And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Update:
- ragu made - started in the multi cooker on sauté mode, and now switched to slow cooker mode and bubbling away nicely to itself. 

- budget wrangling completed. As I suspected it appears that in spite of May being a short month for us because of our holiday MrEH will still need 2 Oyster feeds, assuming he does need an additional one yet this month. That is a “wait and see” for now.
- Updated savings log written up - a few things have changed in the last little while (including a new regular saver for me, and MrEH will be opening one of the same fairly soon) so an update there was overdue. We’ve also had some end of financial year interest land, too. 

- I will need to do more budget wrangling at the beginning of next month when I know what MrEH’s pay will be going to. He’s had two tax code changes (one relating to savings interest which decreased his personal allowance, but also another change which will then have increased it) as well as the NI adjustment taking effect, so once I know what that will mean for money coming in, I’ll be able to re-work things. 

- washing is now on the line. I’ve no idea how dry it will get, but the forecast suggests we should be dry now overnight and through tomorrow so I am actually tempted just to leave it out there and then see how it is tomorrow morning. 

A bit of garden pottering has also happened - the mini poly tunnel is now up and over the courgettes, and the “spare” one has gone into the mini greenhouse as we are forecast to drop quite low on temperature overnight. I was delighted to find that as TMV suspected, our mini tunnel (which must be approaching 25 years old!) is still in perfect working order with no sign of any degradation of the plastic. Excellent news as they are such useful things! I have also given one shrub (type unknown, but not particularly attractive) a haircut to give the Aquilegia a bit more room, and given much the same treatment to a lavender which was bullying a Pulmonaria that I particularly like. 

Our purchased troughs have arrived, so a job for tomorrow or Sunday morning will be getting holes drilled in the bases and then getting a couple of them planted up with spinach/ Salad and the first sowing of radishes. 

Tomorrows plans are mostly trying to get our seed potatoes  - MrEH has the barbers first thing, and he will see if the Lil’s on that side of town have their compost (40litres for £3.49 a bag)  and will grab a bag each for us and Mum if so. He’s then going to pop back here to pick me up, and we’ll pop to the garden centre that hopefully have the Pink Fir Apple seed tatties we want. We only have a limited time as he’s off to support one of the rugby club’s teams in a cup final in the afternoon. I have no specific plans for my afternoon although I might take the bike for a bit of a charity shop trundle - on the other hand I may stay here and save my hard-earned! I do plan one spend at the garden centre though and that is treating myself to another aquilegia which particularly caught my eye! 

Right, as MrEH has now finished work and doesn’t have to go out quite yet for his own rugby match he is playing in this evening, I shall leave this here! Once he has gone, I will be aiming to tick off another day of Yoga (which will make it 5/5 for this week) - might be failing on the “drink more water” front today though! 

savingholmes

Well done on the yoga. Sounds like you've had a really productive day. 

What garden troughs have your ordered? Piccies welcome.

themadvix

I’ve just done my yoga, making it 5/5 for me too! 😊

If they’re main crop, I’d say you’re about on time for planting - I think the early Easter has made everything feel later than it is this year.

Blackcats

It's definitely been a week of washing on the line, rain,  washing in, washing out,  rain - and so on and so on. 

Like you we managed to get ours dried despite some additional rinsing with freshly falling rain drops.

PennysIntoPounds

You are very welcome to our remaining couple of strips of vouchers! I've been giving them to people here and there but the deadline for using them is coming up and I hate to see things that have been paid for going unused, I don't mind if it's not me who uses them, it's the principle of the thing!
Only a week and a half left to use them so DM me if you want them

EssexHebridean

Thanks PiP, that’s really kind but with that little left on yours it’s not likely we’d use them . Joking aside, we have never even come close to using even half of ours in the past, so it feels like quite a novelty currently using several most weeks! 

BC I’m currently keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast as my washing line is full - one load has already finished drying and been brought in, and I decided that it made sense to throw a load of towels though while it was dry, so those have now been added to the load I put out first thing this morning - the sun can’t quite decide whether to stay out but things do seem to be drying anyway as there is enough breeze! 

TMV well done on the yoga! I’m shortly going to make it 6/5 I think - I’ll be missing a few days at the end of next week as we are away so I want to get it fitted in while I can!  And yes - you’re probably right about the tatties - they are Pink Fir Apples which are a particular favourite of ours, so yes, maincrop. Strangely the old allotment diary I have here doesn’t mention anything about potatoes, which is odd as it seems mad that we didn’t grow any, but when I think about it I have a feeling that the year before that there might have been real issues with pests on the plots, I do vaguely remember one year that we just opted not to plant any as thr year before they had all been tunnelled to the point of inedibility! 

SH the troughs were these: 

They are decently sturdy, were very easy to drill out for drainage holes (MrEH did that this morning and it took him longer to get the drill out, and back away than drilling the holes took!) and they definitely seem decent value for money. 

Seem to have already achieved quite a bit today!

MSE Stuff:
- washing run first thing and out on the line as soon as it had finished
- further load of towels in to machine, timed to finish when we got back from our trip out this morning, and also now on the line
- MrEH popped in to the charity shop while he was over on that side of town and bought a jigsaw (500 piece - which is as large as we will have space for) to take on holiday, and also a box with random candle making bits in - wax, wicks etc. we need to make some more at some stage some that will be useful.
- I whizzed round upstairs with jaws while he was out - might steam mop up there in a bit too.
- went to the garden centre for the seed tatties, they had a glorious display of ranunculus out the front at £1 each so we called bargain and added 3 of those to the trolley. Also got a small but vigorous looking winter savoury, and a purple sage to add to the herb stocks. 
- we were just on our way to the till when I spotted the trays of lettuce plants for £1 - that’s the full tray of 10 plants! As I commented, if we only use what is there already and don’t get any more from it, it would still be VFM, so one of those was also purchased. That lot will all come from the garden fund.
- called in to our favourite nursery on the way back past for the aquilegia I wanted (a beautiful mixed colour variety) and also got a bronze fennel which I had intended to get. The two impulse bought geraniums were another matter but at only 80p each they won’t break the bank. Those bits are from my personal spends. 

- back via Lil’s for compost as the one near where himself was this morning seem to have stopped doing garden bits. To my astonishment we nabbed the last two bags - they have sold a crazy amount since yesterday! I shouldn’t be surprised though as it is an excellent price.
- resisted buying anything which would come out of the grocery budget in Lil’s! 😂

- cheese, ham and onion marmalade butty for lunch using some of yesterdays freebie Lil’s loaf. 😋 
- some stones chipped out of the concrete chunks which are due to go to the tip tomorrow for using for free pot ballast. I’ll do some more in a bit.

- cheapie lettuce plants already planted up in one of the new troughs
- plant babies from the mini greenhouse watered using run-off water from the washing up (boiler being in the loft means a long run to get hot water!) and saved into a watering can, ready! 

- a quick weed of the bed we intend to use for our beans - I have put the obelisk in place too and we will probably mastermind the frame tomorrow - that will use canes that we already have. 

I do plan to do a little more pottering about in the garden although I must take the doorbell outside with me as I’m expecting a couple of  parcels. (Including my bras, which RM “helpfully” informed me would be delivered between 0730 - 1930 today. Sigh.) Can’t decide whether to get the next trough sown up with the first lot of radishes or not as we are forecast quite a run of chillier temperatures now - on the other hand I doubt they’ll mind, they’ll just be a little slower to germinate. I was going to do another sowing of salad leaves but I will  probably leave those for now since we have the bargainous bought ones. We need to make a decision about when to get the runner beans underway as well. We can happily start them indoors, but they will then need mini-greenhouse space as and when they are ready for the outside world. It’s striking a balance between making sure they are sturdy enough ready for when we will be away (which is of course the same time as ideally we would just sow them direct, outdoors!)  

ooh - the sun is back out, I should go and make the most of it! 

redofromstart

Sounds like some brilliant garden spends.

i had a bacon, Brie and mango Chutney sandwich when we were killing time the other day - not a combo I would have thought of but it really worked. 

ETA added 99pmango chutney to order. Ido make my own, it is tasty but only good value if the mangoes are pennies

EssexHebridean

That sounds like a superb sandwich - I like Brie & Bacon anyway, and usually Cranberry sauce is the addition of choice, but mango chutney would absolutely work! 

We used to live within a stones-throw of the market in Walthamstow (Used to be the longest street market in the country but I suspect no longer wears that crown) and there used to be fairly regular occasions where it was possible to buy a full tray of mangoes for £1 - we used to make chutney a LOT back then! 

Right - apologies for radio silence over the last few days - life seems to have got hectic! 

- Bras arrived, were tried on, and will shortly be being returned. Disappointing as I had hopes of the wire-free ones fitting, but like so many of those sorts of things, they fitted where they touched, but only barely. Honestly the strangest shape though! The other two I ordered were just "not quite right" and I'm not paying B0ux Av prices - even sale prices -for "not quite right". 
- Radishes did get sown, and the next batch of spinach has also been done now too. 
- The new Bronze Fennel and Savoury got planted into the new bed, and MrEH got the tatties in too so the middle of it now has three nice "ridges" across it - "tell me you're growing tatties without telling me..."! 
- Site visit for possible new festival venue on Monday went OK - then 3 of us went to the pub afterwards for "a quick beer". having had that quick one, we then had several more slow ones! Did end up getting home rather later than planned, but hey ho, these things happen!
- Food shopping for the week did end up being rather more restrained than the past few weeks, so that's good. I've not quite got to the point of totting up the spend so far, though.

A fair amount more to mention, but it will have to wait for later! 

lucielle

Love the quick beer followed by slow ones!  I do love a market and having a good mooch about. I used to end up with arms like an orangutan by the time I’d lugged everything home. 

L

PennysIntoPounds

I'd forgotten that Walthamstow market was the longest, it was sooo long! 
Beers and venue hunting sound great, and well done for not settling for the not right bras