Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

rtandon27

...I've never worn a nightie in my life!  2-pc sets all the way - but now i understand the lure of being dressed, to many creepy crawlies otherwise!

greent

I've been known to nip out to the washing line in my standard nightwear (strappy vest top and big knickers) - but I'm usually awake far earlier than any neighbours. I regularly go in the garden in PJs, though - and have been known to run down the drive in PJs with the bins for the bin lorry already in the street 😁

Suffolk_lass

How funny we all are, with different nightwear and preparedness to go outdoors in it. It will be lovely baggy, cotton PJs for the next two nights for me. I now have 3 pairs of bottoms in two sizes and three tops, also in two sizes. I think that covers the options, with one pair of shorts in that combo. They are a blue and yellow print from M&S, and I am happy to leave the motorhome confines in them when the dog needs to go out.

Right, I have started a Members RS with the BS we had our mortgage with. I hope I have paid in £250 this morning and scheduled a SO of 11 more. It will help with the "I need to be skint" thing that stops me being a spendthrift.

It will no doubt be needed for the pig-shed replacement (I dare not call it a plan yet). We discussed it yesterday and Mr Sl has agreed with my suggestion of an open double cart-lodge kit on a low wall. The open storage will face into the garden and the left side will be fully built, the right will have a door in the back, through into a garden room with a kitchen area with a 1.5 sink at the left end and a work area at the other. This will be where we extract our honey, so it needs electricity, water and at least a soak away. The work area I can use for my upholstery ambitions. I have two pieces of wooden furniture to reupholster. Both need leather seats and backs. One I bought at auction for £10 to practice on, the other is a double-seat bench in our dining room (I also bought this for a tenner). We need to find storage options for the current contents and then take most of it down in order to re-do the concrete plinth (that is undermining it, after rats and rabbits excavated under it!). It's a permanent structure on our deeds so will need the existing part to be on a wall. The garden room part is a temporary wooden structure so does not need planning approval, providing it is over 1m from the boundary.

I want to paint our sheds and existing cart lodge black too, so a bit of clearing around this to gain access is needed. I feel I have been talking about this for ages!! Bank holiday weekend is D(ecision)-day!

Suffolk_lass

Phew, another week gone! Yesterday my gardener friend and I went 30 minutes away to collect enough resin and slate roof tiles for our upcoming building repair/replacement. They weighed in at about a ton and a half so we borrowed a braked trailer from the friendly farmer, where I keep my bees to collect them. Safe to say my shoulders feel it a bit this morning, after loading and unloading over 700 of them!!

I have prepped all the ripe tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt (like Nonna says), ready to make passata, later today. This won't be the only batch as there are some in the freezer and some still on the plants, but I wanted to clear all the tomatoes in the kitchen, to make enough room for me to work as I have sorbet and jelly to make for tomorrow, when we have friends visiting, and apples and plums to process into jars for winter loveliness. I have to do this now because I have run out of freezer space!

Suffolk_lass

I should add that I have around 12 bags of courgettes frozen and need to make another batch of soup today. Adding ginger and a little honey to make it a bit interesting (plus chilli, of course!). And I think I need to feed the sourdough starter Mr Sl prepared for me on Monday. I might leave bread-making until tomorrow morning and just double its size. With my planned liberation of some of the frozen fruit today, I am hopeful there will be room to freeze a few small loaves and some rolls! And I need to remove some salmon steaks for tomorrow's visitors.

In money news, my state pension has arrived in the nick of time this morning, having bought the slates (above) for £1000 cash! It did involve some juggling to be able to withdraw £250 four times this week!

Watty1

Whenever I read here I want to start growing veg and preserving

foxgloves

Same here for freezer space, @Suffolk_lass. Have been bottling blackberry & pear compote to enable pantry, rather than freezer storage. Tomatoes a bit later this year, but I can see there are lots to pick today & I shall soon be bottling those too.
F

Suffolk_lass

So my jelly with raspberries and blackberries, suspended in raspberry jelly is done and in the fridge. My raspberry and lemon water ice cream(called a sorbet but no egg white) is in the freezer. My ice cream maker is washed up - it was not suitable for the water ice and I don't think the freezer space I made was cold enough for it. I have a tea loaf baking, and two jars of plum and apple (reheated this morning to get the tops to pop) and one of tomatoes, out on the side. I have two batches of bread proving, and the salmon steaks for this evening are in from the chest freezer. In a moment I need to knock back the first dough batch, so it is ready after the first fruit loaf in cooked, and then a coffee, I think.

Yesterday I made 10 jars of plum and apple (as above, two didn't pop) and 8 jars of tomatoes (with the other one as above). I nearly feel on top for the moment...

rtandon27

Wow SL - your efforts amaze me!  - I"m happy with my 3kg of frozen blackberries this year & will harvest the first growning bag of potatoes today - but the quantity of produce you harvest is well beyond me!!!

Humdinger1

Late to the party re gardening in lace-trimmed satin negliges, but may I add my story of skinny-dipping on holiday in France, surrounded by crop stubble? We were in the altogether in the pool and suddenly smoke started to rise and the farmer strode up the field to check how his arson attempt was getting on. We leapt out of the pool and into towelling robes in record time...love Humdinger xx