OUTDOORS 13

Liz has been tidying up Betty's house and offered me her gardening bag. I was interested to find out what was inside...

On searching through just the top, I discovered at least 3 pairs of gardening gloves, some delphinium and marrow seeds and some garden tools. A couple of days later, when I had more time, I emptied the bag out and went through everything - having been told to keep what I wanted and toss the rest. There was actually quite a bit of useful stuff in there.

I definitely will not need to buy gardening gloves or secateurs for a long time, if ever again! In fact, it was very good timing - for a week or so later, my at-home secateurs broke.

Well, spring is apparently here - so say my frogs and the daffodils, crocuses, tulips, bluebells, etc. I tidied up the poly tunnel ready for its final season before it gets a new cover. Here you can see the lefthand side - where I have 9 prepared pots and a few bits and bots - such as last season's' parsley and rocket and the coming seasons onions and cauliflowers.

At the back, you can see I have cleared up the table of dead basil and tomatoes - all popped underneath to rot in with my leaf mould from last year - and set out some trays of soil ready to plant with 2017 seeds. Actually - I have already popped in some leeks and chilies... Another tray of cauliflower seedlings ready to take to the allotment adorns the table on the right.

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Here you go - it is now late January and not much can be done in the actual outside due to wet weather followed by icy cold weather, but indoors I can prepare sweet potato slips ready for the outside. This will be the first year I have grown sweet potatoes at the allotment - and the only time prior I have grown them at all was in Auastralia, where you just throw one in the ground and wait rather than make slips which appears necessary in the colder climate of England. So this will be on my kitchen windowsill for the next few weeks - only recently cleared of drying nasturtium seeds and ripening tomatoes.

Well, as I currently write up the next piece of this blog post it has now reached the first weekend in February and it is time to chit my spuds for the 2017 growing year. This is the 'Swift' variety that I bought a 10-pack of from Wyevale - 9 of which fit into one empty mushroom container.

The tenth, along with various saved spuds from 'King Edward' and 'Casablanca' crops last year - and 2-3 organic purchases of late 2016 - fit a second tub. Hopefully all will be well chitted and ready to plant by the close of the month - by which time I hope to also have dug over the former fruit patch and manured it up ready to plant them!

Alas, we had 2 weeks of rain followed by a week of icy frost, followed by a week of rain - AKA 'cannot dig' season. Alas also, my sweet potato has sat 'slipping' in the kitchen windowsill for around 2 weeks - without result. Not a single shoot or root has emerged and the 2 halves have shrivelled up slightly and begun to turn moldy... I wiped the white stuff off and gave them a further week - but nothing happened, so I planted them in a tub in the poly tunnel and if they grow they grow, and if not I willl simply ONLY have garden center purchased slips to plant in 2017, unless my second and last attempt - started the final week of February - suceeds.

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I was all ready to move in to the newly redecorated bedroom mid-January. Liz said I should move in as soon as I could, rather than fuss about waiting for the final piece of furniture to arrive, so I did - on January 16th right after our discussion. Above you can see the collection of new items I moved in with.

Here is the now empty spare room. I say empty, but it is not really - I have plenty of guests already living in there that were sharing it with me before I moved back upstairs - as in a collection of at least a half dozen spiders! They seem to congregate around the computer area - I wonder if they like me playing Song Pop at Facebook and/or my monthly Ligmincha Dharma webcasts?

And here it is - the final piece of flat-pack furniture, that arrived 2 weeks after the rest due to getting lost in the warehouse. It has since been unpacked, built, and put into use.

As February arrives, I contemplate. My main plan is to fix the garden/exterior during 2017 (and fix up the coffee lounge, which should only cost £50-75) 'as and when' savings permit. I then have 2018/19/20 - a maximum of three years - in which to save enough to completely re-do my bathroom and alleyway.

Even if I do 'all that I can do' myself, removing a bath tub and either replacing it and installing a real shower over it OR having a shower cubicle installed and doing away with the bath altogether is going to cost a MINIMUM of £2000. Once done, it will add value to the house and be hopefully set for 5-10 years before repairs are required, but it is a major expense looming ahead that may hold off the repointing that will probably be required within the next 5 years.

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Saturday arrived, and I began to unwrap my new bed. Oh no - just as I thought furniture assembly was done with, more 'pieces' appeared! Realizing that being on wheels would make it easier to move if needs be, and better for the new carpet, I attempted to figure out the 8 pieces, 6 holes, and no instructions.

6 holes and 6 wheels made sense - but two white lumpy screwy things and nowhere to put them did not. I attempted to screw them in, in case they had to break a seal to allow the wheels to insert properly, which seemed the most logical option...but this did not seem to function. I therefore tossed the white screwy things away and simply slotted the 6 wheels into the 6 holes.

They did go in, but it was hard getting them to stay in while putting other ones in. However, once all six were in place, I assumed the weight of the bed would hold them in their holes, as they were wobbling...

I had my bed - and I had my new bedroom. Except for the missing chest of drawers and putting my stuff in - such as coat hangers, clothes, bedding, and self...

To refresh regular readers memories - here are some before shots and the after shot...

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Here you can see the assembly of the drawers, which went as smoothly as the cabinet itself. At the end of the third piece of furniture, I had a few extras and tools. Once again, as with the bedside cabinet - I am not going to fix it to the wall as instructed. It is too low to need this in my opinion and I am not having heavy items at the front and nothing at the back of the drawers. I also want the option of moving the smaller items around to new positions in the room if I choose.

So there you have it - my room as it stopped Thursday afternoon. I then flaked out for an hour trying to get rid of the sinus headache, wondering why the rain that had dripped and winds that were whooshing had not ended it, as normal. I stepped outside to go to my evening job, semi-recuperated after my rest - into a blizzard as my nose and head eased...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I then understood the sore head and nose.

I was pleased with the room, thinking how fancy and neat it looked - just a little upset at the hole in the wall and the fact that fixing the closet to the wall was only partially successful. Normal wooden ones don't need fixing to the wall, though - so I am hoping this one won't 'need' any further attention beyond polyfilling the hole 3-4 times til its gone and the wallplug/screws that protrude are 'secured' that way.

Nothing more could be done other than apply polyfilla a few times - as the bed was arriving Friday afternoon. It arrived promptly at 12-05. I was given the time slot 12.30-4, but told them I would be home 12-5, so they probably wished to get it done quickly and first. It freed my afternoon up - although I had expected to have to stay in, so arranged for a friend to pop round for coffee anyway.

The bed looked fancy too - just as the furniture, curtains, carpet, painting... & I was pleased to see it was assembled in Yorkshire - not China!

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The rail was a breeze, thankfully. I was beginning to get hungry as lunchtime approached...but there were only a couple more things to do, so I persevered.

Shelving went in next and I stared at the brochures last page - telling me how to straighten the doors sideways or up/downwards. I may....but I don't think they are misaligned ENOUGH to bother.

So, there it was - my brand new closet - and a big chunk of plaster out of the wall...

Yep, you guessed it - no sooner had I finished building the closet, but did I begin to lay out the pieces for the chest of drawers! I did however stop for lunch before continuing to actually assemble this item.

I will not go into detail on this, as it is similar to the bedside cabinet except twice as wide, 80 not 40 cm width. I also have a second chest of drawers that was supposed to arrive but went AWOL. It will be arriving - hopefully - on the 22nd.

It was very easy to assemble and no mishaps occurred except 1-2 sliding out of place screws.

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Despite that hiccup, I banged in the nails required and then stared in dismay at the next step. Should I or shouldnt I....?

One is supposed to fix the item to the wall at this stage. Now, for the smaller, lower items, I wouldn't bother unless fitting them all together in set places. However, for this tall, large closet I figured that maybe I ought to have a shot at fixing it to the wall. I knew exactly where it was to go, and there wasnt really anywhere else it was going to fit anyway, to change my mind...

Yes, I had inherited a power drill - could use the power bar as an extension chord - and had wall plugs and long screws from curtain rails, bathroom cabinets, or some other purpose...

I tried. One wallplug went in half way and the screw bulged it out and went in 1/3, but seemed firm. The other...oh dear me! The worst problem of the furniture assembly to date. The drill not only made a hole for the wallplug, but a great chunk of plaster fell out. Regular readers may recall my having wondered if I should have had a full replaster rather than a polyfill... the answer to that question then posed should have been YES...

Never mind, I tossed some polyfilla on the loose wallplug and screw hanging out of a gaping hole and sadly progressed to closet doors.

I worked very carefully, realizing that it would be easy to mishang a door. Luckily, although one is a tiny bit forward and one a fraction to the top, all three hung well enough to close and look good.

Handles wre then screwed on. My headahce was getting worse and I had to take paracetamol before continuing, as screwing in the handles needed more oomph than my sinus throbbing would permit. The handles were properly secured however.

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As with the bedside cabinet, the closet was thankfully logical, sturdy, and good quality. Assembly was easy, provided I followed each diagram one at a time - and doubled checked to ensure I had the right lump of wood/tool/screws n things for each stage.

Things were running smoothly, with no mishaps as yet - despite my sore sinus head making it less pleasant than it could have been. I kept working, wondering how long it would take me, and if i would have had time to pop down the allotment for a half hour or so first or not. I had not initially gone in case I didn't have enough time, plus the headache...

I am glad I did not go, as the closet took about 5-6 hours to assemble in total - though I did not rush, but went slow and did have a couple of mishaps by the end of the procedure...

Here is the first minor hiccup. Whether the backing misaligned itself in one corner whilst I nailed in other corners, or whether it did not fit perfectly, or whether I was careless when tapping in nails I do not know - but one third of the top of the backing gave me problems. The nails tacked through into air, not the roof of the closet.

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I continued to work on assembling the shelving and soon had 3 drawers ready to insert. With mild trepidation I attempted to slot them into place - and succeeded! One brand new solid bedside cabinet was created!

I had a few left overs - but not much. Mostly, round things that were supposed to fix it to the wall - but this was not reasonable as I did not know where it was going, nor was it tall enough to need fixing in my opinion. I laid out the closet before going to bed Wednesday night, but did not get further than that until Thursday.

Once again, the booklet - larger than the last - started with rules about needing a brainy person as well as a dumb one, etc - and also required a bradle - which thankfully I sort of had. It is really a screwdriver, but the end bit is so small its almost a dot rather than a line and did.

I laid out the little thingies in neat piles, after counting to ensure sufficient had been included - once again, they had. I began...

...after going downstairs to make a cup of coffee to try to get rid of my sinus headache. There was an amassing pile of cardboard in the hallway. I have as yet to break it into plain/unglued or taped card and card with stuff on/in. The former can go in my compost bin at the allotment, the latter in the recycle bin.

I had a sinus headache nearly all day Thursday - caused not by the rain that accompanied my afternoon work session on the chest of drawers, but by a snow storm that I stepped out into on my way to my evening cleaning job after working on closet and c.o.d. assembly all day - but, as the bed was arriving Friday, I HAD to assemble the closet and hopefully the chest of drawers as well - or the bed would not fit in the room for all the pieces lying about. I began...