And now we go again...

lucielle

I’ve got a trough that I’ll plant with herbs and keep outside but near to the kitchen. 

L

EssexHebridean

redofromstart said:

Compost - I am not keen at all on the'own brand' stuff, full of rubbish last time I bought some (verve organge diy I think). It also depends what you plan to use it for, it generally has six weeks feed built in if you buy the ones with feed in, but I like the ones with water retaining gel for flower planters. You can of course add your own, if you can track any down. Eventually found some water gel in the R4nge last year. What is a bonus is if you can some compost that has been stored inside, MrM or Wickes is generally good for this.it soaks your car and is far too wet for seed trays for a few weeks otherwise, but if it is soaked at least stand it on its end when you get home.  

I buy the boxed dried coir in MrM at the end of the season when it goes to £2.50, cheap and easy to store till spring but a lot of water to rehydrate. 

Great info there - thank you! Yes, I'm inclined to steer clear of the own brand stuff as well - we have always got away with using it in the main growing bed before but the last couple of times we've used it for sowing stuff in trays we've been disappointed with the results. I'm not sure any of our DIY warehouse or garden centre type places locally store inside unfortunately - I think our best shot on that might be H0meb@se who do at least have pallets of it that are moved inside overnight, out the front of the store. 

That's a good tip on the coir too - I'll have to remember to go for a look at a M's later in the year then! 

L - that's exactly my thinking on the herbs - I want them where I can just step outside and pick as needed!

Blackcats - yes, it's the lasagne layering idea I was considering. I want to choose stuff that will cheerfully carry on doing its thing for a good few years.

MSE Stuff:
- I've been paid - but early again, and before my payslip has landed, so there will need to  be another small payment once my payslip lands. I think I have now got the message across that the payslip is a bit critical, and Madam has contacted the payroll department to let them know that sending that through to her on my actual paydate doesn't work for her, so hopefully from this month she should have it in time.
- My shoes arrived from V1inted - I think the seller may have been pushing the truth a little with "only worn a couple of times" but in fairness they are only very lightly worn, and I've actually switched the insoles from my old ones into them anyway, so I'm happy enough considering what I paid. I'm wearing them today and they feel comfy enough which is the main thing. I'll give them a few days wear then swap back to the others again so I can save these for holiday. 
- CC is squared away apart from the Hidden London tour we booked - which we  need to sort out the money for. Mine will come from my fun account, MrEH can sort himself out as he chooses. I transferred the £8 for the bag of cobbles this morning so that will have shown cleared  back by tomorrow. 
- We need to hurry up the roof repair as there is now water coming through from under the bath where it's pooled, to the kitchen. MrEH is meant to be chasing that today.
- Dehumidifier will be running in the bathroom all day as a result of ^ - allowing that MrEH will also have the office heater on much of the day I'm predicting an ouchy day on electrickery use. 
- I've said "thanks, but no thanks" to the garden person who is seemingly determined to mess us about on when they can come and quote for cutting out the new veg bed. My thinking is that if they are messing us about at this stage, getting the job done by them would be a nightmare. I suspect they shouldn't really be saying they cover our area on Checkatrade to be honest. Enquiries sent for quotes to 2 more anyway - hopefully one of them will come up trumps. 
- New "Savings for Solar" pot set up - that will get the £500 p/m that currently isn't going to a Coventry Reg Saver, plus any surplus from the joint account at the end of each month that is not earmarked for the mortgage...
- And on that subject, £168.12 sent to the mortgage this morning! 
- last night's stir fry was delicious - the minced pork worked well and the satay-ish sauce was lovely. 
- Tonight's couscous is all planned - lets of tasty veggies going into that tonight - in fact I may just do a big tray of roasted veggies and have some left for use with pasta or whatever later in the week. (But when I do that we always seem to end up just using them all, so I may not!) Need to decide whether to whack the cauli in with the veg to roast, or leave it for a cauli cheese bake later in the week. Decisions, decisions! 

Still debating about a trip up to Lincoln on Friday - as always it will be a balance of what the Reds are doing, and what the weather looks like. My car will need diesel at some stage either before I leave (optimum) or when I'm up there if I do go - I am NOT playing diesel jeopardy again as that was not fun. 

That's about all from us I think. I'm taking "fairly quiet" as being mostly good... 

kayannie

Compost - Bee & Emm have a special offer on large bags of Westland compost, £15 for 3 (£5.99 each normally). I have opened one bag & am using it for planting seeds. Very happy with it so far as it is very smooth with no big 'twiggy' bits in it, unlike compost I bought last year. KA

themadvix

@kayannie what size bag is that please?

Makingabobor2

kayannie said:

Compost - Bee & Emm have a special offer on large bags of Westland compost, £15 for 3 (£5.99 each normally). I have opened one bag & am using it for planting seeds. Very happy with it so far as it is very smooth with no big 'twiggy' bits in it, unlike compost I bought last year. KA

Ooh, I must take a look in our local one. Could do with getting some compost. Thanks for the tip

EssexHebridean

kayannie said:

Compost - Bee & Emm have a special offer on large bags of Westland compost, £15 for 3 (£5.99 each normally). I have opened one bag & am using it for planting seeds. Very happy with it so far as it is very smooth with no big 'twiggy' bits in it, unlike compost I bought last year. KA

This is great info - as it was indeed those Westland bags that were on my radar. Thank you! We too encountered lots of twiggy bits in compost last year which basically meant we had to go through every scoop of it to make it "seed friendly". 

Vix - IIRC they are 50l bags - so not the massive ones, but a decent size for slightly easier lugging about! 

I may well make that a bit of a weekend priority I think - although the main priority right now is to actually get someone to be willing to at least come along and quote for the wretched cutting out of the new bed! It's crazy that it's such a struggle to find someone who is interested. I also need to make sure there is space in the shed to get the bags in... 

lucielle

I feel your pain in getting trades in. I’m still waiting to have a chimney breast removed, supposed to be done in September. 

L

Cheery_Daff

I too feel your pain. I'm still waiting for the boiler repair guy to send an invoice for the electrical stuff he dealt with weeks ago - I suspect he's avoiding me because he knows I want him to do a boiler service 😂

This is why I often go into "fine! I'll do it my damn self then!" mode 🙄 But I appreciate that I am quite fortunate to have the physical strength and time to be able to do that and it's often not possible. There's SUCH a big market out there for reliable cheerful tradespeople to do relatively small jobs. Maybe I'll have a career change!

In the meantime, good luck finding someone...

Sun_Addict

You might be better finding a handyman who'll take on the garden work rather than a gardener or have you already gone down this route. 

EssexHebridean

Cheery you could have a great career as a handywoman I suspect! If you decide academia is not for you that would definitely be a second string worth exploring!  L it's crazy isn't it - I feel like starting every enquiry with "I'm so sorry, I'd like to pay you some money to do a job for me but I do appreciate that might not be something you would be interested in...!"  I have sent yet another enquiry anyway - fingers crossed for that one! 

Right then - on the countdown now to a new month. I sent my contribution across to the Joint account yesterday, and the little extra bit to the mortgage OP account as well ready for a start of month payment from there. MrEH will be paid tomorrow (having now remembered the leap year!) and I will square everything else up at that stage. 
Remaining joint surplus was transferred over to the Savings For Solar pot last night so that is off the starting blocks. It will get a further £500 tomorrow from the money that isn't going to the Coventry too. My personal surplus has been split between my airshow pot and my personal long term savings, and my spends account is refilled ready for the new month.

I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself at the moment. I pulled my big-girl pants up and asked Madam Boss at work if rather than me having a very much overdue pay review, we could instead agree that I would get an additional 5 days holiday per year. It's not a good time for the firm to be considering a monetary rise at the moment, and frankly the extra days off would be of more use to me. (The pay review was overdue because at the time we should have been discussing it covid happened, and then once back from furlough I was extremely conscious that things were still tight financially, plus they were SO good to me while I was furloughed. Then with Lovely Mr Boss going off long term sick last autumn, and still not being back... ) Anyway, M took a week to think about it but said this morning yes, absolutely fine, and also volunteered that we would also book in a pay review at the end of next year which I am personally happy with as well. That means that this year - with no beer festival - I have holiday galore, and even in a normal year I'll still have enough that being able to say yes to things like trips away with pals etc won't be a problem any more. Delighted - both with the outcome and that I was brave enough to broach the subject as well! 

I remembered to get the cooked chicken chipolatas out of the freezer this morning ready to chop up to go into risotto this evening. That will see off the final leek, and the last of the lovely mushrooms as well. Other jobs this evening will be getting a load of washing to the airer, and emptying the dishwasher. 

The roof chap has said that he hopes to be able to get to us on Friday, and if not, then early part of next week - so fingers crossed for that. There is a limit to what the dehumidifier can achieve particularly as we will only run it while we're in, and there is more rain forecast tomorrow and Friday too! 

In personal stuff, I did the final day of the YWA 30 day yoga challenge yesterday evening - I'm SO pleased with my consistency this time round, and I've really enjoyed it as well. I'll make a decision later on which one I'm going to do next as I'm keen to carry on, and the focus of a daily practise like that really sets  me up for getting it done.