Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Lol, you couldn't come by train, HHoD, as you'd be loaded with plants, cuttings, produce & jam on your way home! There was a particular year when our pear tree fruited so heavily that everyone who visited us was given a 7lb carrier bag of pears to take home....... & that was after I'd made a double batch of chutney, pear & orange jam, two types of pear cake, pear muffins, pear & cinnamon compote, pear bbq sauce, blackberry & pear gin... ..... & the poor sods who visited us twice got two bags!!
We'll have to make it a virtual scone.... a thought-scone! 
I have met one person on here in real life & thought she was lovely.
Hasn't the evening dropped chilly again.... I've had to put some warm socks on. Lighting the fire could be quite tempting, but no way am I paying for that in May!
F x

Baileys_Babe

Their looks like there will be a bunch of us @foxgloves do you have enough seats?

foxgloves

Another day. Neither of us needs to go out. I'm trying to get motivated with the weekly house clean. I think I will just concentrate on 'the carrot' rather than 'the stick', as when it is all done, I will be able to do a bit more planting & sit out with my book. Mr F is doing half the cleaning as he isn't working (from home) at weekends.
More coffee then I'm shifting my backside into gear.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

As soon as we are allowed to foxgloves, I am coming to your house whether you like it or not

marionmgcars

We are assembling a mini greenhouse today.  Trying to grow being eco friendly so have saved yogurt cartons etc to use.  I have started a mini chilli seed trial,  any suggestions for low cost, eco friendly items. ?  I have grown tomatoes & cucumber if previous house porch, but need smaller projects,  thank you 🙏 

Pixiehouse55

HHOD and Foxgloves. Yes I am thinking about it a lot more after having a bad night with my neck/shoulder. And a physiotherapist who doesn't seem to agree with medication or operations!!! 😡 I asked him if he wanted my pain day in day out? Funny that he didn't answer!!
Having a go at sanding down the Garden bench and hubby is tiling in the kitchen... He took first lot of tiles off as  he wasnt happy with them and started again today....I'm keeping out the way😁
Dinner tonight is some fish in batter that I found in the freezer or fish fingers 😁
Happy Saturday to you all. Sunny but windy here 

foxgloves

Lots of busy tasks going on there, Pixiehouse55 & Marionmgcars.
Re smaller edible gardening projects........there are various edibles which can be grown in hanging baskets i.e some cherry tomatoes have a trailing habit so are good for this & you can also grow strawberries in baskets. The salad mix seeds are worth growing as once you get them going, you harvest them on a cut & come again basis. And if you have room for an old washing-up bowl with a couple of pots in it, you can grow watercress. A sorrel plant is worth adding to a herb bed as they are perennials & pop back lush & green each spring ready to snip for adding to salads & making soup. I have also grown pak choi in containers for stir-fries, but it has a tendency to bolt in hot weather. Rocket, radishes, spring onions.....all of these are perfect for containers & small spaces.
Re saving plastic containers for recycling into useful gardening kit......yes, so many opportunities for free gardening gear. Three of my favourites are the semi-opaque plastic meat trays which make fantastic seed trays & are strong enough to wash out & use for more than one season, plant labels cut out of empty washed spread tubs and bottle cloches made from large plastic bottles. I wouldn't be without the latter to protect tender plants in early spring....cukes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies. etc.
F

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
Well I have almost fainted onto the floor from shock tonight due to Mr F deciding he bought too much BBQ stuff & announcing he is saving enough to feed us tomorrow, as well as freezing two packs of unused items!! He has the appetite of a long-famished ox, so on the home economist front, this was welcome news.
We shared the weekly house cleaning between us this morning. I chose kitchen, general tidying & bins, which meant he got vacuuming & cleaning the bathroom & loo. We got off to a later start than usual as we got talking about a decision we need to make re savings, then about savings generally, then about budgeting & how much we have both changed. We were laughing over the time when I'd had my LBM, but he hadn't (but thought he had) & kept telling me how well he was doing with the new attitude to money, while all week, cardboard packages the exact size of DVDs & CDs kept plopping through the letterbox onto the doormat, sometimes more than one a day & he'd always have an excuse as to why they didn't count as expenditure which we had agreed we would use to pay down our significant debt. It was quite interesting talking about our attitude to money before we met, which was very similar. For instance, neither of us ever saved any money.....I used to say I didn't earn enough to save, but that was absolute rubbish of course, as an emergency fund of even £500 would have dealt with a nasty car repair bill or a kitchen appliance conking out. No, I didn't save because I liked buying oodles of unnecessary stuff & he was the same. Anyway, it was interesting discussing our evolution into really quite sensible people....at least where money is concerned.
I spent an hour today tidying up all my geraniums ready for moving to their outdoor containers for some free summer colour. They are now all out on the patio where they've had an enormous drink. I will get them all into tubs & baskets over the next couple of weeks. I did a bit of watering, but have actually spent most of this afternoon reading & it was really relaxing. I have stayed away from the news today, as I am feeling so wound up by the government as yet another hapless individual of the day is wheeled out to avoid answering anything. I shall catch up online tonight though. 
I had such a funny little bit of free entertainment this afternoon. I fancied some grapes & one of them was a bit squishy, so I cut it in half & threw it out for the blackbird chicks. There are two of them & they adore food but are at that stage where they are still learning what to do with it. The female chick appeared, found one of the grape halves & spent ages carefully pecking at it until it had all gone. She so enjoyed it. Then the male chick rushed up, spotted the other half, grabbed it & ran three times round the patio with it squawking with excitement but not having a clue what to do with it. On the end he dropped it & it was promptly nicked by a speedy sparrow. He looked so crestfallen - you know, I think us girls just mature more quickly.......
I've planned to have quite a productive day in the garden tomorrow, so am hoping it will be a bit warmer as I had to go & find my warm poncho today & put some socks on. I think we were spoiled back in April, with all the sunshine, weren't we, & it seems much chillier now, just as I am wanting to put all my bedding plants out. I also want to sew some face masks next week, start re-covering an armchair, progress my current 2 knitting projects & it occurred to me today that I still haven't made a start on cleaning the kitchen cupboards which is a task I identified as being well overdue a while back. I think I need to have a really good productive week ahead, so that will be the plan.
Ooooh, I've just remembered there is some chocolate in the house. I'd better just take care of that........
F x

Onebrokelady

I saw on FB tonight that there is a new gardening programme starting on ITV,I think it's called Grow Your Own At Home, it's probably aimed at the less experienced gardener but might be interesting to watch 😊

PurpleFairy26

Onebrokelady said:

I saw on FB tonight that there is a new gardening programme starting on ITV,I think it's called Grow Your Own At Home, it's probably aimed at the less experienced gardener but might be interesting to watch 😊

I definitely fit in to the less experienced gardener camp. I’ll look it up - thanks.