Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hello Diary readers, 
Much cooler here today. Sunny intervals, but very blowy. I've left my tomatoes & couegettes in the greenhouse - it's too windy for hardening off.
Another spendy day - village garden centre first thing. Lovely to see it open again, even if only 10 people can go in at a time. All purchases were planned except for two petunias for adding to my hanging baskets & I wouldn't have needed them had some naughty beak not pecked away at the petunias already in there, not even to eat them but simply to spit the bits out on the lawn! Other purchases: Tomato food, bonemeal, 3 sacks of compost, 2 sacks of pebbles for finishing off the bit around the edge of our new patio (we will need lots more bags but I thought it would be sensible to see how far it goes so we can better judge how much to buy) & a rock. I also bought a lightweight watering can to have up by the back door so I can recycle suitable grey water out onto my plants. My big metal watering can is heavy to lug up & down the garden when my hands are feeling stiff.
Job-wise, I've carried on with my productive week. I've put up my hanging baskets, planted up the two big containers by the front door & stuffed our small front border with as many bedding plants as I could get in. I had 1 teddy bear sunflower, a few verbena & 15 cosmos left so I have added them to my back garden borders & that is all my summer bedding planted out! I also gained a free container for the back patio. A little conifer was struggling on the front & so I decided to put it in a nice terracotta pot, but I hadn't got one the right size in my stash. Mr F suggested popping back to buy one but I didn't want to spend any more money. I had a rummage in the shed & found an old zinc bucket which is quite nice in a vintage non-plastic way. Mr F drilled some holes in it & it looks so classy with that bright little conifer in it. Had to smile even typing the word 'classy'...... you see I remember where I got that bucket........ We were blackberry picking years ago. I bent down to pick some lower down berries when I spotted something silvery-coloured on its side in the ditch. It was half covered in brambles & must have been there for ages. I yanked it out & it was a fine looking vintage bucket. It came home with us on the grounds that I knew it would come in useful for something..... & today it finally did!
That's my jobs done for the day. I'm going to read my book - another from the big pile I got from the librsry just before lockdown. 
And I'm going to eat my crisps before they blow away! 
Cheers all, 
F x

foxgloves

Morning all, 
Another day of lockdown dawns. Looks far too windy again for further hardening off of tomatoes & courgettes so I think today's garden efforts may just be watering.
I'm doing a curry night tonight. We can't go out, I love to cook & it's BH weekend, so I suggested a bit of a 'date night'. I'm trying 4 new recipes which I haven't cooked before - a beef vindaloo, a fish curry, a slow cooker dhal & a salad wirh carrots & all sorts of things in it..... can't remember its name. Mr F is going to do some garlic rice, which is lovely & he has the recipe (which is all about timings) down to a fine art. The vindaloo recipe looks hot, but not a crazy amount of chillies, so I will defo try some. I wanted to do a curry which I knew Mr F (asbestos mouth) would really like, plus one I'd like. The fish curry is a mackerel one, so I thought that would be interesting.
Well we can't go out, so I'm intending to set the table, light some candles, serve (hopefully!) good food & we can pretend we're at a restaurant. I shall enjoy a nice cooking session & will listen to my latest audiobook while I'm chopping & marinating. It's one of Sarah Hilary's crime series. I've also got a crime novel on the go in book form.... 'The Sinner' by Martin Waites. I enjoyed his first one & this looks as though it will be good too.
Right, I could woffle about books & recipes all day but I need to get moving.
Wishing everyone a decent day. 
Be safe, 
F x

PurpleFairy26

Dinner sounds lovely. We’ve tried to make Saturday nights dinner a bit more special during lockdown as we can’t go out (not that we’d go out every week) we get the smalls to decide what we want, have a special pudding and they serve the meals and clear away. DH made a menu on the computer for a couple of them too so they could take our order! 

Enjoy your day, windy here too. Am going to paint inside instead of garden today. 

foxgloves

Lovely idea, Purps. A nice inclusive activity for your children too. 
I think the wind has actually got up more here. I've had to shut windows because the doors keep banging.
F

Onebrokelady

It's windy here too Foxgloves,the sun is trying it's best but there are clouds gathering,so I'm hoping we get some rain later,I cut my grass last week and it's dying now, I cut it too short 😟

Baileys_Babe

Definitely getting cooler here.

foxgloves

I'd love some rain. It would save watering duties later. Also, our conservatory doubles as our dining room & it's quite nice sitting in there on an evening with the rain drumming on the roof.
Is this the most money saving entertainment ever? I've just thrown a piece of banana out for Captain Beaky (our increasingly tame blackbird). He has absolutely devoured it. I've never seen so much banana in one beak. Love how he 'kills' it first, as though it's a worm.
Leisurely afternoon reading my book interspersed with a few kitchen jobs ready for our curry night. I've marinated the meat, zizzed up a curry paste, got various spice mixes ready in ramekin dishes & put the slow cooker on. Am making the most of it while it lasts as we have another building-type job next week with all the furniture moving & everything else it entails..... as well as social distancing & other covid safety measures I shall insist on.
Definitely cooling down OBL & Baileysbabe.
F x

Onebrokelady

I tried giving the 🐓🐓some banana last week, Ginger stuck her face straight in like she normally does with any food and wasn't impressed with the banana face mask she ended up with 😀Babs did her usual dainty pecking at the offending offering then got her frilly pants in twist because it stuck to her beak,she spent ages wiping it off on the patio steps😂 needless to say they were not impressed by banana at all 😂 

foxgloves

Lol, OBL. Obviously not a favourite for chickens! I threw a squishy grape out for Captain Beaky at lunchtime. He came racing up to the patio to grab it & I thought I detected a look of distain that it was only a rubbish grape & not a second hit of banana. For pudding, he then got the old crumbs from out of the toaster - our household's no food waste policy applies to everyone.
F x

foxgloves

Hello diary readers,
I've really had the most lazy day today. I was brought scrambled eggs, toast & coffee in bed first thing, which was really nice after a busy week. I've baked a cake, continued my current genealogy project, chatted with my sister on skype & read my book. And that's it! I did intend to have a gardening day, but it has simply been too chilly & windy to plant out tender crops, so I have postponed it until the winds drop & it gets a little warmer. I'm going to have a walk around the garden in a minute, though, for a bit of fresh air, as I notice that the sun is actually starting to make an effort now. I've just been watching Johnson explaining why it is OK for there to be one rule for government advisers & another rule for the rest of us where the Covid safety measures are concerned. I am as usual, absolutely incensed by their arrogance but not remotely surprised. 
Anyway, I'm not going to sit here & wind myself up, I am going to find my shawl & go & have that little walk around the garden. Mr F tried out the two test sacks of pebbles we bought for finishing the edge of our new patio & they look really good. He's estimated that we will need another 16 bags to get this task finished. Yesterday, I noticed a few swifts coming to have a look at our new swift nest boxes, so I also want to see if anyone has been brave enough to fly all the way inside to see how lovely they are, with a little shaped nest cup & everything.
Take care all,
F x