Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Tescodealqueen

Interesting about the workers. We had phone call from.our gas engineer who says he has received email saying he can start working next week. He is coming to do annual service on boiler. We were surprised. We have a basement kitchen where the boiler is so will be able to be on different floors so hopefully that will be fine

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sorry I missed your birthday Foxgloves. Happy belated birthday 🎂🍾🍰🍸🍹🎁🎉🎈🎊. I'm glad you abandoned jobs and did hobbies and I hope you had a nice meal and some liquid refreshment to help you celebrate. Lockdown birthdays can be a bit underwhelming, but I'm going to have a second one when lockdown ends .

Honeysucklelou2

Catching up on diaries...Happy Belated Birthday Foxgloves🎂

Paspatur

Hi Foxgloves loving your diary especially food stuff and gardening tales. Such a breeze of sensibleness in these strange times. Could I possibly pick your brain on a flower/tree/shrub? This is growing over my fence from next door and is lovely. Also very early bloomer as I am very far north in Scotland and not much colour in my garden yet (although Rhododendrons are going to explode into colour very soon). I would love to take a cutting and grow my own but without knowing what it is I do not know how or when to try. Can you or your readers help please?

foxgloves

Paspatur - It looks like a variety of berberis to me, but I have to say I'm more of a cottage style gardener, so I could well be wrong. Well worth taking a few cuttings anyway. I usually take 5, in the hope 2 will 'take' & survive being robbed for nest building!
F

Paspatur

Thank you so much. Yes it is Berberis Darwinii so I can now check when to take cuttings. Magpie currently stealing lots of things for nest building here!

foxgloves

I'm glad it was an accurate guess, Paspatur. Yes, one thing with gardening in a way to encourage wildlife is that they are........encouraged. For some reason, house sparrows seem to love decimating my forget-me-nots for nest-building material. Thankfully, these self-seed & come up every year anyway, so I don't mind them shredding those if they leave other stuff alone (which they don't!).
I can remember once taking some perfectly executed lavender cuttings. I took my time getting the excess leafage & stem trimmed off at the right place with my little pruning knife, popped them carefully around the edge of a terracotta pot as recommended by Monty Don for air & drainage, etc. Labelled them with my italic pen, the whole works. Next day, I went down to my little nursery area behind the greenhouse to see if they needed watering & every single one had vanished!! There must have been some particularly fragrant local nests that year! Grrrr.....
F x

foxgloves

Thanks for belated birthday wishes, everyone. Very kind of you to wish me well. Yes, lockdown birthdays a bit weird, HHoD, but needs must. Last year, we went to one of our favourite NT places in a neighbouring county & went out for a meal in the evening. And we'll do that again, we just have to do our utmost to stay well atm. I did still enjoy my birthday & my belated cards & gifts which extended it for another day.
F x

foxgloves

Pixiehouse55 - Gosh, what a proper faff you have had, haven't you? We had workmen booked in for the day after lockdown started, so of course it was cancelled. They still have my large deposit, so I'm glad I have plenty of paperwork with evidence of that, although they are a well-thought of local firm. So that is one lot of work on hold. The other job was one we got a quote for immediately before lockdown. The chap in charge turned up in gloves & we had a very much socially distanced conversation as he got busy with his tape measure & calculator. We agreed to the quote & both of us said we would wait until lockdown is lifted then they would start work. It's a tricky one because I know they can go out & work if they are unable to work from home, but it is also a bit vague......is it essential work? I want it done & it does need doing, but I can't say it is essential to us. Is it essential to the firm who are carrying out the work? Well, yes, I should think it is as like all small local businesses, they are badly going to need to keep themselves afloat. The actual work will take place outside the back of the house but we have no side entrance into the garden, so everybody (& everything) will have to come through the house. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds as we have a  side door which leads out through conservatory doors, We also have a loo just inside the side door which is away from the rest of the house, so the job could be done in a socially distanced manner. My only concern is that while I know builders can technically work, the rules re people not having visitors to their houses who are not family members has not changed, so we are unsure at what point we will feel we should just go ahead with the work. We want to feel like we have done the right thing.

Tescodealqueen - That sounds ok with the gas service being done on a separate floor. Maybe I am overthinking our planned work & I should just say I require certain behaviours re social distancing to be strictly observed while they are on our property (there will be between 2 & 4 of them here at any one time) & that I will pay remotely by bank transfer. I'll think about it some more over the weekend.
F x

foxgloves

And I'd probably better get today's post on while I'm on here........
Greetings everyone on what has been a thoroughly chillly day. Cat started his day in his favourite summer den under the hedge near the conservatory but soon abandoned & trotted indoors when he realised February appeared to have returned. For me, today was a day where nothing much happened..........until something actually did.
I donated use of my big old desk up in Foxgloves HQ to Mr F as he was working from home again today, then I managed to get a couple of hours out in the garden before the rain came. I watered all my planty babies & checked outdoor seed troughs. Good to see radishes, rocket & both varieties of spring onions coming up now. I sowed this year's sweetcorn, moved more trays of calendula & cornflowers outside to harden off, then planted out 3 trays of the ones I stood out a few days ago. I've put them in a bed which runs up between my greenhouse & hedge, It needs a floral boost. It's quite poor soil there, so needs easy things. I have some hardy geraniums in there, woad & other bits & bobs. I'd just like it to add something to the overall garden, so have decided to resurrect my old idea of it being a kind of nectar bar for beneficial insects. Rain arrived, so stopped for lunch. Went back out later just for half an hour to sort out a very poorly looking container plant which had been attacked by the Evil Weevil. I think I've managed to salvage it. Have watered well & re-potted. A little piece broke off so have popped it in a pot of compost to see if the roots take as I think my sister would like one. More rain. Gave up!
Nobbled Mr F to do next week's meal plans, which resulted in such a small shopping list that he decided to go off to the supermarket then & there. He was very speedy  - he was full of it that he was 3rd in the queue waiting to get into the shop this time! Honestly, the things that cheer us up these days....... MUCH better spend this time - the first time our weekly grocery shopping has come in under budget since back when we knew lockdown was coming. I do hope we can keep it up this month.
Oh, & then.........an email pinged into my inbox & I nearly fell on the floor when I saw it was from the solicitor. Finally, FINALLY, it looks as though the last issues with Mum's estate have been sorted out. There are 4 PDFs with it, which I will read properly tomorrow as they contain a statement from HMRC (this is mostly what was holding things up), the final accounts, plus (of course) the legal bill. But it does seem to be completed as the covering email wants our signatures to confirm we agree with the final figures. My sis & I have arranged a skype meeting on Sunday to give us both a chance to study everything & discuss it. It will be such a relief when it is all finally signed off.
Well, cat is trying to get Dinner no.2....meows have escalated from a bit pitiful to downright tragic, but he asked for his dinner early & a downside of this is that when his actual feeding time rolls around, he thinks he should have something else. He has now squidged himself between us on the sofa......no romance for us tonight!
Take care all. We will get through this, but we need to look after ourselves & each other.
F xx