And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Good morning all - it's a sunny one here, and the forecast says should be dry all day too so fingers crossed that is correct!

The campsite we stay on for the first and last days of our Hebrides trips uses the folding washing up bowls in the glamping pods - they're such a good idea, and yes, they certainly do seem quite resilient don't they! BB loving your win with fascinated children suddenly gaining an interest in washing up!  I've seen folding storage tubs too - although how much space they actually save bearing in mind regular ones mostly stack inside one another I've no idea!

Garden stuff last night morphed into a different shape (as it does!) as a lot of stuff needed watering, so that was prioritised. I did manage to get all the tomatoes staked as needed though so that was productive. We've pretty much decided on what is going in the trough that needs planting now I think- and it involves giving the Lambs Lettuce seeds one final chance - if this lot don't germinate then I'm throwing the seeds away and giving up! Mr EH will get more pak choi and some more chard going over the weekend too. 
The accommodation got sorted and the bathroom got a quick clean, so all good there. 

MSE Stuff:
- a load of washing through overnight and on the line this morning for free drying without introducing dampness indoors.
- all garden watering done last night using "free" water from the waterbutt rather than needing to run the hose/tap.
- I placed an order with Z1pv1t this morning on the way in to London (MrEH driving) using a 15% off code. Weighed up whether I was better going through TCB and using a code they had but decided against due to the risk of the cashback not going through - decided the advantage of paying less money now was better. qualified for free postage anyway.
- Friday night's airshow accommodation got booked last night - and a win there as I double checked with C where she had booked before I committed - turned out she's booked the T/Ldge rather than the P/Inn so an £18 saving. 
- Car topped up with diesel on the way back last night as I decided that was a better bet than having to find somewhere when I "needed" fuel on Friday. That will more than cover me for the weekend now. 
- I need to think about what to do food wise on saturday and sunday. I'll need breakfast, lunch & tea on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on sunday, so will probably take our cold box in the boot of the car so I can get away with buying stuff on Friday for saturday's lunch, and on saturday evening for sunday's. Breakfasts will most likely be bacon butties at the show. Friday night C and I intend to go and get a meal somewhere although not sure where yet, and once I've checked out my airbnb I'll probably just grab a supermarket pizza for saturday evening. Sunday I will almost certainly get lunch at the show, depending what the offerings look like when I browse round the day before!


This evening, I need to:
- Do the final check through my camera kit ahead of the weekend
- get clothing/toiletries sorted for the weekend
- try and get 15 minutes in the garden to get that trough sorted.
We will be eating ham & mushroom omelettes with salad and baked sweet potatoes. 

beanielou

Have the best time. 

savingholmes

Glad you had a lovely time away. Enjoy your next airshow.

Well done on the mortgage progress.

Sorry about the pests attacking your garden - hopefully you can get some more plants in the ground and they'll survive better.

EssexHebridean

Thanks both! 

I did get my camera kit sorted, and most of my clothes etc - those just need shoving in a bag this evening.
Have agreed that MrEH will get the trough sown up over the weekend so need to remember to discuss what we are putting in there. 

Harvested our first courgette last night! still quite small, but it was one that would be in risk of being munched by something other than us if it had carried on growing and it wasn't that far short of a length I would usually harvest at so I was happier just to take it - delicious! MrEH will need to keep a close eye over the weekend as there is at least one more which will shortly be in a similar position, so he may need to take that one off too. Also used some more salad leaves, some sorrel, some radish leaves and I had a few more of the little round carrots as well. Something had dug up my coriander AGAIN, and also one of the parsley pots too - I can only assume it's ether pigeons digging about, or squirrels, but it's very annoying, and I can't think of an easy deterrent either. Does anyone know if the ultrasonic devices have any effect at all against squirrels? If so I may try one of those. 

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good. It's the quiet point in the month now so should just be ticking over until paydays roll around!
- MrEH has been asked for his contribution to the CC. I will be matching that, then any remaining balance will just come from the joint account this time round. 
- MrEH fed his Oyster last night - I have already suggested he tops up again next week to spread the cost a bit more evenly as otherwise we'll have 3 top-ups in July and only one this month. 
- The garden starting to contribute meaningfully to meals is welcome!
- Used a £1 off voucher in T's last night to stock up on ST's - they didn't have the regular daytime ones I use but did have the overnights, and the "usual" special offer was on so I ended up paying 73p a pack which is good value, especially as this is a horrifically Shrinkflation affected product with pack sizes dropping from 10 down to only 8 now! 
- Tried to get the free washing liquid with the other coupon but there wasn't even a shelf space for it - MrEH now has the voucher and will take a look over the weekend in our local stores. It's OOS on the website as well though so my suspicion is we won't find it. 
- Electricity use is definitely looking a lot lower now which is good to see - and of course gas use is right down. This month and last aren't representative but I can start to approximate where our use might head through the summer months and even with our current lower than "recommended" DD of £80 we should be adding to credit through the summer so all good. I'm still musing over whether to take some of the credit out, or not. We can't jump off our fix until the end of August, and I get the nasty feeling that by then prices for fixing will have increased again. I need to get the price checker site for agile/tracker up as a tab on my work computer so I can keep a better eye on how that's looking. 

We will be heading to the pub this evening for our usual Thursday evening wind-down - using CAMRA vouchers to do that well known meteorological/cutlery based pub chain out of 50p a pint! Spending there is as always from personal spends, so no hit to the household budget. 

This evening's food will be pasta with salmon, pan fried red pepper and tomatoes - cream cheese to make a sauce and lots of black pepper! I even remembered to get the salmon out to defrost last night as well, go me!  Simple and relatively quick and full of good stuff. The tommies were an Al's 30% off win from last weekend.

foxgloves

It's lovely when the garden starts contributing to the grocery budget, isn't it? Even with the cold wet weather putting us behind here, we have been picking cucumbers, lettuces, rhubarb, strawberries & plenty of herbs. Enjoyed reading about how your garden is getting on.
F 

Moorviews

Congratulations on your first courgette 😊 Hopefully there will be many more to come. Snails have eaten into the stems of my courgette plants, however they still seem to be hanging on for the moment. My experience of those ultrasonic devices is that they made no difference at all to any rodents unfortunately. 

greenbee

There was an episode of 'Slice Bread' on R4 recently which looked into ultrasonic deterrents and concluded there is no evidence to suggest that they are effective. 

rtandon27

We have an electronic deterant in the basement at work and I saw a small mousey today sitting upright, licking his paws right in front of it. It was plugged in and the working light was on so all I can conclude is that it is utterly useless.

Blackcats

Enjoy your weekend.  Look forward to seeing some photos.

savingholmes

Nice to harvest your own food. 

Well done for keeping on top of the CC