Travelling On

Karmacat

Absolutely, that's it - even though what we have on our doorstep is perfectly nice, the variety we could have so easily was completely taken for granted, bar the odd "gosh, look at that".  I was lucky last year - I had that Canaries holiday right before the start of the first lockdown, and in summer when things opened up, my sister and I went to a huge beach that's almost in Hampshire, miles long, with only about 20 people on it, we even had a paddle.  

Something mindful is a wonderful idea, greent: I sort of have that in my garden sometimes.  At the moment, my witchhazel tree is in full bloom, the flowers look like bunches of centimetre long very thin ribbons waving about, and the sparrows and blue tits are hopping about in the branches eating little insects and, I dunno, flecks of lichen or whatever.  And I have two village ponds within walking distance, and the ducks are due to hatch, that will be good.  One of them has a heron visiting, even though there's a B road that runs right along one side.  I go down a side road and just stop and watch, I've never lived close to this sort of pond before.

Karmacat

Right, got to get my act together a little bit.  
1. Get the downloaded postal vote form onto my slow-as-clockwork other computer to print it out and fill it in.  Then scan it, move it back to the current computer, and send it off by email to the council.
2. keep on the lookout for something from the French maintenance company.  If nothing by the end of the week, send them a reminder.
3. back up my computer, there's been a lot of finance and genealogy faffing about since I last did it.
4. There's one, or maybe two, sets of bramble roots (not clusters, just roots).  They need to move.
5. Then lay out the old fence posts where there'll be a retaining wall for the soil to avoid slippage.  Some of that will eventually be the walls of the raised beds.  
6. Washing machine on (that can come first, actually).
7. Cut my belt that died off the Next buckle; I'll use it in the garden as a memento, nail it to one of the timbers that make up the raised beds  
8. I'm checking on the February to-do list: there's a few that will have to be carried over to March, but I'm working on them  

Karmacat

Karmacat said:

1. Get the downloaded postal vote form onto my slow-as-clockwork other computer to print it out and fill it in.  Then scan it, move it back to the current computer, and send it off by email to the council.
Done all this up to the point of moving it back to the current computer, it's on a flash drive ready to do that, though.

2. keep on the lookout for something from the French maintenance company.  If nothing by the end of the week, send them a reminder.
Nothing yet, I'll send an email tomorrow if it carries on not-arriving.

3. back up my computer, there's been a lot of finance and genealogy faffing about since I last did it.
No though I did scan some images I wanted to keep, preparatory to doing that.

4. There's one, or maybe two, sets of bramble roots (not clusters, just roots).  They need to move.
I haven't touched the garden today.

5. Then lay out the old fence posts where there'll be a retaining wall for the soil to avoid slippage.  Some of that will eventually be the walls of the raised beds.  
Ditto.  Oops.

6. Washing machine on (that can come first, actually).
Yes!  Hurray - Drying nicely.

7. Cut my belt that died off the Next buckle; I'll use it in the garden as a memento, nail it to one of the timbers that make up the raised beds  
Sadly, yes.  I haven't *used* it in the garden, I just flung it onto the soil near the back door, to wait it's turn!

8. I'm checking on the February to-do list: there's a few that will have to be carried over to March, but I'm working on them  
Sort of - am rejigging and faffing like mad  

Done a fair amount: dishwasher is finishing up too, thats always good to face the morning with clean cups etc.  Went a fast-ish walk this afternoon too, in preference to the gardening, it felt good.  Hmm, stripped the bed but not made it yet, oh dear!  Never mind, it was worth using my afternoon energy to go for a walk  

An insight on tidying: now I've retired, I don't need to keep paperwork on goods I've bought.  And I buy everything online anyway, and that usually means there are several emails about it - receipt, sent to delivery agent, at their regional depot, out for delivery, blah.  Don't need a piece of paper as well, so more paper off to the recycling bin, hurray.

debtfreeoneday

Good work on the clearing out. 

apple_muncher

I dreamt about your belt buckle being nailed to a fence post last night.

Karmacat

apple_muncher said:

I dreamt about your belt buckle being nailed to a fence post last night.

Oh my god    I'm so sorry   that makes me giggle ... erm, the buckle is safely out of the oil bath and drying off inside the house, cut off from the belt.  The belt itself, which almost feels ceramic even after a 48 hour oil bath, is what's outside.  As to what to nail it to ... I don't want to nail it to my lovely new fence posts, though that would look best - I'm wondering about the huge great pieces of reclaimed wood I'm using for the raised-beds-to-be?  I'll take a photo, and if it looks any good, I'll put it up on here, now that it's so easy to do  

Karmacat

Bit of a win this morning - after reading greent on her washing drying in the wind, I got myself together to find where I'd stashed my washing line after I took it down for the fencers.  Gave it a bit of a clean, put it up, and hey ho, washing on the line.  Yay. 

Huge achievement today is that the protection of the fencing and the retaining "wall" has been laid out, with a bit of the existing soil transferred away so I can lay bark chippings onto the new "path".  Not going to lay any liner down, too many weeds coming under the fence from next door, I need to be able to dig every now and again. 

It's really coming together!  But no finance or computer work done today, I'll update the Feb. list on Sunday - really got to finish a few things off! 

greent

Yeay for washing on the line! 🙌 My DD says you can tell Spring is coming because there is washing outside x

Karmacat

It's true!  Unless you live in Huddersfield, where the washing used to be hung in the front yards, all year round  

I've had a slow morning waking up - didn't realise it was so cold, I was nice and toasty til I got up!  Good phone chat, its still beautiful out there, but I'm still shattered, so a slow day is called for, I think.  Laying a few bark chippings might count, that will get me outside anyway.  Too busy round here to walk, though I might go out much later on to the postbox.  So exciting ... not     Otherwise, there's the whole "finishing off February" thing.  Bleurgh - I'd rather be outside!  I *will* be outside  

apple_muncher

Dd and I went for our walk just before 5, and the light was just beautiful. She took a load of photos.