Work that needs doing and action so far Part Two Part B

This post has had a bit of a hiatus/small intermission and as the best part of it had already been written, I decided to carry on with this post with  a small Disclaimer carrying on from where I left off originally.  Putting it bluntly real life got in the way.

It has not been a good week mostly due to the weather and I am still dealing with the side effects of the Shingles rash.  I am still itching all these weeks later and I also cannot feel in certain areas the top of my skin and so if I give myself an itch, I end up itching too much as I have no sensation at the moment in that particular area it is making things rather sore.  Am working on it, massaging the effected area and as my skin is still so dry moisturising where I can.  I am far better than I have been though and hopefully it is just a matter of time until I achieve some sense of normal again.  Whatever normal is to you as an individual.

I therefore thought that I would start with a list of items still to re-visit from the previous list and which still need attention.  This particular list will cover a two  four week period overall due to lack of progress these past weeks.

I am still wading through one or two projects that are rather piecemeal in nature and so am going backwards and forwards when I can between these projects.

• Outside the back door needs tidying up; it is a piecemeal job, that is going to take sometime. ✔ WIP and a little more work needs doing before this will be ticked off the list.
• Sort out the shelving near the water butt which stores all my plant pots of different sizes.  Needs Spring cleaning, size of pots sorted and washed before being put back onto the shelving.  ✔ Partially done.  More to be completed on this front.
• Sorting Garden waste into specific items and then storing in the back garden until we go to the Tip ✔ partially done WIP.  More to be completed.
• Build up the two greenhouse shelves and get them installed into the greenhouse.  G did this for me. He initially built it up with the shelving not encompassing the rods on the shelving part.  It was only when I had a look at the instructions that I realised what he had done.  He has since changed this for me and I am more than happy with the shelves. ✔ Completed and now in use.
• Re-purpose old peat free compost from last year.  Run through a Riddle and then add Chicken pellets.  Then combine with the same quantity of new compost. WIP still ongoing - weather has affected this but work has started.
• Sow some seeds.  Have managed to sow a few.

   Beans

• I soaked 24 Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans and 24 Violet podded beans.  I washed and prepared the pots and trays.  Today I put the compost in and they are now on one of the new shelves in the growing house.  Will see if they come to anything.
• Nasturtiums;
• Sunflowers;
• Pattypan Squash;
• Six Ivy plants I took cuttings from have took and so am going to do a bit more for hanging baskets and window boxes.
• Three Chamomile plants have taken as well.

Further items to be dealt with

• Sort the jars and get them into containers. Partially done still a lot to do ongoing for time being.
• Sort the Rubbish - being done as go along.
• Take Rubbish to the Tip waiting for a bit more in the garden to be done before do this.  Do not want half a load.
• Put all food stuff gathered so far into the Little Cupboard under the stairs for the time being - Temporary solution only, whilst I get the Pantry cleaned out first.  A lot of this has been achieved.  Still some more to go in though.  WIP.
• Clean the little room off the Bathroom.
• Clean out the Pantry
• Once the Pantry is bottomed out, can then start fixing minor repairs and sealing shelves.  Then can be painted with damp proof paint, and then painted and sorted out a bit better than it has been. Using the Cupboard under the stairs for storage will help with this.
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Further Action Day 7:

Went back into the garden after Tea on Sunday.  Added a few more things to the greenhouse that was cleaned out today.  Sort of set it up as the un-official storage and seed growing area.  The other greenhouse mostly has existing plants that are being brought on.

Also started off some seeds!

   Beans

• I soaked 24 Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans and 24 Violet podded beans.  I washed and prepared the pots and trays.  Today I put the compost in and they are now on one of the new shelves in the growing house.

Action Day 8:

I did a little work in the garden today.  Moved some more stuff into the greenhouse, checked the beans I put into soak yesterday.  Will leave them until Tuesday as I think they need a little bit longer.

Also sorted more pots for cleaning that are going to be needed for sowing seeds.  They are located outside the kitchen so that when I have a few minutes I can drag a few in as I have time.  Also sorted some more pots for specific seeds.  They are also outside the kitchen so that I can do the same as above.

Also sorted some more seeds for sowing probably for Tuesday.  I hope to be up early again to try and get a bit more done as I have the Doctor's in the afternoon.

Managed to get the plants watered up in the greenhouses early today and out the way with before I cooked tea.  Also watered up The Old Herb Garden area as I have a lot of planters in there which I am nurturing at the moment.  The grape vine has gone bonkers and it has set a lot more grapes than it did last year.  I am therefore making sure to water regularly and feeding once a week.

And of course after I had done all the watering up, we have since had gentle rain!

Today though I have been mostly in the kitchen. Could well be in there in the mornings for the best part of the week.  Afternoons I am hoping just to deal with the garden.  My heart really wants to be in the garden rather than the kitchen at the moment.  I also cooked a full meal for tonight's tea i.e. Loin steaks, carrots, mashed potatoes, broccoli and peas. Lots of gravy as usual.  Went down very nicely.

Action Day 9:

We had heavy rain all night and for the first part of the morning.  I had planned on doing some housework with a little bit of gardening thrown in.  G however decided we were going to the Butcher to get sausages.  We came back with a couple of trays of large eggs, a Lincolnshire Plum Loaf which is ideal to serve with cheese, a small quantity of pre-prepared sweet potato chips, and some onion rings, 1 kg of Lincolnshire Sausages, English Strawberries and some Mushrooms.  We had had a look at a joint of Silverside and also a Haunch of Venison.  In the end this time, we came out without one or the other.

On the way back home we passed near a garden centre that we used to go to regularly quite a few years ago now, I asked G if we could have a quick look around.  He said yes.  Prices were very reasonable and they also had some good offers on.  We came away with about six Tomato plants and two Herb plants a French Tarragon and a Lemon Verbena.  Well pleased to have found the Tomato plants and so cheaply.  I did not think that we were going to get any this year. They consist of the following:- 

Sungold Cherry Tomato

Tomato Alicante

Tomato Gardeners Delight

Sunta Victoria Baby Plum

Tomato Marmande

Tomato Pear Drop

They are now installed in the second greenhouse that I cleaned the other day.  I have also sown some more seeds.  Very pleased with the progress being made so far.

Would like to go back to this Garden Centre as I only went around a small percentage of it and they have Strawberries which I am also after.  Hopefully G will take me back again.  Fingers crossed and toes plaited.

I also went to the Doctors to see the Nurse.  She took about seven vials of blood from me. I had taken the precaution of wearing a jumper (even though I did not really need it) to keep my arms warm,  I had also had plenty to drink.  My veins do not always co-operate but doing this seemed to help an awful lot and she was able to withdraw  the amount needed without too much trouble.  Doctor will ring me when she has the results in.  

When I came back home from the Surgery, it struck me that I did not have a clue as to when my next appointment was with the Consultant at the Hospital and I ended up wading through the Doctor app to find out when the next appointment is.  It is for 13 August at 11:45am.  I was beginning to panic that I had missed the appointment.  Now entered into my main diary.  This date is therefore potentially a date after which we may be able to get to the coast. Fingers crossed.

Tea was Italian Sausages served with roasted mixed veg, with Strawberries and cream for afters.  Went down very nicely indeed.

I then had a four day hiatus where not much got done mostly due to the weather and me being under the weather.

Action Day 10:

However on Sunday I managed to get out into the garden and get one or two small jobs done including sowing some more seeds.  I also watered up both greenhouses.

I also harvested some Chives from the Planters in the garden both the Chive blossoms and the Chives themselves.  I had 1lb of butter to hand which was blended with the beater and then the Chives and broken down Chive Blossoms were added to the Butter and prepped up into small rolls.  I added some Chive Blossoms to the outside of the butter rolls as well.✔

The other day I had initially made Chive Blossom Vinegar.  There is only a small jar this year.  However as I intend to increase the Chive stock for next year I am hoping to produce more for then.  This one jar was produced using half a jar of the Blossoms and just had plain white vinegar added.✔

I now just have some Chive Blossom Salt to make for the time being.

I enjoyed the play time in the kitchen. Made a nice change.

Sorry for the intermission folks.  Have not been able to settle because of constant interruptions to continue dealing with all these things.  However today I was able to get rolling again.  After a few days of not being able to do anything because of the heat, today has been cooler and much more amenable to some effort.

Action Day 11 (Saturday)

I have started although not finished bottoming out the Study/Craft Room.  Have been at it most of the day, still not completed.  I dragged the steam cleaner out to make my life just that little bit easier and I must say very pleased with how clean everything has come up.  I have washed the walls down with washing soda and hot water as well.  Have used the steam cleaner on the architrave, skirting boards, ceiling and the floor.  Have also had all of the bedding into the washing machine.  I have also got loads of other washing done as well and it has been dried after only a short time.  Curtains, nets, quilts, blanket throws have also been dealt with and dried.  It has been an ideal drying day.  I have a couple more bedding items to deal with on Monday and one corner of the room is left to tackle.  I have dealt with the bulk of the room.  This particular corner houses my desk and some crafting items and so will take a bit of sorting out.  I am however very pleased with progress.  I am completely cream-crackered but hopefully will get finished off on Monday with a bit of luck.

Action Day 12 (Sunday))

A visit into the front bedroom today as Ideally I need to get my clothes sorted plus some items that have temporarily been placed in there for storage.  My main purpose was to try and locate my sewing machine cable and foot pedal.  The machine is needed for some projects including some mending.  I have loads of crafting projects to do.

A change of plans in respect to finishing off the work in the Craft Room/Computer Room/Study which I had planned to do today following on from yesterday.  This is mainly due to the fact that as I will be disrupting my sewing corner where my sewing machines are in the Craft Room/Computer Room/Study. As I am going to be disrupting the corner in any event, I want ideally (if I can find my foot pedal and lead) set the machine up so that I can just set too with a bit of sewing when I want to as for the best part the machine will be already set up ready to go.  I do hope to find both the foot pedal and the cable.  If I am able to locate this will mean I will be able to do some sewing moving forward. I really am itching to get going as I could quite easily keep myself occupied for quite a while.  I want to do the patchwork as well. I have a lot of fabric in the house in any event but I want to get cracking.That is the plan in any event.

Some of the items need to be put into the back bedroom as well and other items need to go in other rooms.

What actually happened!

Well I did get into the front bedroom to do a little work, but it was later on in the day than I had intended and nowhere near as much work got dealt with then.  I therefore dealt with some smaller items that had been popped into the front bedroom to sort out later and had not been dealt with. These items included my coat hangers which were not sorted or in any type of storage.  I have a lot of wooden coat hangers and wire coat hangers as well as some poly coat hangers which I am not really enamoured of.  I have managed to sort these into three different bags by type.  Once I have located all of them, I can then decide what to do with the poly ones.  I suspect that if I have enough of wooden and wire coat hangers that the poly ones will be heading to the Charity Shop.

As there are a few of these smaller items they need to be stored together rather than separately for neat storage more than anything else.  

I have recently over the past three months or so, bought a few things in from the Charity shop that were breakable, and needed re-packaging in Bubble Wrap to protect  each item.  There are a lot of glass and China items involved.  I therefore managed to get quite a few items very well wrapped and into temporary storage (bags), although for the time being these have gone back into the bedroom.  I now need to order in some more Bubble Wrap to get the other items packaged up.  The little bit of sorting I have dealt with today has already shown up in a smaller area being taken in the front bedroom than there was originally.

I am therefore going to spend some time this week where I can in accessing the front room and removing the items to the back bedroom where possible and to continue looking for my sewing machine foot pedal and cable and sort out my clothes.

I suspect in all honesty I will be split between the front bedroom and the back bedroom moving forward.

I will be carrying on with the work started on Saturday to complete the Study/Computer Room/Craft Room on Monday.  Then tomorrow evening (Monday night) I may be able to access the front bedroom again for another rootle.  Small tranches of time, but within each time period, quite a bit of stuff getting done.

I am hoping that now the weather has cooled down that this week I will be more active and will be able to achieve more.  That is my intention.  I have checked the weather forecast for tomorrow and it looks as though it will be a good day for getting all sorts done.  I am hoping that my continuation of work in the Study/Craft Room/Computer room will only take the morning to complete.   Hopefully I will then be able to get back on track with the rest of the list which is extensive.

There is still a lot to do.  I have been good though and rested where I needed to even though not much has got done.  I am feeling far better than I have done for sometime, although I still have some itching on the scarring that has remained.  Am getting there though and for that I remain deeply grateful.

Hopefully the week to come will be a lot better overall.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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