suitable stuff. The horizontal larder takes place.............:rotfl:

Righty, gonna peel and chop some carrots and listen to some tunes....laters, GQ xx

valk_scot

Lalalala....got my fingers in my ears, not listening to all this allotment excitement......

Seriously though, LavenderBees, it is exciting. :beer: I remember how excited I was 15 years ago when I first got my plot even though it was waist high in weeds and had a rubbish dump at one end. That was in May which is a useless month to take over a plot, September is much better. You'll be able to get it dug and weeded and planned out before the sowing and planting starts in March/April and there's still time to put in a few overwintering crops like garlic and overwintering broad beans and even spring cabbage, kale and sprouting broccoli etc if you can find plug plants or scrounge some transplants of the allotment neighbours. Lots of time to plan though and if you've got a greenhouse or good windows at home you can start things off even earlier to plant out.

valk_scot

Prepareathome, can't you grow some sort of prickly hedge inside the fence? Or just something tall? I saw a nice idea over on the gardening forums where someone grew a line of tall sunflowers inside a low fence as a privacy screen. It sounded a lovely idea to me and as they're just annuals the HA couldn't really object, surely?

prepareathome

I planted last winter a mixed hedging hedge which includes hawthorn so in about 5 years I should have a nice thick barrier that will be rather prickly for anyone to push though. Its just waiting for it to grow. Couldn't afford it before as side garden is rather large and 100 hedges had to be planted, all bare stem 1m tall and they cost enough.

I like the idea of sunflowers could maybe plant them next year although will need a few hundred but if I buy the seeds bit by bit will not be so expensive. Have some I harvested from plants this year so will put them in front as well. Thank you for the suggestion.

Its just fences and walls natural things like hedges are ok and no height restriction but knew no-one would be pleased if I planted Leydandi apart from the fact I don't like them, but I love mixed hedges, cannot stand privet ones, be glad when the one in back goes next year when new fence is put in back garden.

Pooky

GQ - I picked up some really old fashioned leather suitcase from a freec*cler last year. They live under my bed with my stash of toiletries and loo rolls in. Our bed is quite high and I don't like valances so this at least looks more presentable, amazing what you can stash under a bed.

Well the weather turned about an hour ago, the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and it tried to rain...didn't succeed but the thought was there. It's now nearly pitch black. Nice to have cooled down.

DHs Grandfather passed this afternoon, a sense of loss and relief all mixed together as he's been so poorly. Lovely to have the memories of him over the past few months (he even arrived on Christmas day, dressed as Santa and shouting HoHoHo as he came in the door) 91 years old and a wicked sense of humour. Bless him. The other family member passed last week so we now have two funerals to attend, different sides of the family too so a lot of people to catch up with.

DDs roast was lovely and they've just finished the dishes, we're going to to sit in the garden, light the chiminea and raise a glass to a lovely old man.

LavenderBees

Pooky, so sorry to hear your news. He sounds like he was lovely old man:o

Sunshine4, that's dreadful what happened to your OH. I'm not surprised he is nervous around young people. Years ago, I lived on quite a rough housing estate. Well, I say that, but the majority of people were fine, but there was a hard core of people who made decent people's lives a misery, so I can certainly relate to yours and PAH's stories. It takes me back to some quite dark days where others have the ability to affect how you live.

Hope you both manage to find a good way to deal with this.

Thanks, Valk_Scot, I have an RHS allotment book of what can be done each month, so am currently moving between this forum, that book, the oven (still waiting for my dinner...I'm starving!!) and my emails. The book will be coming to bed with me shortly. I'm interested in the winter sowing....Oooo get me!
:rotfl:

LB xx

GreyQueen

I'm sorry to hear that your relatives have passed over, Pooky. That old man sounds like a fantastic gentleman and I bet he'll be sorely-missed.

On the happier subject of underbed storage, I like the sound of your cases, I'm rather partial to old trunks and cases etc.

They belong in my Other House, unfortunately. Y'know, the one with limed floorboards, a white Victorian iron bedstead, muslin curtains billowing at the window into the garden where the scent of honeysuckle and tea roses wafts on the breeze.

The Other House is probably a Georgian rectory. I'm rather partial to the proportions of the Georgian period, both architecturally and in furniture etc.

Dream on, hun, eh? I'm listening to Tom Lehrer on the CD and the washing machine on spin in the next room. I shall reattach the valance to the bed in a moment.

The valance is a devious little number; it's the frill off a single bed's valance which is hemmed and has Velcro on it in patches which correspond to the Velcro patches glued to the pine bedstead. It only covers the visible side of the bed, the headboard and other two sides being against wall and not visible. I did it like that because I got it for free from a jumbly and it was a single and my bed is a double. It even matches my duvet covers..............:rotfl:

betony

prepareathome wrote: »

I like the idea of sunflowers could maybe plant them next year although will need a few hundred but if I buy the seeds bit by bit will not be so expensive. Have some I harvested from plants this year so will put them in front as well. Thank you for the suggestion.

Its just fences and walls natural things like hedges are ok and no height restriction but knew no-one would be pleased if I planted Leydandi apart from the fact I don't like them, but I love mixed hedges, cannot stand privet ones, be glad when the one in back goes next year when new fence is put in back garden.

PAH, you could buy a cheap bag of wild bird food, they always contains loads of sunflower seeds and are no different from any other. I had a few volunteer plants this year from other peoples gardens, distributed by the local birds.

valk_scot

prepareathome wrote: »

I like the idea of sunflowers could maybe plant them next year although will need a few hundred but if I buy the seeds bit by bit will not be so expensive. Have some I harvested from plants this year so will put them in front as well. Thank you for the suggestion.

Try Lidl for sunflower seeds, they're normally 29p a packet for the giant single head variety. My sunflower patch comes from bird seed though, I get a couple of dozen volunteers in the veg patch every year near where the bird feeders are and I transplant these, harvest the heads in autumn and use them as bird feed the following year. Very MSE!