Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Thank-you....though there hasn't been a resolution to Rodentgate yet.

foxgloves

Rodentgate still remains unresolved.

The situation:

On Thursday night, we had just switched off the bedroom light & lay down to sleep when Soot burst through the cat flap yowling fit to wake the dead. He is a very vocal cat, but this level of noisy excitement usually erupts when he has a mouse. I had seen Ash with a big mouse earlier that day so assumed that he had left the corpse under the hedge & Soot, much to his delight, had now found it & brought it in. There was a 2nd bout of yowling about 15 mins later so I made a mental note to be on the look our for a deceased rodent the next morning.

On Friday, I went downstairs at 5.45am & as expected, there was the poor stiff mouse on the kitchen tiles. Soot was by then up on our bed. Ash hadn't yet got up & was tucked up in his igloo upstairs. I warned Mr F to watch where he walks & said I'd bury the mouse as soon as I was properly up & dressed. After 15 mins, Mr F got up. Soot had been on our bed the whole time. When Mr F went downstairs to the bathroom, Soot waited a couple of minutes then went downstairs. By the time Mr F came out of the bathroom, the mouse corpse had disappeared. There was absolutely no sign of it & this remains the case today. That means 2 possibilities:

1.Mousey was not dead. He had been unconscious on the kitchen floor all night & revived & hopped it. I think this is unlikely as I know a dead rodent when I see one & also, there would have been either rustlings from him being around the house, sightings or he'd have been caught in our electronic mousetrap. None of those things have happened & there has been no signs from Ash or Soot that would indicate there was a mouse on the loose.

2.And this is what I think has happened……..Soot - the absolute little b*gger used the 10 minute window when Mr F was in the bathroom to move the rodent. And that begs the question of where on earth he moved it to because we have searched all the most likely places & not a whisker. Neither of us heard the cat flap during that time & as it is a little tunnel through the wall, it is pretty noisy when either of them go in or out. Ash didn't get up & come downstairs until later & was seen in his bed, so he is not the guilty party.

So, we have to assume that there is a dead mouse concealed somewhere in our house but not in any place that we have as yet thought to look. That is not going to be the most fragrant or pleasant of future finds. I do have some cleaning to do tomorrow so maybe poking around with the long pipe on the vacuum may yield a discovery. We were initially keeping an eye on Soot but wherever he has put the damn thing, he has subsequently lost all interest in it 😐️.

F

KajiKita

Ugh… the anticipation of the ‘aroma’ of deceased meurine is nearly as bad as the actual circumstance … Huge sympathies.

KK

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,

I haven't been putting my regular posts on recently so I thought I'd just do a bit of a veg garden update. Unless the forecast has changed, I think the weather is warming up a bit from tomorrow, which will help us gardeners. Our home grown veg makes a valuable contribution to our food spend & it's organic too, so we do like to get what we can out or the space we have allotted to it. So this is the situation atm:

*Tomatoes- Greenhouse ones in situe. Have started hardening off the outdoor ones but I'm later than usual with this process because it's simply been too cold. I am now standing them outside during the day. They are already flowering & are desperate to be grown on. I gave 10 to my sister as planned but still have too many. Was going to see if neighbours want any but I think if I can find a space for the extra ones, I will keep them & just be prepared to do more bottling. I didn't make any ketchup last year, so that's another thing I could usefully do, as well as all the usual stuff.

*Aubergines - Growing well in their greenhouse grow bag.

*Chillies - Both types growing well & in their final greenhouse pots. Just coming into bud.

*Peppers - These sulked for several weeks but then decided to get their finger out & grow. All in their final spaces in the greenhouse.

*Cucumbers - As last year's were so successful, we bought another couple of grafted ones. I have already picked 3 small cukes from them…..I didn't let them get to full size but removed them deliberately to allow the plants to put more energy into getting bigger. Nice to be able to cross cucumber off our last grocery shopping list though.

*Grapevine - just coming into bud (Black Hamburg variety. In greenhouse in an enormous pot - over 20 years old now).

*Carrots - 2 sowings done. Little round ones in a pot growing well. Maincrop ones in large raised bed just starting to germinate.

*Cavolo nero - Nice sturdy little plants - 3rd year from a packet of seeds sent to me from a kind person on here - Mr F has planted them out this morning & covered them with insect mesh.

*Broccoli - It's a variety called 'raab - 60 days' which was free seed & is not a true broccoli. However, it behaves just like the 'sprouting' kinds & we have today cut our 3rd bunch of it to steam with tonight's meal. Have sown a 2nd tray of this to try & keep it coming as it is very nice.

*Shallots - Planted in small raised bed on Samhain last year - growing well. Mr F has been doing maintenance on this bed - weeding, snipping off flower buds, etc.

*Garlic - As above, they are in an identical raised bed. Can see the bulbs forming at the base of the stems. Usually ready for harvesting late June so we will see how they go.

*Salads - Rocket being regularly picked now. 1st sowing of lettuce transplanted to a trough. 2nd lot sown & germinating. Spring onions (white & red ones) are up & looking forward to some warmed weather.

*Artichoke - Can see a big bud coming. I usually get two good ones & eat one myself & leave the other for the bees…..I also love to see the fabulous purple flower open up.

*Strawberries - Flowering, fruits beginning to form.

*Redcurrants - 3 young bushes which were cuttings from my friend's allotment. One bush bore fruit last year. This year, there is fruit on all of them so I shall look forward to picking those. I added last year's to some wild foragings & made a batch of hedgerow jelly.

*Blackberries - I am not sure what the variety is but it's a thornless domesticated one we have had for years & it crops really well with large berries. It's leafing up well & seems to have plenty of buds forming too. Shall need to put a few more supports in just to push it back towards the shed wall as it is getting a bit enthusiastic atm & I soon won't be able to get to the compost bins!

*Rhubarb - A triffidy beast but has been rather battered by the wind in recent weeks. Have so far made our annual supply of rhubarb & date chutney plus 2 batches of rhubarb & cinnamon muffins. Also cooked some to have with my muesli as I have recently had to accept that I have developed a degree of lactose intolerance & am tweaking a few things so that they involve less milk consumption. I am going to make some more compote & might also make some strawberry & rhubarb jam, though would need to buy some strawberries for that as we only grow enough to do a few desserts. It's nice jam though & useful to give as a little gift, so I might well do that.

*Courgettes - I sowed these a few days later than usual but all have been potted up & will be hardened off ready to go out in the ground probably the first week of June.

*Tromboncino - Dodgy old seed so only got 1 plant out of 2 sowings. Not a problem though as we were only aiming for 2 & will have plenty of courgettes. Potted it up today so it can get a bit bigger before it samples the joys of outdoors.

*Guatemalan blue squash - Have 4 plants which is too many as I have only planned planting spaces for 3. I will probably give the spare one away. The most squashes we have had from a single plant is 3, usually 2, but they are large & one fruit provides a lot of portions. They also store well into the colder months. Very like butternut in flavour & colour inside, but I find them easier to grow.

*French beans - These are behind because I sowed them a bit later & they didn't like the cold. Old seed, but 15 have germinated so far & I will sow some newer seed if I need to make up the numbers - I aim for 30 plants as like plenty of beans for the freezer. We built the bean frame this morning - mostly Mr F, as my job was just tying the canes together with string.

*Potatoes - Mr F looks after these & I can't remember the variety but they are first earlies & are making good verdant growth. He says he's earthing them up next week. We don't have much success growing them in containers so have gone back to just a dozen or so tubers planted directly in the ground. Maincrop varieties have often succumbed to blight in the past, & of course this threatens the tomato crop too, so we work around this by just enjoying fewer home-grown spuds but making sure they are lovely freshly-dug new ones.

*Pears - Blossom looked good & there are plenty of tiny fruits forming. We always lose some during the 'June' drop' (well, that's what it's for) but I would hope to have enough of a crop to impact our fruit-buying expenditure positively later in the year.

*I also have coriander & basil in the greenhouse. The basil is potted up ready for planting amongst the greenhouse tomatoes when they are a little bigger. I grow Coriander 'Calypso' variety as a cut & come again so it just lives in a large pot & I usually sow a 2nd & third one when the 1st is looking a bit past it.

I haven't even started on sorting out my herb bed yet, which is unusually late for me & as I fully intend to fit 2 or 3 tomato plants at the back of it, it needs to be a job for this coming week. I can see that the oregano is looking really lush & ready for me to cut a bunch for tying & drying. The sorrel in that bed needs a bug cutback so I will use the leaves for something - I'm thinking curry greens & maybe experiment with a pesto.

Right, well I hope that was of some interest to the gardeners amongst our number & that non-gardeners wisely skipped to the end. Oh, & a lovely thing this morning, because nature provides so many free moments of joy…..I was walking down the garden & the buzzing & humming was so loud, I thought for a moment we must have a swarm. There wasn't, but the flowers on our whitebeam tree were covered in honey bees just loving the sweet floral scent. It was lovely to see them. Our swifts are back too & our neighbour has told us that there are now 2 hedgehogs frequenting our gardens. Could this mean hoglets? I do hope so! These things take my mind off things like the dentist this week, there still being no plaster on a large section of spare bedroom wall & the state of the world.

I need a good week ahead. Anyone else feeling that they could do with one too?

F x

Baileys_Babe

I'm no gardener but I love reading about your garden and growing activities.

foxgloves

Sympathy appreciated, @KajiKita. I am very much hoping I make the discovery (or Soot does the decent thng & decides to retrieve it) this week before it has the chance to get too 'ripe'. I wish with hindsight that I'd popped out & buried the damn thing as soon as I found it but tbf, I was barefoot in my nightshirt sans pants at the time & had no way of knowing that a naughty feline would decide to play 'Hide the rodent'. I really was beyond cross with him.

foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - Awww, well that's very nice of you to say so x

PennysIntoPounds

Aw, bees and swifts and hedgehogs and garden growing flourishing, what loveliness

I could definitely do with a good week ahead too, I have invigilating shifts early start every day and chronic pain condition is playing up and there are so many bits and bobs on the build to-do list that I want out of the way. Right, heads down, things accomplished, bribes to self of glass of wine it is!

foxgloves

Glass of wine on the go here too, @PiP 🙂

Dakota_Rose

Joining you on the good week ahead wishes. I think the weather is looking hopeful for turning a bit warmer and bright days do help bring brighter moods too I find.