Having returned to London on Monday afternoon, we were excited to see how our garden and the allotment had fared in our absence. We were lucky that there had been lots of rain whilst we were away and as a consequence, we hadn't lost any plants. In fact, they were probably a bit over watered if anything. I spent a little while pottering in the garden, deadheading and checking up on all the plants and then later OH and I walked over to the allotment and harvested lots of lettuce, raspberries and strawberries.
Everything had grown really well on the plot. The peas are growing pods and there are small fruit on the tomatoes and cucumbers. OH planted out a few more lettuce and I weeded a little. There was absolutely no need to water at all. There's nothing worse than going on holiday and coming back to dead plants, so we considered ourselves lucky that everything was okay.
On Tuesday, I got up and unpacked from the holiday. I had done my laundry the day before, but needed to unpack toiletries and other items. I had booked my usual Zumba class for 10am and I was very happy to get back to it. I got drenched in a torrential downpour on my way home. It was just as well that I was intending to have a shower and change when I got home, before heading out to do some grocery shopping out of town.
I set off at about 12.30pm and visited a few shops to get everything we needed. I used a £5 off voucher at Tesco and another £5 off voucher I'd accumulated at Lidl, under their new points scheme. It was good to get some food in the house, as there was virtually nothing fresh when we got home, save for what we harvested at the allotment. We had to just manage with what was in the freezer and pantry.
On Wednesday, I didn't have to get up early for anything, so I stayed in bed late reading a bit of both of the books I'm currently reading. I didn't really do much reading on holiday, so it was good to get back to it. I eventually got up and ready, did a bit of blogging and later in the afternoon headed out to meet a couple of friends for an early supper. One friend, like me, is celebrating her 60th birthday this year.
Anyway, I stopped off at Lidl, during a torrential downpour, to pick up a bottle of wine, and a woman was having a full on melt down, due to a security guard watching her. She was screeching at the top of her voice for over 10 minutes about how she was going to lose him his job and, of course, the staff were so distracted by her it took longer to get them to authorise purchases and other people used the distraction to try to shoplift. It was chaos. This is a perfect example of why I don't like to shop locally. There is very rarely any kind of drama when I shop out of town.
I jumped back on another bus and met my friends at the restaurant. It was good to have a catchup of everyone's news. Both my friends were celebrating birthdays this month, and the birth of a new grandchild is also imminent for one of them, so we managed to work our way through two bottles of wine between us, which was unusual. Eventually, we left and headed our separate ways home.
On Thursday, I was booked into aerobics at 10am. It felt like hard work today, probably because I was a bit hungover. My body felt like a lead weight. It doesn't help that I haven't been going as regularly, due to one thing or another. I didn't do a lot in the afternoon, save some laundry and have a nap on the sofa. I was feeling tired and completely lacking in motivation. I did start a new sewing project in the evening. I've decided to make an apron for gardening in, to hold gloves, secateurs, my phone, etc. I'm using what's left of some jeans I deconstructed. I'm just not feeling like working on my ongoing projects at the moment and needed a fresh challenge.
I didn't sleep well on Thursday night, as LB was out at a concert and with friends. I never sleep until she gets home, which was gone 3am on this particular occasion, so I couldn't get myself out of bed very early on Friday morning. When I did eventually get up, I showered and then pottered around the kitchen doing odd jobs. OH went to the allotment and harvested more produce, which I weighed and washed when he got back.
I did a bit of machine sewing on the new apron project in the afternoon. It didn't take long. I'll post a picture in my monthly makes post. It's not been a very productive week, especially knowing that we're going to Yorkshire again next week for the funeral of OH's brother. I can't seem to settle into doing anything. The weather hasn't been great either, although it did finally stop raining on Friday and we got some long overdue sunshine again.
On Saturday, it was lovely and sunny, so I spent the afternoon pottering in the garden. I potted on one of the white borage plants I grew from seed. Here it is in it's new pot:
It's growing to a good size, but should get bigger. I'm hoping the bees like it and the leaves are also useful for plant food, besides being pretty that is. I've got a few more plants and want to put some at the allotment and some in the garden.
My old cactus seems to be happy at the moment and is sending off lots of flower buds, some of which have opened. I always love seeing this plant flower.
I picked the rest of the blackcurrants from the garden bush. I picked a few before we went on holiday and froze them. I weighed them all together to add to my tally. Not a great amount, but there's another bush at the allotment, along with lots of gooseberries, which when put together make a nice jam. We've still got four jars of jam that I made last year, but I will be making more once I've harvested everything.
I also ate the ripe black mulberries from my tree in the garden. They are so sweet. Again, not a huge crop, but very tasty.
Later on Saturday, OH and I took a stroll over to the allotment, where he harvested a row of new potatoes and I did some weeding and planted out a couple of dahlias I'd bought whilst on holiday. I also harvested some of the gooseberries. The paths that I'd cleared of weeds a few weeks ago, had more weeds growing through, so I cleared them all ready for the inspection at the end of the month. I may need to do a bit more if they grow back in the next two weeks.
On Sunday, I got up, put lots of laundry away and then got ready for the gym. I'm having to virtually drag myself there these days, but I need to go really and my gym session went okay. I didn't do a lot for the rest of the day. I read just my library book, which was due back the following day, so I needed to finish it.
Hope you've had a good week.
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