Red Hot Pokers

Helen - I think that you are absolutely right! I shall steer clear of putting the basil out for a while. 

Fifitr - We had the Wicked brand Black Olive Pesto. It really hits the spot with us. It's vegan, which is helpful for the various food intolerances, with cashews and basil as well as olives. I quite fancy a curry now, especially as it's so cold. 

And it is cold. I was looking at the long term weather forecast and I probably shouldn't plant anything out for at least another fortnight, if not a month. Long term weather forecasts are not an exact science, and the observations from commercial airlines have been massively reduced with the lack of flights, but the general feeling seems to be that it's likely to stay cold here for a few weeks. On the bright side, it gives me a chance to clear the garden and perhaps get some seedlings going.

I should have checked earlier. I was dithering about getting something for the concrete planters that father brought. They need to be emptied and to have a good clean (like everything else) and I definitely can't move them easily. 

(apart from the grass in the cracks, the creeper in the background is honeysuckle which has rather got away from me)

And I saw some red hot poker bulbs for sale in Morrisons a few weeks ago, but they had them on the way out, so I'm not sure how you are supposed to buy them, especially as they still have a one way system. Eventually I weakened, and bought two small plants from eBay. I love red hot pokers. My grandmother had a huge bank of them, and they bring back great memories. They should look something like this.

Image from Unsplash, taken by Nareeta Martin

But mine came in a small, very damp package that looked like this.

I've got them inside, in the porch. 

The porch is unheated but should shelter them tonight. The growing instructions suggested that the plants should be planted straight away. I don't think even the hardiest would survive. I can't move the stone planters, so I couldn't plant them straight up and then bring them in and out. I think I will have to put the plants in some temporary tubs that I can bring in and out and see how the weather goes before putting them in their final position. The planters are a little cramped, but I'm hoping that a combination of a hardy variety and plenty of feeding will help. I'll keep them in the porch at night and then out in the daytime. 

By the way, don't be fooled. I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to gardening. I'm just making it up as I go along, much like everything else.

Dinner tonight was gluten free chicken nuggets with pasta and pesto and I softened up some mushrooms, half an onion left from bear's guacamole at lunch and some mushrooms with some italian herbs and gluten free worcester sauce. It was a very pleasant meal. I really need to use up the purple sweet potatoes soon, though, so I'm wondering what I can do with them. I've seen some nice recipes for roasting them, but I'm not sure what to have with them. There isn't that much in the freezer and I'm not in a rush to go out. I may fry some eggs. Why complicate things?

Mind you, bear is quite keen to try tofu. I have no idea what I'm doing with that, so I'll let him take the lead and make the suggestions. He's much more imaginative than I am.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Serious Shopping

Fifitr - I think my rosemary is here for the longterm as well, and I've some mint and oregano in tubs from last year which are starting to show life again. Mind you, mint is pernicious. Keeping it alive isn't the problem. It's getting rid of the stuff if you put it in a border. The stuff I planted over the weekend is definitely looking sorry for itself, and I think the basil has had it. I'll see what I can do with the windowsills.

I actually didn't go as far as I planned today, but I was still out for hours and I seemed to go miles. First of all there was the slot I booked at the tip. It was incredibly busy this morning. I only had a few black bags, so was able to bung them into the huge skips pretty quickly and get away. I've booked another slot on Friday, which I'm hoping I'll use to get rid of some of the garden waste that I plan to generate. I want to cut back, dig up and weed a lot of stuff, so that will be a few bags. It may even include the new herbs, as I'm pretty certain that the basil is done for. I didn't risk watering them, in case the water froze on them. We had snow this afternoon, and hail. The fuschia needs hacking back. Bear noticed that it was just bare branches today. It's been like that since Christmas. 

I'd planned to go to a garden centre in Brighhouse. There are garden centres nearer, but I spotted this one on eBay selling slug pellets that were non chemical and biodegradable, and made of wool. Of course, when I checked to make a link, I found that plenty of places near to me were selling wool slug pellets, including one that's barely two miles away and one in Todmorden which would be a serious drive, and a fun drive as well. As any sensible slug would be buried in this weather, however, I decided against the journey. 

I called in to the farm shop instead. They had some lovely veg. I wish I had taken a pic of the broccoli before we ate it, as it really looked awesome. I don't usually like broccoli either. I picked up some veggies and a gooseberry pie and then on to the next stop. I called in to Morrisons because it was on the way, and it was the nearest place I new that had a loo that was open. I was absolutely desperate when I hurtled in. I picked up some Pringles for the men as they want to eat guacamole with them, plus some nice bread for DH. 

I carried on, and called into the new B&M Bargains with Garden Centre. I was looking for potting compost, to try to start some seeds on the windowsills. The compost was there in the very cold outdoor area, but it was in a big bag and I had only picked up a basket. I picked up a couple of packs of command hooks that I needed, then left. I'll have another trip out later. 

Then I called in to Aldi, but they didn't have the cola I like for my rum, and they didn't have the avocadoes that bear wanted, so I went into Tesco, filled up the car and picked up the last few things on my list. I also picked up a very inexpensive bunch of flowers as the last inexpensive flowers were finally giving up after a fortnight. I perhaps should have switched them before. The petals all had their colour, but when I picked up the vase to change them over, petals and leaves showered everywhere. 

Tonight we had pasta with peas and pesto, broccoli and the men had chickenless nuggets, followed by the gooseberry pie. 

I think I will have a quiet night and perhaps do all those housewifery tasks I had planned tomorrow. Between all the driving, all the running around and the vast amount of sanitiser that is currently drying out my hands, I'm all in. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Cold Again

It's been sunny, but cold. That means that our house has been okay, but outside has been bitter. The basil I planted is looking a little frost bitten. The herbs are starting to revive a little, but the garden is far from looking like a green oasis.

The coriander on the windowsill has been picked over as bear and DH made guacamole for lunch, and it's also looking a little battered, so I'm going to throw the stalks away and pick up some more to plant. 

Today has been a hanging out sort of day, apart from when bear went for a 'quick' walk to test his boots and disappeared for two hours. Normal for a teenager, nerve wracking for me. He was, of course, fine. He also approved of the boots, which was something. 

I made scouse for dinner, but it turned out too greasy. I must remember to really trim the lamb properly next time. A certain amount of fat is normal, but this didn't work.  

I've been watching a lot of junk journal videos. I'm not sure that this will end well. On the other hand, it stops me watching anything worse. I'm keeping going with the journal, and it's helping me organise my thoughts. I'm getting a little more done, and tomorrow, when DH is back at work, I hope to get further on. 

I'm off now for an early night. For some reason, I'm exhausted.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Happy Easter!

Alleluia, Christ is Risen.

Bless - thank you, and Happy Easter to you as well! I can't remember where I saw the idea, but using sponges seemed inspired.

I wasn't going to post this, but I thought I needed to be honest. The herbs aren't doing so well. They have all sort of flopped. I took a picture this afternoon.

They are looking very uninspired. I'll keep an eye on them, and of course they had a good water today, but the weather forecast is for cold weather the next few days, possibly frost or even a few flakes of snow. I've got a couple of supermarket coriander plants that need to go into something and I am planning on keeping them on the kitchen windowsill. I'll be using the bottom halves of the five litre vinegar containers - well washed out, of course. They fit on the windowsill in the kitchen, but nowhere else. I'm saving the bottles from water and fizzy drinks (far too many) to start some seeds off in the windows.

Speaking of plans, Lent has ended. I decided to try and make more sense and organisation of my life over the forty days, to make it easier for me to go forward in faith, as much as anything else. It's not been a raging success. I always tell the truth on the blog, reserving the right to fudge a few details for privacy. It's been okay. I'm getting a combination of the bullet journal and the Secret Slob's version of the Fly Lady going, and so far it's been a lukewarm success. I've got a huge quantity of paperwork sorted (badly) and stashed as I finally found a place to put it. When I say a quantity, there were bags of the stuff, going back two years or more. I think the shredder is on its last legs as I worked my way through shredding, sorting and binning, but the place is a lot clearer. I've made space in some corners, and I feel that there is a chance for me to make more space as I go. 

Electronically, my emails have dropped from around 4,000 unread to around 1,000 unread, and I've unsubscribed to a few email letters. It's not brilliant, but it's a start and I'm settling in to checking and deleting on a regular basis. My next task is my desk top on my computer. There is actually no more space on my home screen as it is covered in icons. I need to look at that soon. But I'll take the wins that I can. 

It's not very exciting. It's not fantastic success, nor is it a fail. It's a sort of bumping along in the right direction. That makes me hopeful that I'll get there in the end.

And I feel a sort of optimism as I once again start doing the twice daily routine of hauling a watering can up and down steps at least three or four times to get the garden watered. I need to exercise, so that will be a small something. I need to dig out all our seeds and plan for some planting. I'll share if I get that done.

The thing that has helped me most is a battered and rather uninspiring spiral bound A4 notebook where I am just dumping all my thoughts and ideas. I use it as a sounding board and a way of organising how I go on from minute to minute. Sometimes it helps me work out what I should do in the next half hour, or which order I should attack half a dozen very trivial and small steps that get things moving in the right direction. 

I'm very sniffly at the moment. I had some toadflax in the garden, and I relocated a clump to the fence near Matalan as the stuff is quite pretty and will crawl over anything. While I was there, I took a pic of one of the reasons I'm sniffing.

This is the least blurry photo I managed, as the wind was quite strong.

I'll share more about how successful I am with the organising as I go along. Happy Easter and Blessed Eostre. Hugs and good health to all.

A Sort of Progress

 Poppy - I had a similar conversation with an Amazon driver. I can't remember exactly the words, as it was a few years ago, and I may be remembering the dates wrong, but it went roughly like this... 'Hello, Mrs Sybil, you weren't in so I left the parcel with your mother.' I paused for a moment before saying, 'my mother has been dead for three years.' It turned out that it was a parcel that I had sent to my friend and her mother had taken it in. I felt a little sorry for the driver. A cold caller, however, doesn't get the same sympathy.

Sharon - I love my car, though you can't see as much of the colour as I would like due to dust. I've looked at these videos, and they are so lovely, but I wonder if I would ever have the courage to cut up a book, even an unwanted, un-needed, Readers Digest collection. 

Fifitr - I have had some awesome books from library sales. And how do you know that no-one will want the book? I talk about the Readers Digest books, the condensed novels where they've stripped down a book and it would be better to read it in the original, but it is still a possibility that someone would want that abridged read. 

Today has been slightly high gravity - the sort of day when things are more likely to get dropped. I've managed to knock the same pair of scissors into the waste basket three times so far. I'm trying to sew up some net curtains for the porch. I'll share when (if) I finish, but I keep losing the tape measure, the pins and the thread. I can't seem to get the phone to charge either. 

I also managed to take a chunk out of my finger just before planting out some herbs and then sewing some white fabric. Timing is everything.

I hurt my finger prising apart some pots for the herbs. Then when I tried to put holes in the bottom (for drainage), most of them split along the bottom. So I tried out a tip I saw. I got hold of some flat-packed cellulose sponges. I got natural ones because I thought I didn't want plastic getting into what I was hoping to eat. 

The Composty sponges are cellulose and come in compressed sheets. When you add water, they swell up.

I lined the pots with them, instead of using stones. They should help retain water.

I remembered to get a pic of the pots before they were filled. I'll try and remember tomorrow to get a pic of them with the herbs in - coriander, parsley and basil.

I didn't do a fancy job of planting them. I just bunged them in the pots with some compost from Aldi. The compost seemed very robust, with lots of lumps and bumps and a few stones, but I'm sure it will settle down. And on the plus side, I've now got the exercise of watering the plants every morning and night.

I've got some washing done, and I've sorted out some paperwork. I'm planning on a quiet evening with some writing, interspersed with swearing at the net curtain I'm trying to sew.

Hugs and good health to all.

Tearing Up Books

Slimsdotter - I'm sharing your post on here so it's easily seen.  The one I got today, started with "can you hear me ok"? Then if they get your voice saying "yes" they can say you agreed to whatever they are selling. I said "I can hear you", which didn't fit their plan and they hung up on me. Thank you for sharing this. It just goes to show that you can never be too careful!

YouTube happened again. I found this video - do not click if you don't like seeing books torn up. The YouTuber is making small envelopes out of pages of books, ripping them up and stamping them and generally being crafty, using old books (one was a grammar from 1896) as materials. 

The thing is, I know that there are books out there that will never get read. Lots of charity shops can't shift all the books that they get. There is usually a row somewhere of Readers Digest abridged books that no-one can shift for love nor money. I know my mother was very upset when she passed a public rubbish bin just outside a charity shop and saw it full of books. So many will be getting pulped. It makes sense to use them for decoration. It just doesn't seem right. 

On the other hand, newspapers are always being recommended for things like papier mache, as well as various cleaning uses. I miss having father's paper for scraping the rubbish from the bottom of pans and clearing out the gunk in general. That is sort of the same, but it doesn't feel like it!

I think I shall continue to enjoy watching the videos, but I don't think I will be using any of the ideas unless I use printed papers or similar. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'd do with one of the journals she creates. They look amazing, but I think that they wouldn't get used, which is sort of sad. If you knew someone liked that sort of thing for a gift, it would be great. 

Mind you, I've been dipping my toe into Bullet Journalling and I can see how it could get out of control. I keeping going back to goblincore ideas, and then look at bullet journals (some of which are true works of art) and then at my spartan lists. I really need to resist this! 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Colourful Day

I called in to Aldi last night when it was quiet, and I picked up this.

It's a 16cm (just over 6 inch) and exactly what I want for sauces and eggs on the stove. It's also just the size I want for a few peas or some carrots - just a small milk pan that will do for all sorts. I think it would also be perfect for just a little sauce (I can make a roux easily enough) and even the noodles that bear likes. I haven't tried it yet, but it's supposed to be ideal for induction hobs. It is also green.

I also saw a car on the road that not only was the same make, model and year as mine, but also the same colour. You don't see many cars that are a royal purple. I found this pick in a post from two years ago that shows my car's colour. It's not common at all. 

Today I got a sales call that started with, 'I'm not trying to sell you anything'. This is never a good sign and I am always immediately on guard after an opening like that. I think they were going to try and sell me a new boiler. The thing was, I didn't want to answer their questions.

Someone who is cold calling has a rotten job. They are likely to be paid pennies, and only on commission and not a salary. They have a script and they don't have much leeway. However they are trained to get you to engage with them. If you give them a reason why you don't want to do something, they are trained to attack those reasons and dismiss them. If you say that you can't afford it, they will find a way to get you finance. If you say that you are happy with whatever it is, they will find a way to prove that their thingy will make you happier. It is dangerous to give them an opening. And if you say that you are not interested, they will persist in asking why until you have to hang up on them, which can lead to them repeatedly ringing back. 

So today, when they asked me the age of the boiler, I answered, 'purple'. That's all I said. Whenever they asked me a question, I just said, 'purple'. Bear was in stitches (he could hear the caller on the other side of the room, she was loud). In the end, they gave up. I hope it gave them a chuckle at the mad woman while confirming that I don't like to be cold called.

And we even had purple carrots in the beef casserole tonight. So a very colourful day.

Hugs and good health to all.