The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

annieb64

Monna- it might be worth ringing the local charity  shops and seeing if they will take the clothes. I work in one and we haven't  had many donations  in the past week.

greenbee

MingVase said:

Being normal for a minute - what are we all doing these fine days? Gardening? What do you all do to pass the long light summer days? I hate to admit this but I'm so bored. I like cosy dark winter days when you can sit at the fire and knit and drink tea.. it's light at 3am here and not dark until after 11pm. This house is teeny and so is the garden - and my hip's so bad just now I can't go walks. What do you all do?

Given the chance, I’d lie in the hammock reading. As it is - work, gardening, housework. 

monnagran

Morning all.

Thanks for that Annie. I'll give it a go.

Ming, as a founder member of Sloths Anonymous, I couldn't agree more.  The words "The evenings are drawing in," are music to my ears.  I am not good in hot weather.  Sitting in the sun doesn't suit me.  Working in the sun suits me even less.  I am sometimes forced to draw all the curtains, sit on the sofa and knit, pretending that it is winter, even though I'm sweating in a Tshirt.

Am off to the FOD shortly.  Stuffing clothes into bin bags and trying to see floor.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY 

Start now.  Start where you are.  Start with fear.  Start with pain.  Start with hands shaking.  Start with voice trembling, but start.  Start and don't stop.  Start where you are and with what you have.  Just........start.

mothernerd

I'm turning into a mole (and no I won't fit in ming's freezer). I get up, I dig, I shift soil, I lie down, I fall asleep.
The work mum halted last autumn (the digging, the painting, the building the structure of the garden - raised beds so we can both garden from chairs) is now urgent and getting more so by the day. In January we had snow (used my last few bottles of snow melt water this week) and it feels like it has been raining ever since - the soil was so wet and heavy and it started to rain every time I so much as set foot over the doorstep.

So even though I'm not a fan of hot weather (hayfever from February to October, come out in white skin patches when exposed to the sun and biting insects can't get enough of me) when the weather changed I needed to get on with things (for the past 3 weeks or so I've been sharing my room with 64 tomato plants, 7 courgettes, 23 sweet pepper and 17 dwarf bean all decanted into cut down 2 l bottles).

I'd managed to level the soil along the back fence and mum's cousin made me three strong raised beds. I'd painted them all and put two in place plus a metal one that I screwed together between rain spells one Sunday. The third was still waiting as mum had decided she wanted the washing line post moving back to the fence. The cousin was going to make me more raised beds (he's a retired carpenter and has a workshop in his garden) but unfortunately he will only let us pay for the wood he's used. So mum's decided I can manage with the ones I already have (kits will lots of slats all of which have been painted but only half put together - they're eight foot long so planned to [put two halves together when they were in position).

Everywhere is a mess because I'm trying to do several things at once. Heavy containers have to be emptied (I have some recycled heavy duty bags which fold out into 1 m x 0.5 m x 0.5 m containers) before they can be moved to their new locations. The soil which was used to grow cabbages last year has been sieved to remove rubbish, stones, weeds and tree roots (some of it was waterlogged and needs to be dried out) and marked as 'cabbage soil' (to be used for growing things that aren't cabbages). The 'new' soil (all the stuff I dug out along the back fence) went into a 1000 kg builder's bag, after I ran out of buckets to put it in. That's also been sieved and put in different buckets and will go into containers along the side fence - when I've levelled that (has to be level with the bottom of the flags, filled in with stones then beds/ containers put in place and also levelled off before filling). 

I'm boring myself now so goodness knows how you lot feel. So doing as much as I can sitting down, avoiding the sun (working in patches of shade or hiding behind sheets hung on the line), resting as much as possible and digging (with a spade, a coal shovel, a child sized spade and trowels) plus doing little bits of diy for mum in her 'fairy grotty' (screwing a metal owl to a tree trunk, wiring 'fairies' and bird feeders, setting up solar powered lights and stapling mesh onto fence panels).

Made good progress this week. Third raised bed went into place (lifted it over the washing line pole with the aid of a dolly truck and a SM trolley) and those four beds are all planted up, plus two large ex kitchen bins and the small spaces behind the beds (mainly beans to grow up the fence panels). I'm permanently tired and the weather's causing sleep problems. On Wednesday we went to mum's podiatry appointment. I came home made us both drinks and ice lollies from the freezer. Sandwiches for lunch then decided a siesta was a good idea - I slept and read all afternoon and into the evening.

It will get done. It will look good. I will grow things and feel good. My room will be dealt with in the fullness of time . Last Saturday we had a visit from DS1, darling d-i-l and my grandpuppy. Last saw them on March 7th 2020. I got hugs. DS2 and his gf called the weekend before - first time I've been able to hug the gf (they got together at the start of lockdown), it's all been socially distanced so far. DS1, DS2 and his gf had spent a weekend trying to sort my ex's flat (their father) out so he could come out of hospital (add an estimated 1000 cameras into the scenario you're dealing with monna). His cleaner is willing to hire them all. 

On the same day ex was due to come out of hospital my brother was admitted to A & E from his doctor's surgery (they put him on emergency oxygen and phoned for the ambulance). He was critical for a few days (his body was retaining too much CO2) and in hospital for nearly 2 weeks. My niece had all the same issues I had with my dad - months of obstructing all attempts to declutter, unable to do his own housework, blaming her and threatening to discharge himself if they didn't let him out, insisting he did not need carers, aids and adaptations. My dad did discharge himself. He phoned a friend after I refused to go and get him out (I had multiple jobs at the time, starting at 6 am and he wanted me to go after finishing work at 7 pm and do a 2 bus journey there and back) all because they wouldn't let him smoke. Brother is finally giving up smoking (he hasn't had a drink for 21 years) and is enjoying walking again. Niece has taken 3 months unpaid leave and brother apologised for shouting at her after other daughter told him off (he listened to her even though she only said the same things his elder daughter had tried to explain 5 times).

The weekend following my ex's discharge DS2 and his gf (my new daughter out law is a thoracic specialist) went back to see him and phoned for the ambulance as he had an infection (and they'd sent him home with a broken/ unfit for purpose wheelchair) and is still there. DS2 was confirmed as having COVID again as of yesterday (he sounds ill but was feeling better than he had been). They only did the test to 'rule it out'. He's currently under investigation for yet another extremely rare genetic condition (my sons seem to collect these) and they had thought it was that. There's also a bit of a puzzle involved that I will have to follow up at some point. DS3 also messaged as they've had yet another blockage (at my house) and had to have the big sucky machine and the camera down the drain again. The man let him look through the camera footage but still no idea (nothing obviously amiss) what's causing the problem - starting to look as though another house is causing the problem and it's ending up in my back yard.

I must stop because I'm obviously avoiding going outside to dig. Think I might stay here awhile and smother my hands and feet in lotion/ handcream - I managed to get all the dirt and blue paint from under my fingernails to go to mum's appointment but the soil was back before bedtime.

MrsCD

Well, Ming, this morning I did two hours of ironing, and this afternoon I'm going to do my dad's cleaning with my daughter. After tea, I will cook the meat for tomorrow's dinner and prepare the vegetables ready for when we get back from church.
Yesterday, I put up a mini greenhouse and planted my three x three foot tall tomatoes into half grow bags stood on their ends, then watered other plants and sowed more seeds. I'm learning how to knit toe up socks and I'm still plodding on with the mini pompom yarn baby blanket. When I get really bored, I have a few books on kindle to read or listen to. Then when I'm really, really bored I'll watch something on tv or prime video. I watched a film called My Spy the other night and surprisingly, I enjoyed it. 

Florenceem

MingVase - I craft - be it Summer or Winter or in between.
Walked into town - I wanted a plant spray bottle to mist my shawls when being blocked. Been using a tiny spray bottle that is only meant to be for card crafting. £lan - had a pack of 2 plant spray bottles so I am sorted. One to use and the other to go into my craft storage room - will I find it if needed - probably not.

MrsCD

Florenceem, I wrote a reply yesterday but it seems to have vanished. Maybe I didn't click the red button!
Anyhow, what I said was that your shawls are beautiful and you must be a one woman crochet machine to make them so quickly. You remind me of my friend who can knit the most complicated things in the blink of an eye. 

burtha

evening all .  
can't really help with the boredom, I'd just run lol ... sorry  ... 
579 miles so.far this year 
bit of a strange day . 3mw contacted my youngest dd today,  asked her for a coffee shop coffee  ..... 
she said yes , so after not seeing his child for about 9mth ( then it was just on the door step ) ..... guess the time he spent with her ??? 
I dropped her of on the hour , he dropped her home 15 mins later .... sometime words fail me lol .. thankfull dd is ok , she sees him for what he is , was obvs a fishing excercise for him as to mow much longer he needs to pay for them , plus the court stuff going on . sad sad man . 
other news I have 2 of my  grandsons stay tonight,  baby was sleep by 7 30 , his 3 year old brother not long after , so fingers crossed for the rest of the night . must be very strange for them,  wonder what they will say about covid when they are older . 

right , I must go to bed . think I may have a early start . 

Florenceem

MrsCD - the shawls I make are very beginner level - I haven't ventured onto difficult patterns as I need to get a lot of stock ready for SA fund raising. I have my first order for a shawl so now need to decide on a price - buyer is leaving it up to me. 
I can do basic knitting but nothing complicated.
Lovely day here.
Been to Church at The Salvation Army then walked along to a friend's road where she had organised a street boot sale. Spent - £1.70.
Done washing and ironing.

monnagran

burtha, I hope you had a passable night.  Amazing how you forget about broken nights and going in to check that the baby is still breathing.  Honestly, 3mw doesn't improve, does he?  Why on earth is the court stuff dragging on?  Surely it must have dawned on him by now that he can't wriggle out of his responsibilities as easily as he seems to want to. Prat!

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday, my Autistic grandson was over here for the weekend and due to me moving house and lockdown I haven't seen him for 2 years, so they all descended on me yesterday.  It was lovely to see him.  He is 19 now and a lovely boy.  It is so sad that he will never be able to live independently, he has a great sense of humour.

Today I'm having my hair cut and hopefully nothing else.  I feel like a lazy day after last week's activity.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY 

Something you should know about people...........if they did it once they'll do it again.