A Busy and More Productive Week - W/E 8th June 2024

This week started with a trip to the allotment on Sunday morning. OH wanted to go and plant out most of the vegetable plants, so I went with him, as I know he misses the dog when he goes there, as he used to take her there a lot. 

Whilst he was planting out, I decided to do some weeding, as there were a couple of areas where the weeds were building up. Before I knew it, an hour and a half had passed and I needed to leave OH to it, as I was due at work for 12 noon. I took a couple of photos before heading off:

This side of the plot has potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, one courgette plant and raspberries.

On this side there are a few fruit bushes: blueberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. OH was planting this side up with kohl rabi, lettuce and climbing beans, but there were beetroot, peas, cucumbers and asparagus already in. The plant in the pot is one of my dahlias that got planted out now it's a bit bigger. 

The plot is now fully cultivated until the potatoes are harvested and then some sweetcorn and more dahlias can go in.

Anyway, I had an early lunch, did some laundry and then got ready for work. It was a super hot day, which was welcome after all the rain we've had lately. Work was super busy again. I didn't have time to think about anything. I started off on one job and then half way through the shift, I was put on another job, which was my favourite job, so I was happy enough. When I got home, I made turkey tacos for OH and I for supper. We'd not had them in a long time, so it made a nice change and contained plenty of protein.

Once OH had returned from the allotment, he got started on building the new shed. He couldn't get very far with it as he needed to order some preservative, but he got the base in situ, which is super exciting. He thought it would go up quite quickly once he got the preservative, as he said it seemed pretty easy to assemble. I personally wouldn't know where to start, so kudos to him for being able to assemble it.

I had a day off on Monday and I didn't really need to do a weekly shop, as I'd done a shop late in the previous week, so I went out for a run in the morning. It was a very slow run, but I decided to do a full 5K, as I'd not done this distance since the event. I ran part of the course for the weekly Saturday morning Park Run. I may join it one week, when my free gym sessions have finished for the summer. It wasn't the most comfortable run today. I think I was tired from two consequetive shifts at work and I was wearing clothing that was really annoying me. It's sometimes the small things that can make the run harder.

When I got home, I decided to catch up on reading blog posts. I've been away from blogland for a while. It was nice to catch up with everyone. After lunch, I caught up on journaling too, as I'd got behind with that due to all the events occurring in the past week. I always feel better when I'm up to date with my journaling. I find it very therapeutic.

LB had an online interview for a summer job in retail on Monday afternoon. She's following it up with a visit to the shop in question next week. It will be an ideal match for her if she gets it and it is quite local, which is another plus.

On Tuesday, I went to my usual class at the gym. When I got home, I had some lunch and then picked up my Hexi Star Quilt for the first time in weeks. I began to sew the diamond and hexi star blocks together, which was very exciting. I went to bed for a bit of a nap in the afternoon, as I hadn't slept well the night before. I made sure to set my alarm clock, so I didn't oversleep, as I was due at work at 5pm. We were able to leave work a bit early tonight, which was a bonus.

On Wednesday, I was looking forward to having a day off. I did a slightly shorter run in the morning of 3km, as I tend to get too hungry when I do a longer run. When I got back, I got changed and headed out of town to do the weekly shop.

I hadn't even got to my destination when I heard a message come through on my phone. It was my manager asking if I could go into work. I agreed to go in and then continued on with my weekly shop. I went to Home Bargains this week, as I needed a few toiletries and ended up spending £36. I don't know how that happens, but it always does. I should be very well stocked up on many things for a few weeks now.

Work was quite busy when I did go in, which meant that at least it passed quite quickly.

Thursday was a rest day for me. I decided that I wasn't going to do any exercise. I can't honestly say I rested, as I spent the day cleaning the main bedroom. It had got very dusty and I couldn't cope with seeing the dust bunnies multiplying. Another reason for doing this, was that I needed to change the duvet over to a summer weight, so this was also done. It took most of the morning to get the room clean and I got a bit upset at one point, as the vacuum cleaner smelt of our dog, which made me miss her. Not to mention I was vacuuming up lots of dog hair and it felt like I was hoovering all evidence of her existence away.

After stopping for lunch, I later went back to sort out a big pile of clothes languishing on the ottoman at the end of the bed and a big trug of clean laundry. The pile was mostly stuff I needed to put in out of season storage, so I finally put it away out of sight. I then went through my piles of decluttered items, many from previous attempts at decluttering my wardrobe, and bagged the items up ready to take to the charity shop or zero waste event.

I have now started to think about packing for our forthcoming holiday. As I wash things that I want to take away with me, I am putting them aside in the wardrobe ready to pack when the time comes. After doing this, it was time to get ready for work. 

OH took the afternoon off work on Thursday and decided to continue building the garden room, which was very exciting. He couldn't complete the build, as he needed to wait for a delivery of preservative to paint onto to the wood. He could only build it up so far to still be able to apply the preservative, as there wasn't much room between the shed and the fences at the sides and end of the gardens. I went off to work just as the preservative arrived. By the time I got home after another very busy night at work, it was too dark to see the progress he'd made, so I had to wait until the next day to take a look.

I had a day off on Friday, which was much needed. I went for a run first thing and orchestrated the end of the run to be close to the pharmacy, so I could pick up a prescription before walking home. It would have created more steps to go out after my run, but it would have taken more time, so this way suited me better. On the walk home, I stopped off at a local independent shop and treated myself to a rubber plant, which I'm going to put in the shed when it's built. I also bought a very pretty pink pelargonium for the garden.  Not sure where I'm going to put it yet, but I'll find a spot for it.

When I got in, OH was working on the shed again. Hewas doing more preserving of the wood. It is the one thing that is taking the longest time, but will be worth it when it's done. I went around the house and watered my plants, watered some plants outside and potted on some cuttings that I'd rooted. I also did some laundry before stopping for lunch.

After lunch, we both headed to the allotment to water and feed the plants with the comfrey leaves I'd steeped a few weeks ago and then harvest a few strawberries. OH resumed work on the shed later. It's coming together nicely. It was a nice productive day pottering around at home and at the allotment and lovely not to have to go into work.

Saturday started with a free session at the gym which was good. In all honesty, I didn't do that much for the rest of the day, save a bit of pottering here and there and then I went to work a little early, as I needed to buy a few things from the store where I work, mainly a gift for a friend's daughter who has just had her first baby. Work was good tonight, as I got to work on a completely different section, which I really enjoyed.

Anyway, despite it still being strange and our still missing the dog a lot, we had a much more productive week this week, which was a good thing.