Allotment Catch Up

As promised, I spent a few hours at the allotment on Monday afternoon.  I walk past the site at least 2 or 3 times per week on dog walks and always take a look to see what needs doing.  This past week the weeds have been bothering me and I knew I'd have to get them under control as soon as possible.

As usual, I forgot to take a before photo, because I just wanted to get stuck in and get the work done, but as I only managed to work on one side in the time I had, the other side will give you some idea of what the weeds were like.  This is the side I didn't get time to work on, save for a tiny patch where I put in the last of the kohl rabi.

The potatoes towards the back of the plot are doing well and should be ready soon.  I'm not in a hurry to dig them up though as that will be another bed that I will have to re-cultivate and weed at regular intervals.  Whilst the potatoes are in it keeps the weeds right down.

Just in front of them, I have a row of kale, then a row of purple kohl rabi and a courgette plant.  The bed closest to me is a flower bed, but it needs a bit of work getting rid of the weeds.  I'll probably do this later in the week.

Unfortunately, many of the weeds are deep rooted and need digging out rather than just pulling out by hand, so it's been another back breaking session.  I'm looking forward to the day when I've eradicated the majority of them and only have a 'normal' amount to contend with, if there is such a thing.  I'm hoping this will happen with regular cultivation and care of the plot.

Anyway, here's the half I dug over this visit.

At the back are some cos lettuce, then some chard, beetroot and fancy lettuce, a cucumber plant and a squash (I think) that has self seeded.  In front of those are the wigwam of climbing beans with some nasturtium sown around them and finally at the front is the fruit bed with rhubarb, gooseberries and blackcurrants.

It's looking better, but still a bit sparse. Hopefully, by the height of summer it will look much better.

Freebies, Frugal Measures and Frugal Fails 8

This last couple of weeks I've had the following Frugal Fails:

1) I somehow managed to overpay my business credit card and so have a £5 credit on my account.  I know this isn't strictly a fail, as I can just spend £5 on my card to retrieve it, but what a silly thing to do!

With regard to Frugal Measures and Freebies, the following are the latest:

1) I used my last £8 off a £40 shop voucher at Waitrose. These vouchers were much appreciated, as I've been able to stock up on lots of staples that we will use throughout this month.

I've now received more similar vouchers from Tesco, but for smaller discounts and will be using these in the coming weeks.

2) I've started knitting a rug made from strips of jersey cut from old t-shirts, that I rolled up into yarn-like balls. I've been quite pleased with the progress.  Here's a picture. (Please note that the loose ends will be woven in eventually.)

I haven't got quite enough yarn balls to finish it, so it will remain an unfinished project until I throw a few more t-shirts out and can use the fabric from them to make more yarn. I'll keep you posted on progress and post when it's finished.

3) I opened a new regular savings account with my current bank, on which I can get 5% interest for a year. I need to transfer savings from another account into my current account each month, to be transferred into it, but so long as I remember to do this it's worth it, as it is currently earning next to nothing in interest payments where it is.

4) I used some nectar points to get £2.50 off a grocery top up shop at Sainsbury's last  week. It all helps keep me within budget.

5) I used a voucher for 100 extra Tesco Clubcard points on each of four grocery shops in their stores, to gain an extra £4 in Clubcard vouchers, that I can use to renew my magazine subscriptions or on other offers. Most of the shops were just small top up shops on the way home from the CS.

Loving Lately

There's a few things that I've been loving lately, and none of them have really cost much money, proving that simple things can bring untold pleasure. 

The first has been my orange blossom bush, which has recently flowered beautifully.  I caught this photo of it when it was on the point of going over, but it has been glorious and it smells divine.  Next door's rose bush used to intertwine with it, making it even more fabulous, but they've recently cut it down.  I suspect partly because all the flowers were coming over to my side of the fence, which is fair enough.

The next thing I'm loving is my diffuser.  It was gift from OH for my 50th last year (I asked for it), and I use it almost every day.  It's ceramic, so it's quite attractive as these things go, and it is a great way to use my essential oils to make our home smell lovely.  I usually switch it on in the kitchen every night once I've finished the washing up and let it infuse the room with the smell of eucalyptus or whatever oil I want to use.

For the last couple of weeks, I've really been enjoying harvesting and eating our home grown lettuce.  One particular variety I grew got a bit infested with green fly, which had to be washed off, but more recent crops and varieties have been fine and I've been filling our bowl as soon as it empties.

I've also been loving that peaches and nectarines are back in season.  I don't bother to buy apples in the summer months, although there's the odd one still in the bowl here, as I just buy these when they are a good price in Lidl.  These doughnut peaches were 69p for 5 and the doughnut nectarines 89p for 10 this week.  You just can't beat filling your fruit bowl with these fruits in the summer months.

One last thing that I've been enjoying have been these lentil crisps from Lidl.  At £1.19 for 6 packs, these are ideal for packed lunches when I go to the CS or for an easy quick snack and they taste great too.

Donated - May 2017

I'm a bit late publishing this post this month, on account of procrastinating about counting the items in a bag of toys we donated, but here it is.

This month has been an excellent month on the decluttering and donating front.  Flylady's zone cleaning has led to a lot of decluttering from several rooms in the house, including the dining room/second reception room, the kitchen, LB's bedroom and my bedroom. As a consequence, the following extensive list of items has accumulated over the month, some of which were taken to the charity shop, but the majority of which are awaiting donation to the next Give and Take day later this month.

So, here is the list for May:

1. One book I no longer want to keep.
2-6. Five items of clothing that LB no longer wants or don't fit.
7. One unused jar of children's craft glitter sprinkles.
8. One concert programme from the 1980's.
9-10. One ruler and one poster - surplus to requirements.
11. One bag of foreign coins taken to the CS to be resold to collectors.
12. One guide book for Greece borrowed from a volunteer at the CS - returned to said volunteer.
13. One bag of children's embroidery yarn and canvas.
14. One small leather satchel (used only once) put aside to be gifted to my niece for her birthday.
15. One pair of gloves - no longer wanted.
16-17. Two coat hangers.
18. One tray - rarely used and too big to fit in a cupboard.
19. One book of cocktail recipes - never used and unlikely to be.
20-21. Two cake tins - hardly ever used.
22-30 Various dusters/cloth bags put in the rag bag for recycling.
31-32. Two cans of spray cleaner for cars - a gift never used nor likely to be.
33. Sticky fly trap - bought but never used. (This was a frugal fail as I needed one later in the month!)
34. Sample of colour collecting sheets for the washing machine - will never be used as I always divide clothes into darks and lights anyway.  Might be useful to someone else.
35. One knife rack for the dishwasher - never used nor likely to be, as I hand wash most knives.
36. End of a roll of rubber draw lining - I haven't used it in six years and probably won't use it in the near future. Besides, it's looking a bit yuck, as there was a leak in the under sink cupboard where I kept it so I threw it away.
37. One plastic jug with lid - a bit beaten up and no longer used.
38-44. Seven pieces of fabric I no longer want to keep in my stash.
45. One can opener that no longer works - thrown away once replaced.
46. One more knife with a damaged handle.
47. One spaghetti measure that I never use.
48. One cheese slice that I never use.
49-52. Four baking cutters that we no longer use.
52-54. Three recipe books that we don't use.
55. One melamine tray - I no longer have a use for this.
56. One glass bottle with stopper - I have too many of these.
57. One single oven mitt - I hardly ever use this.
58. One novelty Xmas eggcup.
59. One flask that never gets used.
60-67. Eight metal S hooks that I don't have a use for.
68-69. Multi-phrase stamper and ink pad.
70. One sudoku book, part completed - given to a lady at the CS who enjoys these puzzles.
71. One silk cushion cover.
72. One cookery book I no longer want.
73. One picture in a frame.
74-5. Two baby blankets.
76. One book.
77. One laundry basket.
78. One small purse - no longer needed.
79. One vintage vase.
80. One bracelet - unwanted gift.
81-87. Seven more items of clothing donated by LB.
88. One pair of worn out trainers kept as spares, belonging to OH - recycled now he has his new pair for his birthday and can use his current ones as spares.
89-120. Thirty two books decluttered from my bedroom bookshelves.
121-127. Seven decorative/other items decluttered from my bedroom bookshelves.
128- 177. Fifty soft toys, games and dolls clothes donated by LB.

This month a total of  items are leaving the house to bring the total so far this year to 492. It's been a great month and this means I'm almost half way there, but it will probably get a lot more difficult from here on in.

This Weekend

This weekend has been a good one.  We haven't done anything special and I've stayed home for most of it, but I feel like I've caught up on a few jobs that I've been avoiding for a while.

Having finished any cleaning I wanted to do on Saturday morning, this left me with some time to do other things.  The first thing I did was to harvest all the blackcurrants on my bush outside the back door.  I harvested 2lbs of fruit and then proceeded to make a jam from them.  I didn't have quite enough sugar, so decided to do a reduced sugar version without a proper recipe, so the end result wasn't quite as set as I'd hoped, but so long as it doesn't grow mould it will get eaten.

I used some of it to do another small task I'd been meaning to do for a while, namely use up some pastry mix that I had decluttered from the kitchen cupboards a few weeks ago, and make some tarts. I managed to make 41 tarts from just the one pack, which was pretty good.  These will go down well with cups of tea over the next week or so and I've finally emptied the jar that had been sitting on the kitchen worktop to remind me to use it, for over three weeks! Result.

Once I'd done these tasks, I decided to do my weekly grocery shop a day early, as the fridge was almost empty, so I headed off to Lidl. An £86 shop later and we were stocked up again.  When did Lidl become so expensive.  I don't know if we're just eating more or prices are going up, but gone are the days of £40/£50 weekly shops here.  We do eat a lot of fruit, so maybe it's that that is pushing up the bill, and that's before we leave the EU with it's cheap supply of fresh produce. Food will possibly inevitably become more expensive.

OH was cycling this afternoon, in a race in the City of London, I was going to go and watch and LB and her friends were going to come and head to a gallery, but we decided not to go after recent events in Central London, so OH went on his own.  I don't like to change what I do because of the terrorist threat, but for the moment I just want to stay close to home on a weekend.

Saturday was rounded off by catching up with a recorded episode of The Handmaid's Tale, before this week's episode on Sunday night came around again.

This is a photo of the garden after I'd finished tidying and of OH with his feet up after cleaning his bike and leaving it out to dry on my raised beds.

Sunday, after coming home from the gym (and not having to do my weekly shop this week) I decided to get stuck in to some gardening at home.  I haven't really done much work in the garden in recent weeks, so it felt good to get out there again.  I swept the decking, which was a bit littered with leaves and petals after recent high winds, planted out my tomato plants into the grow bags I'd bought last week and fed them and my homemade hanging baskets, one of which is pictured below. They're coming along nicely.

The vegetable beds are looking better with plenty of things growing.  I harvested some kale this weekend to have with a roast on Sunday.  It was very tasty. All things considered, I'm pretty happy with what I achieved this weekend.

The priority in the coming week will now be the allotment, which is looking a bit weed filled again. I also need to plant out my cucumber plants and some sunflowers that are lined up in readiness (and currently being propped up by the clothes line to stop them snapping in the wind).

How was your weekend?

Flylady Weekly Roundup

I've been kind of struggling with my zone cleaning this week.  As it was the beginning of a new month, I got distracted at the beginning of the week, doing some financial stuff and didn't really get around to doing anything. In addition, I've also been distracted by UK events lately, as I've mentioned before.

On Thursday, however, I used my Zone Cleaning as a distraction, on account of it being Election Day.  I didn't want to think about UK politics, it's so depressing, so instead I decided to tackle probably the most difficult task that was facing me this week, namely cleaning the bookshelves in the dining room.

I hadn't done this task for at least a year, if not two, when I did some deep cleaning, and it was the one thing that I didn't tackle last month in this room.  Out came the step ladders and every book was removed from every shelf, the shelf dusted and washed down and the books returned. 

I managed to get OH to part with some books and I decided to let go of a couple, so between us 13 books got added to the donate pile, which is better than nothing.  We do both like our books and find it hard to let go of them.

This job is not one that I relish, as some of the books on OH's side of the fireplace are really heavy. I don't think it will be a job I do too regularly.  Maybe once or twice a year at most is probably enough.  I made sure I pulled most of the books to the very front edge of the shelves, so the dust will only gather at the back and not be visible.  Cunning trick!

The remainder of the room got a vacuum and mop and other than dusting and cleaning the light fitting, that was it for this room this month.

On Friday, I decided to tackle the living room.  This isn't too onerous a job, even though it gets used regularly, so I was able to finish it in a couple of hours.  I had a sort through some of the quilts I had made, that I store in the blanket box and decided to let go of a couple as there were quite a few, plus some throws that we use regularly too. Other than this, there wasn't anything to declutter, so it was just a case of dusting, vacuuming and mopping.  On this occasion I pulled out some furniture that I didn't last time and cleaned behind and underneath it, and I also cleaned away all cobwebs and cleaned the light fitting, which I didn't do last time either.

I feel like I've now finally caught up with myself again, as I was getting a bit behind and can now spend some much needed time in the garden and at the allotment this weekend.

Next week, it's Zone 3 and I'll be deep cleaning the bathroom again.  I think that this month I'm going to get on my hands and knees and scrub the grout between the floor tiles, as this is the job I didn't do last month.  Luckily, it's the tiniest room in the house! Also, there's quite a bit of dust in the extract fan, so I might try to hoover that out. It shouldn't be a big job though.

I was also going to tackle the spare bedroom/sewing room, but it is so full of donations that I need to take to the Give and Take later this month, that I'm going to leave it until after they've been taken. I may, however, do some tidying on the landing upstairs and clean out the linen cupboard instead this month and then I'm going to enjoy some free time away from cleaning!

Still Simplifying - May

This month, I've just been continuing in the same vein as last month, thoroughly cleaning and decluttering the house, room by room.  I finally started the Flylady's detailed zone cleaning and this has helped me sort out more things to donate and really get down to keeping only the things we need, like or use on a regular basis, more particularly in the kitchen, my bedroom and LB's room.

LB's room, for example, still contained lots of outgrown toys that I haven't decided what to do with.  We did declutter a large bag of toys, but many of the remaining ones were quite expensive, which makes it hard to just donate them and I'm not sure I want to sell them, so I'm still thinking about what to do with them. I did, however, clean a few of the larger plastic toys thoroughly, by putting them in the bath and spraying them with the shower hose, so at least if I do decide to sell them, they are looking a lot less dusty.

Next month, I haven't really got any major simplifying plans lined up, but I will be zone cleaning in the spare room/sewing room at some point, so I will probably try to have a good declutter in there. The bed is currently laden with donations waiting to be taken to the next Give and Take, the date of which is 24th June, so once I can take everything, it will make a big difference to this room.  There is a box and large storage bag of items to take to the charity shop this month, but it won't made a huge dent in the pile.

Other than tackling this room, I don't have any other simplifying plans, unless any occur to me during the month.  I may have a cull of some of the books on the shelves in the dining room/second reception room, as this room will be zone cleaned in the first week of the month and I know that I am unlikely to read many of the books again. I think, perhaps, that it is a good time to let go of some of them, as the house will get very dusty if and when any building work commences, and they will need to be packed away or covered to prevent this.

I'll keep you updated on progress.