Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Thanks @skint_spice, @Cheery_Daff 😊 It’s a big space and there’s no way I can ‘whip round it an afternoon’ as some can on the gardening thread. I use the phrase ‘nibble, nibble, nibble’ to myself to remind myself that anything can be done with steady, repeated persistence … 😊

@f0xh0les , absolutely weird …! 🤷‍♀️😂 Those dangerous, jeopardy potatoes are now baking in the air fryer to become our dinner! 

Actually did some serious gardening today 😊

Weeded the new flower bed that was created by my work’s gardeners. I am regarding this as ‘clearing the seed bed’ of weed seeds in this section for now. 

Weeded the bed which runs the full length of the front of the house (our house is long rather than deep) which we want to install wild flower turf on. Focused on perennial root weeds - so bindweed, bramble, dandelions etc. and left the self sown, pretty leaved pink flowered thing that scatters itself about here, as it is very easy to remove 😊 Again seeing this as a ground clearing / prepping activity. 

Severely cut back the cotton lavenders (santolina?) on the drive that are flopping everywhere and make Mr KK’s legs wet as he parks on that side. They need relocating really. 

Made visual list of learning points and ideas for next year on my phone via images, which I will write up this evening.  

Around this I also:
- Emptied all internal bins 
- Helped Mr KK with the tip run (rather to his surprise apparently 🤷‍♀️😊)
- Made lunch from stuff on the freezer stock list - filled pasta and pre-made sauce and added chopped fried mushrooms on top. Mr KK actually scraped his plate! 😊🤩❤️
- Put away all my washing from yesterday and turned off the airer
- Fuelled the car and remembered to ask for a VAT receipt so I can start with a mileage claim next week
- Collected my prescription 

Am a bit sore and soil covered now (keep finding it in my ears! 😂😂) but satisfied with today 😊 

Edit: Missed one. Swopped my summer and winter tops for work over 😊

KK

themadvix

Thanks for the mention of wildflower turf KK. I didn’t know that was a thing, but it might be just what we need.

KajiKita

themadvix said:

Thanks for the mention of wildflower turf KK. I didn’t know that was a thing, but it might be just what we need.

Oh my pleasure 😊

KK

KajiKita

Lazy start here 😊

Finished another novel. Fast paced, easy read, unpredictable twist coming of age story. Happy reading 😊

Very deliberately went out to buy bulbs and violas. Also picked up some new spring pots as the summer ones are still flowering 🤷‍♀️ Also found some bark and compost, as well as some orange and purple wallflowers. 

Got Mr KK’s washing on the line. It came back in dry 😊👏

Potted six pots of bulbs and violas 😊 Arranged them on my deck in what I hope is a vaguely sculptural way to provide some interest until they actually flower! 😉😂 

Planted out the remaining violas and the wallflowers in two spots in my garden that I hope will get winter sun (my garden is largely east facing and slopes downwards in that direction as well as being in a cup of a valley so winter sun is in very short supply here). One bed, by the front gate by the garage, was absolutely infested with the orange crocosmia and one of the very few upsides of the very hot, dry summer we had here is that lots of it had died off, so I was able to evict loads of the chains of the corms from that bed 😊👏 (There is still plenty left there for any fans of crocosmia! 😉) 

Found a new to me variety of broad beans seeds whilst I was out this morning: Super Aquadulce, which apparently are even hardier than the standard type. I have sown 20 seeds across 10 pots 😊 🌱 

OP of £4.18 from surveys done, 77p TT

All financial updates done ready for payday later in the week. 

Bathroom and loo cleaned (not to an amazing standard but at least they are hygienic again! 😉)

Got to 10K steps today which is pretty solid for a Sunday - typically it’s 6K.

Still got my breakfast and lunch to prep for tomorrow but I am showered and fed so once that’s done I can chill 😊

Small moment of reflection: before the crazy hot weather started I was doing a bit in the garden every night. I need to restart this - even if it’s only 10 minutes, 3 nights a week that’s 30 minutes less I have to find time and energy for at the weekends (it could be as much as 90 minutes) and will allow me to steadily progress out there. I am conscious of the nights coming in and the clock change looming and want to make the most of what light we have left. 

KK

KajiKita

Oh, forgot to mention … Mr KK initiated a conversation about indoor jobs for the winter months. Things like finishing the kitchen island (yes please!!!), making another smaller bookcase out of the bookcase in the conservatory, reviewing the layout of the conservatory altogether etc. I suggested we have a go at seriously decluttering his bedroom as it is RAMMED! It seems he is up for this … 😊

KK

beanielou

Happy decluttering ahead then.

Merlin's_Beard

Getting everyone's approval on the decluttering is at least half the battle...!

KajiKita

Boring day in work shuffling training records between two spreadsheets … (don’t ask! 🙄😂) but got some other, vaguely useful, stuff done including offering to share / host the legionella awareness training with other companies in the group - this made my boss happy as that will offset some of the cost and my sort-of-Group-boss is happy as no one else has organised anything and he can now shoe-horn a lot of other people who need to do it into easily available training … 😉 

I got out in the garden as soon as I got home a) as an antidote to BICHOKing all day and b) because this is my nibble-nibble-nibble technique to keep momentum going on tasks in the garden whilst we still have some light on work evenings 😊
I made a start on clearing the dead ivy and other rubbish on the wall by the garage. It didn’t look like much, but after 20 minutes and two big buckets of clearings taken down to the compost heaps I had cleared / tidied less than a metre of the wall … ! 😳

Responded, where I needed to, to another whole slew of PC emails … <sigh>

Dead leaved the kitchen windowsill cyclamen. 

Chopped kindling and brought firewood in as Mr KK was ON A MISSION on the path this evening …! All the slabs are down now 🎊🎉🥳🤩 The retaining wall needs a bit more work and then that whole section needs capping stones and the then the cement mixer can go back into retirement! 👏

KK

beanielou

Good news on all slabs being down. 

beanielou

PS.  I don't know what capping stones are!