A Busy Sunday

This was my day today;-

• Let the chickens out and topped up their food and water
• Tea and Toast for me and Mr Milly this morning
• Tidied the kitchen and put a load of washing on
• Put chicken in the slow cooker for dinner (not one of mine!)
• Popped to the local shops for a few bits and pieces
• Went to my friends and carried bricks from her garden and loaded into my car
• Went to the Lottie,  unloaded one lot of bricks from the car,  wheeled the bricks to the plot (too muddy to drive the car)
• Unloaded the 2nd lot of bricks and wheeled them to the plot
• Roughly laid out the base for the Greenhouse
• Hammered in the last post for the Bean Frame
• Attached and tied in the canes for the Bean Frame
• Came home,  made lunch for Mr Milly
• Made the bed
• Had a shower
• Cooked dinner and lemon cake for dessert
• Washed up and tidied the Kitchen
• Emptied all the Bins
• Made 2 Owl Hotties and a Chick-sicle
• Turned up a pair of Jeans
• Helped Mr Milly with a shower 
• Sat and watched the telly.....

Bean Frame - No climbing strings yet,  the frame is in place to start bean trench. 

Rough outline of the base of the greenhouse on Plot 96 and a spare pile of bricks. 

3 Owl Hotties - pop them in the Microwave for a bit of a warm cuddle.
The little one is a Chick-sicle,  keep him in the freezer  for when a bit of cold is needed - better than a bag of peas!

In summary,  some shopping, gardening, brick carrying, housework, cooking, nursing, and sewing.   What a day of complete extremes!


Did you have a good day?

Alison x

A phone call

I'm not going to start with the phone call,  first a little Lottie update - It is cold and everything is frozen solid!

This morning the Lottie looked like this;-

I did try to hammer in the tall poles for the bean frame - the Portuguese Housekeeper was with me this morning and she was laughing at me as the pole really is too tall to hammer in without standing on something!!  I won't be defeated though and soon found something  to stand on!

After a few minutes of hammering with the pole only going into the ground by about 2 inches - I gave up!
Reluctant as I was, I did admit defeat today and knew that really there wasn't really very much I was going to be able to do.   I pottered in the shed for a while and put up the numbers on both sheds - they look great!  The clock now has a battery in it and is ticking away nicely.   Some new hooks have been hung in the metal shed and there is a new addition in the window of the green shed - can you see??

Apart from the numbers there is nothing attractive about this shed........
  I might have to do something about that!

I really needed some kind of path along the length of the plot - the long term plan in for grass but until that can be sown there is little structure to the plot and it is muddy!  Yesterday I was on a mission to make a path - I had seen something on another Blog that I liked and thought would work,  with Mr Milly laid up for the time being any construction work is down to me.   I have spent many many years working alongside Mr Milly as a 'builders mate' watching him, fetching and carrying and having a go now and again, so I did feel reasonable confident that I could muddle through, do things my own way and maybe achieve something.

I started with a pallet, my goodness they are incredible difficult to split down into usable pieces of wood,   so I found a different route!   I wanted slats about 40cm long,   with saw to the ready  I cut each of the slats off the pallet,  next my sister-in-law had given me the slats from the base of a single bed which has been replaced,  these were easier to saw.   Finally the wooden slats were laid in a line,  weed suppressant fabric stapled to the back and hey presto - a roll up path!  I'm quite chuffed with it and I have to say a little pleased with myself too!!

Anyway - lets go back to the phone call.   This weekend on my beloved Freecyle an item came up that I was really interested in,   my email was sent and I waited, and waited and waited.  Eventually an email was received

Hi Alison,

Well I have offered it to someone, but if they don't reply or don't want it, I'll let you know. It belonged to the old lady I bought my new house from, and she was a keen gardener who'd lived here since 1948... so I'm sure she'd like it to go to a good home where it was going to be useful.
I was disappointed, but not really surprised.  I politely replied to the email to thank the lady for letting me know and to confirm that I was still interested if anything changed - I sent her my telephone numbers - just in case!    This morning she phoned, the other people had not replied to her emails and looked like they were no longer interested - did I still want the item......  YES PLEASE was the reply.   I couldn't collect today,  you will see why, but was able to go and see it and take some pictures.

Here it is...........................

A 6ft x 8ft Greenhouse - Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!  How exciting is that!!

  Well that's enough for today - I'm off to have a little glass of wine to celebrate and try and calm by brain which is now in overdrive trying to work out a zillion different things starting with......  how am I going to collect it!!

Alison x

Thank You

To Colin - Thank you!!

To Dearest Father In Law - Thank you!

I have had a couple of lovely gifts.  The first was delivered by my brother,  it is a gift from his friend Colin.   What a lovely and thoughful thing to do!   From this post How Annoying - and in particular my smashed Lottie Clock,  Colin has sent me a new one, and very smart it is too with both a clock and a thermometer - I do find it interesting to watch the temperature through the year and this will be brilliant!  The clock is now proudly sitting on the front of the shed.   I am trying to work out a way to fix it more securely as I will be really upset if anything happens to this one.  

Colin - thank you for my lovely clock,  I am really really pleased and delighted with it and very touched by your gift.  Alison x

Yesterday I received a letter delivered by the Postie,  the letter was addressed to the Lottie Lady -  inside was a letter signed by DFIL and some numbers plaques - initially I did think it was a number 5 and three number 9s   ........

 ......a quick switch round of the numbers and I was holding 95 and 96 - the numbers of my Lottie plots - how cool!!   As I now have 2 sheds, each one can proudly display their own plot numbers and as they are matching it will be announcement to all that the 2 plots belong to me!!  A little gift that I am really thrilled with!

DFIL - Thank you for my delightful number plaques - they will look lovely on the Plots - photos  in situ to follow!!  DDIL x 

No Lottie time for me today - this prevented it!  Hopefully the weather  will be good tonight then I will be off to the Lottie in the morning.  Alison x

Poor Mr Milly

Mr Milly has been under the knife.......  yesterday morning we left home at 6.00am to head into London,  fortunately we seemed to miss most of the rush hour traffic and made it into the hospital for his appointment at 7.30am.    He has had problems with his hand for 10 years now with multiple operations to try and fix it.   This one, I am assured by Mr Milly,  is the last operation - I really hope so!

He now has his right hand in a cast which will be there for a few weeks,  part of a bone under his thumb has been removed - today he has been suffering with it and has spent the day resting in bed being looked after by yours truly - to be honest I am a rubbish nurse!   I try my best, but I am just not very good at the whole looking after nursing business - too impatient I think!

I have a couple of days off work to keep an eye on hubby and make sure he is not using the hand - this really is difficult for him as it would be for any of us,  but for him especially as he uses his hands to get about - hence the staying in bed today and I think tomorrow will be the same.

I did manage a couple of hours at the Lottie today - I set Mr Milly up with TV controls, telephones, laptop and tea to hand and went out for a bit of fresh air.

On the way to the Lottie I passed a skip with what looked like a couple of  compost bins in it.   I debated for about 30 seconds and then plucked up the courage to knock on the door of the house - a lovely lady answered and she was really happy for me to take the compost bins, she said she was pleased someone was going to be able to use them.    What a bonus - 2 composts bins, complete with lids,  one is missing the hatch cover - no problem though, I'll find something to put over it.  That is 5 bins at the lottie now, but with double the plot size and beds I probably will need them!

New-to-me bins at the back of Plot 96

I had my first  ever bonfire today - just a little one,  but it was fun and welcome to do on a very cold day.

 And I have marked out some more of the plot - the 2 paths which will run the length of Plot 95 and have put some canes in to mark where the beans will go this year.    I did think the ground would be too hard today to dig - but as the day warmed up the ground softened and I was able to make a start on digging out the new bean bed.   This way of working suits me - when I look at a whole expanse to be dug over it just seems too much to do and demotivating,  when I mark things out in this way it breaks up the work and I set out with a mission with manageable chunks to complete.

Marked out plot - the final layout of this plot now in place.

Today the postie delivered a little gift for me - and another was hand delivered .....  Tomorrow I will share my lovely gifts with you!!

Alison x

The Fox Saga

Do you remember this post?  Cunning Mr Fox.  We have watched the fox over the last few weeks, sometimes it is in the tree and other times it is not.    We know for definite that it has no problem climbing the tree and will happily sit up there all day.  We think it must have found or made a comfy platform as we can watch it stand up, turn around and curl up again.

Mr Fox turning around getting ready to curl up

Sleeping

Today there is a new development:-

Count the foxes!!

TWO foxes in the tree!!  Before you know it there will be a whole family up there!  Just a reminder we live in an urban district and this tree is huge - much taller than our 2 storey semi detached house.  Unbelieveable  don't you think!

The tree at the end of the garden

As much as I dislike foxes having lost my ducks to one of them and the constant threat they pose to my chickens - the new one is really quite a stunning looking creature. 

I wonder how this saga of the foxes will unfold?

Alison  x

De-construction

I have been working on a quilt since Christmas.   This is a first for me and something I have wanted to try for sometime.

The initial pattern came from this book

As it was being put together we decided that it was a little too plain for us so the patchwork lines were added to break up the plainness and add a little more interest.  This theme was carried through to the binding which is a kind of patchwork stripe.

It has been fun to do,  although a mammoth task.  When it was time to add the batting and the backing I had to virtually move all of the furniture in the living room to lay the whole lot on the floor to baste and pin it.   It took hours to complete this step,  fortunately I had Mr Milly on hand as a spare pair of hands and voice of reason to keep me sane as I struggled with the three layers and metres and metres of fabric.

Once this step was completed it was then a struggle to quilt all the layers - it took a couple of evenings to do this as it is really tiring feeding it all through the sewing machine, folding, tucking, squishing and balancing the weight all at the same time.

Quilt in Progress

The final step was the binding.   One side is sewn using the machine,  the binding is then tucked and folded and  hand sewn to finish.    Eventually the quilt was put on the bed,  we stood back to admire our handiwork and it was immediately obvious that it was too small!!  How very frustrating and disappointing is that!

This Sunday was a perfect day to de-construct and work again on the quilt - too much snow to want to venture out of the house.  One side and part of the top and bottom  of the binding was unpicked,  a new line of pattern strips sewn and joined together and the whole thing put back together again.   The next evening I spent hand sewing the binding back onto the quilt and it is done.

Finished!

This time (it is the final time as I have now run out of backing fabric and batting) the quilt is a much better size.   The quilt is a fairly basic pattern and I would like to tackle something more complex - but not for a while.   I think that will be a job for next winter, which gives me plenty of time to gather the fabric and decide the type of pattern to attempt.

Mid Winter

The days are just beginning to get a little longer ,  we have had a little snow,  but nothing too terrible and today it mostly appears to be gone.  This winter does feel long and I am really struggling for things to Blog about - My Girl is away in Kent so none of her adventures to share.  My Boy pretty much does his own thing  with no tales to tell and me and Mr Milly feel like we are hibernating!   My week is pretty much working from home 3 days a week,  travelling and staying away from home for the remaining 2 days with no opportunity to get out into the fresh air.  Weekends seem to take forever to arrive and then are just gone in a flash!

Daily blogging is going to be difficult, so until the days are longer my Blog posts will probably just be a couple of times a week.

This weekend I managed a couple of hours at the Lottie - it was very cold and not really fair to inflict that on anyone else!  I pottered mostly, the ground was too hard to be digging.  I cleared a little path between plots 95 and 96,  cleared out the shed on plot 96 and tidied that plot a little.   The previous tenant of plot 96 had a real liking for beer cans and plastic bottles as cane toppers - they work, but are not my cup of tea,  too untidy looking - they are now gone.   I then made a bit of an effort cutting back some of the brambles behind my shed and some between the 2 plots.  I am starting to build little pile ready for a bonfire hopefully this coming weekend.    No photos of the Lottie today - I forgot the camera!

Saturday night we visited friends, not too late a night as the snow was coming down pretty rapidly and we didn't want to get caught out.    I was woken during the night,  well early morning to be precise at 4.00am with the phone ringing - don't you just hate that - complete panic as soon as you realise the time.   It was My Boy - "Mum I'm in Kingston and stranded, there are no taxis, can you pick us up??"  Exactly what was needed in middle of the only snowy night this year.   A slow drive to Kingston and back, dropping friends off on the way home 5.30am before I was back in my bed.   Mr Millys' only comment - You must love that boy!   I think he might be right!!