10 Green Bottles......

In the words of the rhyme, 10 green bottles hanging on the wall!  Needless to say this past week alone I have located 18 demijohns lurking in the undergrowth in the garden where they had been stacked in boxes, which have since disintegrated.  I had forgotten all about them, and as I have started doing the garden, in my tidying process they have appeared.  Needless to say that they were in a mess, but have since been scrubbed up suitably with the aid of plenty of hot water, a bottle brush and some elbow grease.  They are now stood soaking in a strong solution of bleach.  They are to be put into service soon and before being used will be scrubbed up again and popped into the oven to "cook" sorry sterilise them before  sterilising with Metabisulphite powder and then adding fresh batches of wine to brew.

Sorry I have been absent for the past fortnight or so. I have missed the blogging, but have made the most of the time that I have had.  I have not been able to access the computer physically at all partially due to stuff being stacked around it and OH working from home full time which is quite a change.  He frequently has to speak to Engineers, and there is conferencing calling most days so I tend to steer clear.

Everything is as well as it can be here, and for that I am grateful. I am the one going out only for bits of shopping and that is not everyday.  I just hope everyone else has been as lucky. My heart goes out to those who have been drastically affected and to their families.  I also hope that everyone else is coping and doing well.  We are all in this together and at the end of the day it is a virus; viruses have a set pattern of working and you will either recover or you will not.  They are silent killers.

I have been taking advantage of being at home and OH being here in that I have been able to focus a little more than I have been able to.  I have done lots of jobs and there are still many more to go.  The other week I sorted out the front garden, we have a holly tree that scatters its leaves everywhere so I de-hollied the leaves out of the gravel, trimmed the holly a little, washed the front room windows and de-spidered them, washed out the dustbins all three of them, and re-sited them, sorted out the rubbish under the hedge and got rid of everyone else's rubbish which they tend to chuck into the garden from the street.  I also Dettolised the front door handles and letter box and the gate handles.  I also trimmed part of the hedge.So that was a job well done and out of the way and it made the front of the house look respectable.

I have also tackled the small garden which I refer to as the herb garden which was a bit of a mess; there was lots of rubbish which has since been disposed of and I have reclaimed the soil.  There are lots of wild strawberries growing freelance that have thrown out runners and have relocated to fresh ground which I am quite pleased about.  I have a small terracotta strawberry planter which I will fill up with these in a week or so's time.  My violets have also done well.  These originally came from my grandparent's garden and they have from one small tub now grown into two large tubs and have also self-set on some of my other potted plants.  They will be transferred into another pot shortly as well.  There were also a few boxes left out which needed to be sorted out and the contents transferred into the house which has also been done. Although not quite done the herb garden is nearly there.  I do have some plans for window box shelves to be put up under the bathroom and kitchen windows.  I have six nice deep planters, and plan on having two for each window but with the planters being screwed into the baseboard shelves and supported by wrought iron brackets.  Garden needs sorting a bit more before this can be done though.  I also plan on having some hanging baskets as well.

There were a lot of plants that needed re-potting as well which has also now been done and being added to their new pots and compost seems to have done them all the world of good. I have a couple of clematis, a couple of honeysuckles, one yellow one pink, a rose bush, a rosemary bush, a bay tree, the holly standard my brother bought me for Christmas. There is also a hollyhock, and two geranium plants.  

I also have three troughs potted up with herb plants already.  One is full of curly leaved standard parsley, the other is full of chives and the other full of garden mint.  There are seven troughs down one side of the shed and I plan to add another seven troughs down the opposite side of the shed.

I have also started working in the main part of the garden which is an absolute mess.  There are further polyboxes to empty out and get inside.  A lot of this is Christmas stuff.  There is a lot of sorting to do in the garden though.  With the weather being as good as it has been I have been spending time out in the garden sorting things as I go along.  I still have a heck of a lot to do but I am slowly getting there.  It has also been good to get the washing on the line, and to get everything air-dried.  Smells wonderful when it comes in.

I am not one to have nothing to do at all.  I can always keep myself occupied one way or another.  At least now I am making some progress and am starting to get some of the long overdue items out of the way with.  Hard work, but at least I am starting to see a difference.  I have been breaking things down into achievable things; keeping lists.

I will try and prepare a couple of posts and put them on automatic loading to cover the next few days or so as I will not necessarily be able to get on again for a good few days.

Keep safe everyone, and thank you for all the lovely messages.

Lots of love

Pattypan

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