Saturday 21 September 2013

New spaces :)

Well good afternoon folks :)

I've had quite a busy and not altogether good week.
First of all, after a big fight, my Miss 18 started college! Yay. The bad news on that front is she had a seizure on the first day, a seizure on the second day, then her third day on Friday she was too poorly to go in!  But hey, onwards and upwards. Hopefully she'll have a better week next week! Fingers crossed x.

Then I've had a very sick Jack Russell to nurse - bless him. He's had a really dreadful stomach upset. Lots of sick and shakes. I think now though he's recovering nicely. He's kept down two scrambled egg and the juice, and I blew the budget on some 'basics' salmon to bake for him which he's kept down too. I was really worried about him dehydrating I can tell you. Fingers crossed he really is on the mend though. X!

Yesterday was quite a sad day as I had the funeral to go to of a 15yr old lad. He had been poorly since he was four, and lived an amazing fulfilling life even though he wasn't given as many years as he had .. Bless him. My heart goes to to his family who'll have to now come to terms with the space he's left in their lives. :(

I've been very busy gardening in between other busyness. I'm in the process of making a special veggie patch in the front of my garden where I grew the wild strawberries.

See the space there? Over the back ? The above picture has some of the junk that I've so far cut away! Still a long way to go!

Jake is balancing on the back wall. It's not a very big space but I'm hoping to utilise it with veggies starting next spring.
Maybe I'll do the same as sue over at the blog 'Our new life in the country'. She grew three different veggies in one small space, all intertwined with each other. And she also grew a large variety of veg in a tin bath over the summer.

Unfortunately the garden that I have been using all summer has come to an end, so now I have to utilise as much space in my own (rented) garden as I can. Even if that includes using pots. I have to say I really dislike container gardening!
I've recently (this summer) realised that this is down to vine weevil larvae !! 
In the early 90s I had lots and lots of containers with gorgeous veggies growing. But I was new to gardening then, and didn't recognise the vine weevil beetle for what it was. My plants were devastated but the larvae eating all the roots of my plants :( 

Since then I have been very reluctant to grow any amount of produce in pots - just the usual flower pots outside the door. But now I'm on the lookout and will just have to do the best I can.


See this beautiful tin? This is my treasure tin, and inside is this :

Packets of seeds for container growing! I do have boxes of other seeds too, but these were all on offer a my local garden centre for 50p a packet. And the use by dates weren't till the end of 2014/15 !
So at least I have seeds that are supposed to be good in containers!

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be finishing off that front bed and then protecting it from cats until I decide what to put in there, or till spring.

Have a great weekend folks.
Rw



Friday 13 September 2013

Blogging dry period!

Well, goodness me, I didn't realise it had been so long since my last post! In my defence though, I have been very busy, and also had a couple of emergencies to deal with too.


One of them was a visit to the local A & E dept with my son.. (Don't ask!).
The other was the local college refusing to let my daughter attend this September as she as epilepsy!
Yep, discrimination of the worst kind. This fight has been going on since June. Then, this week they insisted that it was their right to tell all the other students in her group that she had epilepsy in case she had a seizure! !  But fight over now, she's in and keeps her privacy too... Bless her.

I've been busy preserving and gardening. I've made more chutney -rhubarb. I've made tomato and basil sauce for pasta. I've pickled cucumber slices. I've made pickled eggs and I've dried some small orange tomtoes and preserved them in olive oil. At this precise moment I have plum tomatoes drying in the oven for more preserving in oil. 


Today I'm going to be making cucumber pickle as well.

I've also been participating in a couple of frugal challenges for September. This has been pretty hard this month as I've had to pay out on unexpected 'emergencies'!

I joined the www.frugaldom.myfreeforum.org/index.php frugal September. It's a great forum for getting inspiration and support to help on your way! I don't think I would have done what I've done without their support, and reading others stories.

I also joined www.sftandthe101challenge.blogspot.com stretch it out September. Which is making three weeks worth of money do the job of 4! 

I'm hoping to get into some good habit this month that last!

Have a great weekend.
Rw