Forever Starts Now

starnac

What a beautiful day it is here today. I honestly thought I had jinxed the weather as it has rained most days since we had the solar panels installed! Typical! Anyway it's lovely here today. I've got washing on the actual line! It's fab. 

We are plodding along here. I've got some seeds planted in the downstairs conservatory. I'm not convinced they will come to anything yet but we'll see. We are currently in the middle of remortgaging as our fixed rate had ended and the SVR was horrendous! It almost doubled our monthly payment! 

We are being much more careful with what we spend at the moment. Hopefully as we go into the summer, our bills will reduce as we won't need the heating on and most, if not all, of our electricity will come from the solar panels. 

I'm going away for a few days tomorrow. I'm crewing for a friend who is running a 200 mile race so I need to get everything packed and my car cleaned today. I will spend the next week living out of my car so I've packed a lot of easy crafty things to keep me occupied while my friend is running. 

I need to go and put another wash on and also run the dishwasher while the electric is free lol!

starnac

Another beautiful day here. Wow! I cleaned the chicken coop out and moved some plants around to where they will eventually live I think. 

I'm almost all packed for my adventure. I'm debating whether to wash my hair before I go or at the B&B when I get there this evening. I'm thinking I'll leave it til this evening as it looks fine and I want to braid it so it lasts for a few days while I'm in the middle of nowhere. 

starnac

I am back. Earlier than I thought too. Unfortunately my friend had to pull out so I'm home.

The weather was lovely yesterday and is looking the same today. Yesterday was spent out in the garden and looks like today will be too. My plan for the day is to get some seeds planted in the raised beds and clear some more of the flower beds over by the fence. It is overrun with weeds and so my plan is to clear it out and plant my blackberry bushes over there. It is out of the way and if they grow along the fence then hopefully the thorns will act as a bit of a security measure. Albeit a small one. 

I also want to clear another part of the garden that is just overgrown with greenery. It didn't flower or do anything last summer and in the winter it's an ugly pile of sticks growing out of the ground. So I plan to remove all that and plant some wildflowers to attract bees.

I have so many plans for the garden but it so big and so overrun through neglect by the previous (elderly) owners that it is taking forever. I am just trying to do what I can and then leave what I can't until next spring maybe. It's a nice problem to have I suppose but I can't help feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the work that needs doing in it.

Karmacat

I can relate to the overwhelm with the garden - but I'm glad you managed to get away for a few days, even though your friend didn't make it, its so important to stay with trips away like that.

Cheery_Daff

Sorry about your trip, I hope the bit you did get on was enjoyable! 

I too can relate to garden overwhelm 🙄 I spoke to someone last week who talked about how her garden was her sanctuary, and it made me think that I often just think of my garden as a nuisance 🙄 I'm trying to change my attitude, because this one doesn't feel very helpful! There are so many lovely things about my garden! Yes, it grows faster than I can keep up with 😂 and no, I'm never going to win any kind of 'beautiful garden' award 🙄 But it is abundant, a haven for wildlife (and chickens), and I am SO grateful to have one at all. I'm working on trying to keep some little sit spots relatively clear, and have a bit of a routine, and trying to at least enjoy something about the time I spend out there 😊

I love hearing about how you're all getting on with your gardens, it inspires me to think of us all plodding away in our own spaces 😊😊

starnac

When we first moved in it was a sanctuary. We had a yard before so seeing all the green was amazing. But obviously gardens grow and this one had been neglected for a long time. 
We made space for the chickens which has been altered and improved every time we learn something, like when one of them flew up and landed on top of the fence and we realised it wasn't high enough, each time they've gone into lockdown we've changed things to give them as big an area as possible while keeping them inside etc. 
We've put a swing up for the kids, we've made space for growing veg, we had to take some dangerous trees down (the royal we - DH and his friend, a qualified tree surgeon, did that) 
DH spent nearly all day yesterday putting the smaller sticks through a shredder to make wood chip. All the bigger ones are in the wood store drying for fire wood. 
We have cleared an area for a seating/eating area but have no money to actually build it yet so that's frustrating. 
I know it'll all be worth it in the end but everytime I look I see something else that needs doing. Maybe I need to do the same as you Cheery, make a makeshift seating area and change my attitude. 

Karmacat

Starnac, that sounds pretty wonderful to me - I understand about just seeing the jobs that need doing, but yes, we could all do with seeing the accomplishments regularly too  

starnac

Yes KC you are right. I do need to look at all the things we've done instead of the things we haven't. 

The weather has changed so dramatically. From a few days of beautiful sunshine to torrential downpours. So work in the garden has stopped for a while. We did some bits inside yesterday only to find that DH has managed to knock out several seemingly random lights when he changed the switch cover over in the living room. The lights that are now not working are not really near each other and seem really random but none of them work since DH was working with the electrics in the front room. This house was a self build 40 years ago and there are very random things here that make it feel properly "self-built" like DIY rather than "we paid a contractor" if you get what I mean. 

To be honest the electrics are not bothering us at the moment. We just moved rooms. One of them was the snug where the TV is so we don't really need a light on in there. DH is going to have another look at it this week. 

Karmacat

Yikes - it doesn't feel dangerously self build, does it?  I mean, it doesn't *sound* it, so I'm hoping not, but electricity is still a mystery to me 😉

starnac

Karmacat said:

Yikes - it doesn't feel dangerously self build, does it?  I mean, it doesn't *sound* it, so I'm hoping not, but electricity is still a mystery to me 😉

No. We have the odd broken bit of floorboard but apart from that no it doesn't *feel* self build thankfully. It's just odd. Sorry, i prefer *quirky* We were at a funeral all day today so didn't get chance to look at the electrics.

DH is working from home tomorrow and we have a house full of teenagers as DD is taking advantage of her dad mounting the projector on the ceiling and has invited her friends around for movie day! 

We were giving a load of sweet things to bring home from the funeral today (there was way too much food) so they can munch their way through those. We bought blackout/thermal curtains when they were on sale for both the window and the glass doors in that room specifically for darkening the room to watch films on the one wall and they work perfectly. 

DS is coming to work with me for a bit, as myself and a colleague open the building as a warm Space on a Thursday. We are doing half a day each tomorrow as we both have kids off school. 

So tomorrow will be a bit of a different day. But both kids will enjoy it in their own little way so I'm glad about that.