From debt to freedom...

savingholmes

janb5 said:

Do you think we could gatecrash....  !

I think she'd be fine with it... Make me think of the rhyme... going on a bear hunt... 
My DS' graduation has been postponed until December. Will be interesting to see if it happens. We had the Hut deliver to celebrate at home

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you everyone for your kind words. DD1 has settled on holding the cream  tea on the day which would have been her graduation ceremony.  We’re hoping, since it’ll be outside, that we can invite her godparents who live locally. I found some edible wafer cupcake toppers of  “Class of 2020” and mortar boards online, so have ordered some of those. I’m glad she’s thought of it, as it’s given the older DDs something to look forward to.

DD2 was a star on Thursday - she decided that she would do some weeding in the home garden. The border at home, looks so much better from her efforts. I do confess that since there were big gaps, I did get a couple of perennials from the garden centre - a Heuchera caramel and a Heuchera lime. Both have coloured leaves and in the Spring have stems of tiny flowers. A colourful plant that is useful ground cover. DD2 did buy a lavender but we can’t grow those in the soil, as ours is so acidic but I’ve suggested that she plants it up in a ceramic pot and we place on top of the soil . The border is sloped, so the plants are at varying heights anyway. I have some echinacea seedlings, but need to bring them on, then they can go in the border as well. I was shocked at the price of perennial plants, well all of the plants really. Made me realise that the price I was charging at the gate earlier in the year was very reasonable.

 I got some more sowing done on Thursday - sage, lettuce, runner beans and lupins. I used to have lupins at the allotment a few years ago and they were a lovely tall, colourful flower, so I thought if I could get the seedlings to a decent size, they could be planted out in the Autumn to overwinter. The runner beans are the latest time in the year to sow, according to the info on the seed packet. It will mean a late harvest but since the rabbits chomped the last lot, a late harvest is better than no harvest. I’ll keep the seed trays at home and take to the allotment when they are bigger and I’ve had chance to wire that particular bed.

I did chat to the insurance company on Friday. I had to pay my annual bill for house insurance so spoke about the bathroom. The broker has sent me a form to complete.He seemed to think that I would be able to get the cost of replacing the floor via insurance but not the bathroom suite. Since the ex ripped everything out, I can’t prove anything, other than the watermarked floorboards in the hallway. It’s worth a try and the broker suggested I might be able to recoup the cost of the plumber’s visit as well.

DS1 has done tea once a week for the last 4 weeks now...hurray🙂. I need to improve his culinary skills to extend beyond pizza but for the moment, his doing pizza once a week is progress.

DD2 looks to be returning to her part time job this week as hospitality starts to open. 

It has stopped rain8ng here after a couple of days of constant rain, so am hoping to get a decent walk in later🙂.  

Have a good Sunday everyone.

janb5

What a lovely post HSL!
So positive and looking forward to a lovely celebration with your family.
Good news about the insurance too.
I do like to check up on any  plants I don't know so very helpful!  Only started growing cerinthe because of you!
I'm sure it'll be a wonderful day.x

sashybo

Hi Honeysuckle, 

Will look up the Heucheras - I have one in the front border which is dark red/purple colour, no idea what type it is -  I didn't actually realise they came in so many different colours and varieties. I was thinking of moving it as it's in a bit of an awkward position but it seems happy there as it has survived a few mishaps! I'm planning a new border in the back garden so might get more heuchera. 🤔 

Hopefully you'll get something back from the home insurance for the bathroom floor.

Good news on DS1 doing dinner once a week, hopefully he can build on this and actually start paying his way! The cream tea for DD1's graduation sounds lovely. 😊 

Drawingaline

Pizza once a week is fine. Our pizza day is Thursday, a hangover from when I used to work a 2-10 shift and mum had the kids until 6.30 when hubby got in. 

Lavender is pretty much the only thing I can grow 😂 I have a huge one in our garden that I grew from seed, a small one planted this year to replace one that had to come out as it had got far too big and woody, and a new one in a pot. I will be buying some nice border flowers to put in our front garden as we are selling our house, I have never been a gardener but my tubs are doing well, really brighten it up.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Janb5, Sashybo & DAL.

Jan - Cerinthe are beautiful aren’t they? Have you found that you have lots of bees in your garden? I’ve planted about 10 cerinthe plants in a block and they are a bee magnet. The whole area is buzzing! I think next year it might be worth planting some next to my tomatoes to encourage the bees to visit the tomato flowers too!

Sashybo - Heucheras are great - low maintenance plants with good ground cover.  I have grown a variety called Firefly, from seed before ( Chiltern seeds) but some Heucheras are covered by plant breeders rights ( usually the newer, more coloured varieties). Have fun planning the new border.

DAL - I love lavender but have to grow in pots. I’m hoping to experiment with taking cuttings and see if they take. Well done on growing from seed, I haven’t tried lavender from seed .

Humdinger - Sorry meant to have put in the last post, thank you for your comments. Interesting thought to think that being in limbo gives the ex a continued degree of control. Reminds me to press on this week - thank you.

On a gardening note, I was tidying the kitchen and found a packet of seeds that I had bought for this year but they had slipped behind something. I felt  joyful at the discovery! The seeds are Rudbeckia, so I could still sow them but probably best overwintered in the greenhouse and planted out to flower next year. Not sure they have enough time to grow and flower this year. Rudbeckia are half hardy perennials, so hopefully will go through winter with protection.

Someone I know locally told me about making plant food using banana skins. Not tried it before but I thought I’d give it  a go. You chop banana skins and add to a carton of water. Allow it to make a banana tea as it were, then water the plants with it. The person who told me had used it on their courgettes which were looking very healthy and full of flowers. 

After not such such a productive day, struggled to get much done beyond laundry and clearing up the kitchen, I got out for a walk with the DDs and DS3. We made it to the cliff path, quite close by. It was an exhilarating walk as there was a warm breeze. The sea was a deep turquoise colour this time with white horses out to sea. As the sea came in, it was a frothy mass hitting the rocks. We walked around the headland and followed the cliff path in towards a bigger beach. We could have walked around a protruding section of headland but decided against it as it was a bit too breezy for that, but on the main footpath it was fine. At one point, as we climbed to the highest part, a helicopter flew overhead, which seemed quite close!  As we walked further towards the main beach the cliff path became lower. The tide was in and the waves were surging into towards the rocks, flooding the rocks and crashing against the cliff face. It was beautiful. As we looked across to the cliffs on the far side of the beach, we could see the waves crashing against the cliff face, at some points, reaching the whole height of the cliff! Where we were walking, at times we were covered in light spray but we didn’t have the same height of the waves. I love watching the sea when it’s like that - the waves crashing against the cliff face and breaking into thousands  of drops before crashing back into the sea. The path branched inland before the beach and we walked back to the car, huge cow parsley flowers guarding the path! I felt windswept but refreshed. It was just the right level of wind to feel that cobwebs had been blown away without actually feeling unsafe. The wind has picked up more through the evening so a well timed  walk I think.

There is definitely more traffic on the road but looking across  at the cliff top car parks near the bigger beach, there are far less cars than you would expect on a Sunday in July. The cliff path was busier - two weeks ago, we walked a nearby stretch of coast path and saw 1 or 2 groups of people, but more out and about now. I keep hand gel in the ca4 and make sure we use it as we are opening gates on the walk that others will have used too, so jus5 trying to be sensible when we are out and  about.

Tea was an enjoyable yellow sticker bargain of salmon fillets with potatoes and veg🙂.

crazy_cat_lady

Fingers crossed for the insurance. Hope you can get something back from it.
I have bindweed at the bottom of my garden. Apparently it's awful to get rid of, but it's so beautiful - it has come through from my next door neighbours so at least I don't have to worry about it spreading to them
And keep on keeping on and nagging to get rid of the ex. You're the one that's having to live in the situation - push the others that can help you.

janb5

Well said CCL.  The solicitor`s costs aren`t inconsiderable(!) - after 3 years + you need to see some results and targets!

savingholmes

Glad that insurance is going to pay something towards the costs and that your DD is being so helpful. Cerinthe sounds lovely. I bought 24 tiny plugs of lavender through the post - they are all still alive despite my tendency to over-water. The slugs and snails have eaten my lupins but I do love them.

Sun_Addict

I'm impressed by how knowledgeable about plants you are.  My garden is full of plants I have no idea what most of them are and I'm pretty certain I didn't plant most of them, things just randomly appear. I need to be more organised, I also need to stop Mr SA overwatering everything, he's killed a few plants already. How lovely that your DDs and DSs all chip in and help where they can, they sound like a real credit to you.