OUTDOORS 23

More crops on my next trip to the allotment crop - with beans, strawberries, gooseberries and spinach in abundance. One of my latest chores is to prepare the fruits. For example, with gooseberries, you need to take the top and bottom strigs off and rinse them - before cooking/freezing. This is a chore that means standing around fiddling about - but one can use the time to rest between more active chores, 'do something' before work, or meditate - so it is not wasted time.

Well, what a surprise - on my next trip there were even more gooseberries, strawberries, spinach and beans to deal with. Just to show an example of how many strawberries I have cropped this year - here is my fruit bowl filled with ONE days' cropping. I have had about 4 times this many - so far - at the close of the second week in June. The wine glass illustrates how big the fruit bowl is!

And, on my next trip to the plot - I brought home more crops - gooseberries galore, another stick rhubarb, more strawberries and the first half dozen raspberries! yes - the raspberries will soon be filling the freezer and my belly as are the gooseberries and strawberries now and was the rhubarb - which although dwindling still offers the odd stalk.

Even more crops... every 2-3 days I pop down to water/weed/crop - and seem to have a few bags to bring home with me. This time gooseberries, strawberries, spinach, broad beans and raspberries. Here we go again - another haul of crops - raspberries, gooseberries, garlic, strawberries and rhubarb this time.

INDOORS 36

The old wooden seat was finally removed and dumped and I could then get on with putting the new seat in place. This was the first time I had ever changed a toilet seat, but it looked fairly straightforward.

The first task was to clean under the wooden seat area, where I had formerly been unable to clean, though! This done, assembling the new seat was fairly simple and I soon had a new looking loo. The room had only been painted last year, so it all looked quite smart now that the seat and paint trim were similar shades of 'almost white' - til I discovered my son had mucked up the toilet brush, sigh.

The new wind on hubs look much neater - and hopefully will not be squished to pieces when the next seat needs to go on!

Indoors, my 2 geraniums are doing well - despite having cuttings placed both into pots and outdoors. I have also used the freesias Liz gave me for my birthday to color up the kitchen sill - as they are drying but keeping their color.

This is my new washing up bowl. Formerly I used the sink. I did not want to use the dirty old laundry bowl for washing up, so invested £1.50p in a new bowl! I only paid £1.35p though, as I got it from Asda where my son works and he gets a 10% discount!

INDOORS 35

Here we are in early May 2017 - with a shot of my recently restocked wine closet. When I recycle, I recycle a lot more than most people would. Here is one example -

- Liz gave me some flowers for my birthday and I snipped the stalks off before placing them in a vase, as most people do. Unlike most people however, I did not discard the chopped off stalks - but grew them! I now have 3-4 brand new rose bushes for the side fence!

This is the toilet seat I inherited. I was thinking of changing it soon after inheriting the house, asIi was not too keen on wood, but my son persuaded me not to as it was still in good condition. However, it did not stay in good condition - and the small crack on the underside became a big crack top and bottom...

So, off I trotted to Dunhelm Mill to grab a new toilet seat. I made sure it was a white one and plastic, and also not too flimsy and 'cheap' - and that it did come with all the bits and bots you need to fix it on properly.

I studied the pieces, instructions, and toilet...

...ew! The hardest part of replacing the toilet seat was in fact unscrewing the old one - that must have been in situ for some 15-20 years. The white plasticy hubs shown were almost worn out by the pliers in my effort - but I finally managed to take the old seat off!

OUTDOORS 22

May brings us a dry cool start but plenty of pretty flowers. My back yard has gone into 3 separated sections, with a rim. The far section is woodland wild, the middle section a wild frog pond, and the closer section shown above my wild meadowland housing wild flowers along with bird seed growings, aquilegias, and flowering onions. You can also see the grassy pathline that separates it from the rim-border.

Here we can see that late May/early June has arrived - and with it the crops are coming. Earlier in the year it was mostly rhubarb, but now other fruit and veg are in the crops I bring home everytime I trot to the plot. Gooseberries are doing well this year as well as the rhubarb - and there is a strawberry, spinach and a few broad beans.

In the poly tunnel, my cauliflowers are growing well. I kept a few in there, as well as planting many down the allotment. I was quite pleased, as they are apparently difficult veggies to grow - and I had never tried before. I think they may become a regular crop for me though.

Here you can see the lefthand side of the tunnel - mostly cauliflowers, one onion or leek or garlic, and some pots ready for the tomatoes. The next shot shows the other half of the tunnel - where my leek seedlings were until I took them down the plot to plant out, along with one cucumber, one chili and a couple tomatoes that will be staying here.

And the crops kept on coming. Here we see an early June harvest of strawberries, spinach, broad beans and gooseberries.