And now we go again...

badmemory · 29 March 2024 at 5:06PM

savingholmes said:

Glad your neighbours help with the bins BM. You can sign up for extra help direct with the council if needed.

The great news is that since my hip replacement last year I no longer need much help at all, highly recommended. I just need to get my brain to get me to move more as I got too used to not being able to exercise so much. My mum lived to 90 so I am aiming for at least 95 so 17 years to go.

Blackcats · 29 March 2024 at 8:20PM

Sounds like you've been busy with your garden - it will be lovely for you to enjoy it this summer.
home made lemon curd sounds glorious.

EssexHebridean · 30 March 2024 at 11:22PM

Hello lovely visitors - thanks for popping in!

Good saving there SH - we popped in earlier on but came out again empty handed for now - we just went in to price up a few bits to compare with elsewhere this time.

ES The superfeet insoles are pricey aren’t they but on the other hand if you get more wear out of shoes as a result of them then we’ll worth it - this is my thinking with the Enert0r ones - they will mean I can wear the boots I have rather than having to start looking AGAIN for more comfortable ones, so that in itself will be a saving. I’d baulk at buying them at full price though - ouchy! I am also finding they work well in my older walking shoes which had started to lose support inside too, so again that’s a win.

BM how lovely of your neighbours with the bins - that’s such a nice thing!

Well, the garden is coming on apace! Lovely Steve the handyman came round today with assorted tools, got all the slabs on the section of patio we wanted lifted (eventually - some of them came up with massive lumps of concrete attached which made the job rather harder than it needed to be) and managed to break out two thirds of the concrete base too - and then we hit the section which was not prepared to play ball….sigh! More thinking required on that bit - it might be that if we can break out the base below it it will then come out a piece at a time if we can hit it hard enough with a lump hammer - but that might be trial and error. In the meantime though we have lots to be going on with to keep us busy as it is going to take a heck of a lot of prep work to get it plantable! We’ve already filled 5 woven log-sacks to the heaviest MrEH can carry, and 4 smaller rubble sacks with as much as they can cope with, with rubble and chunks of concrete and the smaller bits of slab. We plan to go through the broken out slabs and see what we think we can use elsewhere in the garden - while Steve was dealing with the patio area I cut out a strip of grass where we want to extend it slightly at the house end - that will just be built up with loose slabs for now and is where we plan to put herb pots. Some more of the salvaged slabs will go to the other end of the garden to slightly enlarge the path at that end. We have 2 tip runs booked on Monday to get rid of as much as possible of the rubble and any slabs we’re sure we can’t re-use.

Other jobs done today include sorting through the seed box and getting some more odds and ends sewn. Some very old sweet pea seeds have been used up - they may well come to nothing as they are very out of date, but we’ll see. Some similarly ancient nasturtiums have been sown in pots in the front, and while I was out there I also used up my saved aquilegia seed from the plants we had at the flat, and sprinkled a packet of cornflower seed as well. I’ve sewn a pot of chives, and MrEH has done a seed tray with Swiss chard - again old seed, but we have some brand new as well so if it doesn’t germinate we will re-sow. The main thing we were astonished by today was how lovely and warm the sun was - for much of the day while I was doing bits and pieces out there I was absolutely fine without a hoody on, although the temperature did drop down quite chilly again later on.

As predicted we’ve gone over our grocery budget for the month, but it was mostly buying the two planned hams that took us over and we’ll get a lot of meals from those. Ideally I’d like to get them both cooked together - MrEH has requested that one of them is glazed and baked so I will probably do that with both this time - so they’ll go in the slow cooker again with our usual spices *if* they will both fit, then we’ll transfer to the oven, one with treacle and mustard and the other probably with marmalade.

Tomorrow we’re heading off adventuring on our planned trip to Suffolk which we are very much looking forward to. There will be lunch in the cafe at Minsmere, and tea from the chippy at Aldeburgh, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to a bit of time by the sea!