Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

The back of my neck is pink too!
Did a spot of weeding too & left some that I cant decide if they were flowers or weeds :think:

Hope you're not too sore Beanie. I've been happily pulling up Welsh Poppies thinking they were weeds. Fortunately I Googled before doing too much damage.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Many calories were burnt yesterday We had a morning sorting out stuff in the annex and managed to do away with about ten boxes. It's clear enough in there now to start the cleaning.

The afternoon was spent outside. Mr F repaired some pointing on the outside of the house and annex and I tackled the veg patch. I re-weeded the raised bed just to keep on top of it and dug a further bed which now has two little courgette plants in. They look a bit lonely at the moment but I have plans to get them some friends Amongst all the wood we removed from the old barn I found several narrow lengths of shiplap which we've put down as paths between the veg beds :money: Mr F helped me to move an old belfast sink in and I've filled it with compost from the enormous poo pile that lives at the back of the barn, given it a sprinkling of top soil and it's now ready for planting with salad leaves. I'm happy that we'll be able to grow something this year now even if we don't utilise the whole plot.

Being busy meant that there was no time to spend any money :T However, Mr F has managed to break the hose so money may be spent today

We had a quick cheese sandwich for lunch and Macaroni Cheese with Cauliflower & Broccoli for supper. I made my own chilli and coriander crust though. We've been a bit heavy on the cheese and pasta these last couple of days but it's just what we fancied.

My last cold which was dragging on and on has now turned into a horrid cough I would be starting to worry about these ongoing bugs but Mr F gave me this one and he's struggling to shake it too. He's gone back to bed this morning :eek: What is going on? Is the long hard winter responsible or do they just breed a tougher strain of bug in The Shire. Perhaps it's all the stress of last year running me down. Anyhoo, I'm refusing to lose any more of my life to illness this year so will soldier on but perhaps on slightly lighter duties than I'd planned. I have the joy of kitchen cleaning in the house today but think I'll leave kitchen cleaning in the annex tomorrow.

Hope the week is going well

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, hooray for plants! :j :j I have a few seedlings on the go but nowhere to put them yet :eek: Got a man coming round to sell me a scythe (and show me how to use it :rotfl: ) this week and after that I should be able to tame some wayward grass and get making some veg beds. Need to plant some more seeds too. So many things to do! :eek:

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Ooh, hooray for plants! :j :j I have a few seedlings on the go but nowhere to put them yet :eek: Got a man coming round to sell me a scythe (and show me how to use it :rotfl: ) this week and after that I should be able to tame some wayward grass and get making some veg beds. Need to plant some more seeds too. So many things to do! :eek:

Plenty of room for your seedlings here Cheery :rotfl: Lots of things to do here too but I'm trying to be realistic about what I can achieve at the moment. We have the Annex to get ready too so I need to split my team between there, the house and the garden. If only I had a couple of clones :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Good luck with the sythe :eek:

Fortune x

beanielou

When are you having your renter Fortune?

Cheery_Daff

I know what you mean about needing clones :eek: my current strategy is to be guided by the weather - if it's nice, outside jobs win. If no, do inside things saves me trying to figure out wjich is more important :rotfl:

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

When are you having your renter Fortune?

End of June Beanie - I'd better get a wriggle on in the annex :rotfl:

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I know what you mean about needing clones :eek: my current strategy is to be guided by the weather - if it's nice, outside jobs win. If no, do inside things saves me trying to figure out wjich is more important :rotfl:

Good plan Cheery - I'm doing the same to a certain extent but I'm on a deadline for getting the annex sorted so that will have to take precedence.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Well the day didn't go to plan as I started to flag quite early. I did a quick tidy up of the house and spent the rest of the day doing paperwork.

MS progress:

• we have upped Mr F's pension contribution from 3% to 8%. It's salary sacrifice and his employer will match the contribution so it's easily the most cost and tax effective way to save. It will cost us an extra £100 a month but, as Mr F is already at the minimum retirement age, I'm looking at it as accessible savings
• went on line to update Mr F's tax details taking into account the higher pension contribution. I love that we can make these changes ourselves now. It saves the telephone queue time and has significantly reduced the human error rate to zero :rotfl:
• I reconciled the bank accounts and everything balances
• can't make head nor tail of Mr F's expenses this month though. We'll have to go through them together later
• did the grocery shopping and came in a little over budget this time. There were a couple of high cost items required in this shop so I think things will balance out next week
• some chalk paint has been delivered this morning which means I can start upcycling my recent bargain buys this weekend :j

Right. On with the plan - kitchen cleaning is calling :rotfl:

Fortune x

beanielou

Have a happy Wednesday