Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Kantankrus_Mare

Oh bug*er :mad: Wrote a long post and then MSE froze so wouldnt post.

Hey ho......cant be bothered again now as am really tired. Will write in morning. Hope you find where you went wrong Foxgloves X

Kantankrus_Mare

Seems it was there somewhere lol

Had a lovely day today. Yoga this morning. Allotment this afternoon in the gorgeous September sunshine. Got all my wood stained and stacked in the shed ready for when my Dad gets around to making more raised beds. :T

Potted on more strawberry runners and after a quick count up......I think I have about fifty so far. :j

Picked another butternut squash so thats 5 now in the greenhouse turning colour.

Only downside is that my back has been playing up a bit the last few days and I dont know why. The only thing I can think of is my poor old dog. I have a chocolate labrador who is about 13 years old. He has bad arthritis but I like to take him to the allotment with me for a change of scenery for him. He was able to put his front paws onto the back seat of the car and I would lift his back end up but he is getting worse so I have been having to lift him fully into the car. Wondering if I have pulled something doing that.

Anyhow.....timing brilliant. Went for my 8 weekly massage tonight and she really worked on my lower back so hopefully that will help.

Hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather we are getting?

foxgloves

You're cracking on great with your allotment, Kantankrus. I've still not sorted out my strawberry runners as the new bed I want to plant them in is currently inhabited by a large courgette...... not for much longer, but it is still producing the odd fruit & with the next few sunny days forecast, I thought it'd be worth seeing if I can get a last pick. I picked 5 small ones yesterday for my spicy chickpea & veg stew with couscous.
Your sore back may well be from lifting your dog into the car. I know zilch about dogs but I do know that labs are big solid dogs. I've only had a couple of incidences of lasting back pain..... both in exactly the same place & I think originally from a day when I did so much repeated bending during planting season that I pulled something. My problem now is finding a balance between several different tasks in the garden so that I don't set my hands off hurting like they were all last winter. The tendonitis has massively improved so pretty much any stiffness or discomfort which starts now is the arthritis. When he diagnosed it, my Dr said I should continue doing all the stuff I usually do, but just learn from experience when doing lots of stuff becomes doing too much. He also said that if I stop doing stuff, my hands will stiffen up & he's right. Balance is definitely key to things not getting worse.
I think you need to treat your back gently for the next day or two & see if it clears up. Massage will have helped if it's a tight knot of muscles.
Right, I'm off out tonight so would really like to get a whole lot of stuff done today.
Will put up my daily post later, by which time I'll hopefully have achieved something!
Cheers,
F x

Kantankrus_Mare

The pains we go through to tend our gardens eh?

Ive always had the tendency for lower back pain and spending too long at the allotment quite often triggers it off so I try not to do too much in one day, much as I would like to!

You do brilliantly with arthritis in your hands!! Im jealous of you still getting courgettes. Mine have all but finished but the two I have planted in the greenhouse look exceptionally healthy with a couple of flowers appearing! My fear is once the weather starts really cooling, that will be the end of them, time will tell.

foxgloves

Well, KM, courgettes can get a bit sniffy if they don't like the conditions, can't they? But I think it's an interesting experiment. The weather is warm & sunny atm, so who knows?
Yes, I can see how allotmenteering would trigger back pain.
The arthritis in my hands was only diagnosed this year & now that the very painful tendonitis has gone, it is much easier to manage the actual arthritis element. I'm finding one of the best ways is simply by varying activities. For example, yesterday I did an hour of garden clearing, followed by an hour of Christmas present knitting, then an hour of kitchen tasks. Admittedly that was then the end of it, as we had tickets for a comedy gig in the evening.
The most painful think I've done this week for my hands was lugging a big heavy pile of books around the library as I found so many I wanted to borrow..... & that was avoidable as I could have made a pile somewhere & kept adding to it.
Oh well, that's my 2nd coffee gone..... must crack on & hope I'll be popping back later having had a productive & frugal day.
F x

Blackcats

A bit late adding to the favourite subjects at school conversation. I loved English - the joy of Thomas hardy for eng literature o level. I liked history and RE too, tolerated biology and chemistry - not a clue what physics was all about. Maths - well I scraped an o level but probability, algebra and binary numbers - didn't understand 40 years ago and don't care now!
I liked Jackie magazine - Cathy and Clare problem page - girls wanting to marry cliff richard, get rid of spots or learn how to kiss - such important worries at the time!

foxgloves

Blackcats - Yes, exactly how I felt about maths. I was once punished for my behaviour in a maths lesson. The teacher gave me a 4 page essay to write as extra homework on 'Why I shouldn't waste time messing around in maths lessons'. I could be a sarky little b & subtitled it "There were 3 apples & 5 plums in a basket so how old is Aunt Mabel?". There followed 4 pages of why I found maths lessons pointless. Oh my sparkling wit....... only I was nervous when it came to handing it in. But he simply collected it from me, ripped it up & threw it in the bin. I said" But Sir, aren't you even going to read it? " & he said no, because all he was bothered about was that I'd had to spend my spare time on it for punishment. I remember making quite a show of being offended, but was actually really relieved as it was 4 pages of cheek & probably would have resulted in getting into trouble.
Slightly better on chemistry, zero interest in physics, which was first thing on Monday mornings. But English...... loved it. I still read all the time & love words.
F x

Onebrokelady

Hi Foxgloves,I've just caught up on your diary 😊 I love reading about your camping exploits and all the gardening and foodie posts

We used to have Russian slice at the bakery my ex partner worked at down here in the South west 😊

My favourite subject was and is English,I am rubbish at punctuation but I love words and discovering the meaning of words or new words,I read constantly and panic if I don't have a book on the go,Maths was like a foreign language to me but like HH I did a functional maths course and passed at level 2 several years ago now

foxgloves

Well, the fridge/freezer saga continues........it's too boring even to write about now, but should hopefully be fully sorted out by Sunday.
I've been busy today but also found time to sit out in the sun & read, which was lovely. I've picked another bowl of tomatoes & labelled my blackberry vinegar before storing it away in the pantry. Oh, blackberry vinegar. It's Autumn in a bottle! So easy to make but a great ingredient for adding a spoonful or two to stews & casseroles, and soothing for sore throats too. I hadn't made any for a while but have been using a little bottle of raspberry vinegar made by my friend from her allotment raspberries.
We had pear & blackberry compote on our porridge this morning, which was lovely. Still lots of pears on our tree. I'm thinking of making fruit leather next week as little rolls of this would be good for packed lunches & snacks. I've never tried making it before, but I have a recipe & enjoy foodie experiments, so I'll see how it goes.
I'm also going to wait out this sunny spell then see if our sweetcorn is ripe. Good job the 2nd replacement freezer is arriving on Sunday, as I shall shortly need space for all the corn cobs.
I do love the fruitfulness of this time of year though, & squirrelling nice tasty things away in the pantry & freezer.
Hope everyone is getting a share of the sunny weather.
F x

foxgloves

Hello OBL,
Nice to see you back! I am just the same with reading. I love to have a big pile of books at hand so I know I shan't run out of stuff to read. I've just finished one this afternoon.....a novel called 'The doll maker' - a strange story - I suppose really it's about two eccentric & rather damaged people coming together through a shared obsession, but it is told partly through their letters to one another & also by sort of parallel-themed modern folk tales. Next book on my pile is a novel called 'The half sister', which sounds good. I hope it is. I also like audio books & am currently listening to 'Tombland' which is a big chunky novel in a Tudor crime series. I like the Scandi crime genre too.
F x