My Birthday Day

 Today was my Birth Day, the day when in the early hours of the morning I arrived about 2:20am on Sunday 3rd May 1959.  

The weather has been brilliant beautiful sunshine, blue skies, plenty of blossom in the trees which bodes well for future fruit crops at the moment.  Well it was for the first part of the day and it has now gone grey and cooler.  Later on the Sun came out again for a little while.  We just do not need any frosts at the moment.  I have fleece available just in case.  The polystyrene boxes that I have stacked in one of the greenhouses are specifically going to be used for bringing seeds on in a warm environment even if we get a frost.  According to the weather forecast we have risk of frost for about three or four days starting on Monday.  I may well cover everything up tomorrow night just to be on the safe side.

After my heavy day of yesterday I was awake at 6:00am - not in the mood to get up though and as I hurt, time for a little bit of self-care.  I was  up for 8:30am which is a lay in to what I have been having this past week.  However, it has done the trick.  I feel more rested although a little bit achey but I will use some of the spray for my back and have a couple of paracetamol to help with the discomfort/pain.  As long as I can get on with things I am okay.

G disappeared off to the Butchers and came back with some goodies including ingredients for having a cooked breakfast and some other bits to have with salads etc. over the next few days more on that in another post.

I went downstairs ostensibly to make myself a cup of tea, but went out into the garden to hang up all the washing I had done last night to get it out and drying.  From there I disappeared down to the greenhouses, opened them up and then watered up where necessary.

Came back into the house, sorted out more washing, put the washing machine on (it was not a good fit for me),  made a cup of tea and have just been sitting for a few minutes enjoying that before starting to write this post.  This is how things are around here.  Perpetual motion of one kind or another.

I will go downstairs in a few moments cook himself his fried breakfast and maybe I will have some smoked back bacon and a fried egg for a change. It is after all my birthday and you have to have some nice things and it is often the simplest things that bring the most pleasure.

Plans for Today

When I do go downstairs, the plans for today are to concentrate on getting the Pantry finished.  All the contents need to be in there and as the Pantry is opposite the back door things are getting slightly tight just here when it comes to getting in and out.  I therefore need to alleviate the blockages and get the rest of the stuff sorted and into the Pantry.  At the moment that is my priority for the day.  After all the hard work gardening yesterday I will probably get into the garden again later on in the day and get some more done there especially on the patio.  I am also building up a bit pile of rubbish that needs to go to the tip. A lot of it is green waste, some is not, but it has all been bagged and organised I am hopeful that G will take this on Monday or later in the week to get it out of the way with so that I can see where I am going in the garden.  It is a bit difficult when there are piles here and there.

In the meantime I have the biggest washing pile to wade through in the bathroom.  Determined to make some in-roads into it today and tomorrow especially if the weather continues to be this fine.  The weather here today started off beautifully, warm, sunny, breezy, however the temperature is now a lot cooler.  The breeze though is ideal for getting things dry, but not for my arms which need some sleeves on them. For the latter part of the day though it has been grey and cold.  I went and closed the greenhouses up.

So we will see how things pan out during the day and I hope I am as successful today as I was yesterday.

Execution

After breakfast (I added a Lincolnshire Sausage into the mix as well) I then proceeded to tackle the Pantry.

This has taken some doing (to tell you the truth was not firing on all cylinders and not in the mood) and I have spent more time than intended on the Pantry.  It is still not done though despite the fact that I want this out the way for now so that I can concentrate on other areas of the house as well.  

I got that fed up I paid an unscheduled visit to the CS and ended  up buying in a cut glass vintage cake stand, a small jug ideal for a posy of flowers and a small electric steamer.  I spent £5.  The Pantry is definitely taking a lot longer than I intended and I have dragged everything out of the bottom of the Pantry to clear it.  It has all gone back in again though as I was not able to finish off.  I have lots to go in out of other boxes now.  So I will be working on it again tomorrow and I think it will take me all day and part of the evening.

I have bought some more plants as well.  The local shop has an offer on for buy three trays of plants for the price of two.  Instead of £9 therefore I have paid £6 for the three trays i.e. buy two get one free.  I have therefore come home with three trays, one tray is a bush variety and the other two are hanging variety.  They are to be used in hanging baskets, although I have yet to accumulate more plants.  I have trailing Petunias as well and I am sure I can liberate some Ivy plants from the garden as well as adding more plants as I go along.

I am also on frost watch for the greenhouses.  Temperature starts to lower tonight at 5 degrees and then goes on to 4 degrees for Sunday and Monday down to 3 degrees on Tuesday, Wednesday 6 degrees, down to 4 degrees on the Thursday and then starts climbing again.  I therefore am intent on keeping my plants as warm as I can during the process.  I have fleece and some insulated bags as well that can be used to cover and keep warm.  I also intend to get some newspaper.  The seeds will be okay as they are insulated boxes.

The plants are really starting to thrive in the greenhouses.  I have not got to the other Strawberry plants today; I might get to them tomorrow and I also have some garden mint plants to transplant into pots to create a garden mint patch in my garden.

I then later on when doing the Lottery for tonight treated myself to a big bunch of pretty flowers.  It is a while since I have had any, but they give such joy when you need it the most.  Colour always adds a different dimension to things that are going on and gives a different input.

Right now must finish off for today at least before wending my way up the stairs to Bedfordshire.

Hope everyone has had a lovely day.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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