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I am now able to do a little something towards getting my room perfected daily, as time and energy allows. The morning after my first night in the spare room, I began by removing small piles of things from the bedroom to clear the carpet. This shot shows the room almost emptied. (The pile behind the modem is now gone, too.)

I then took an interlude from the bedroom to 'play around' with the house. First - the fridge. I removed the CD player and 3 CD's from the top and wiped it over. They are now in the spare room on the dressing table, leaving me a nice clean and clear fridge top in the kitchen.

My second minor house-shift task before reverting to the bedroom after living life, was the spare black shelf-box-thing. It had contained a few packets of photos I wanted to scan and sat around gathering dust...but once out of the bedroom, photos stored in a drawer, I washed it and wondered what to use it for - a sunglasses holder OR a shoe container? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My last task for 'the day after the furniture was moved' was to cut up the carpet. Scissors and bags at the ready - I lunched first. There was already a square lump cut out, as you can see - which happened when my late parents spilled green paint over it during their redecorating of the windowsill 1-2 decades ago. This will be kept, while the rest will be bagged ready for a tip trip! The square will have the small white closet placed upon it, so I can drag it side to side when painting the ceiling with ease and safety.

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Here is evidence that Liz and I have now shifted the furniture out from my bedroom into the spare room. Placed where it will stay, I had the task of wiping over dusty drawer innards and refitting drawers after we carried them downstairs separately to the closets that they slotted into.

The bedroom looked sorry for itself - but only remaining are a few small items and the white closet/modem/phone that I will leave in the room and cover while re-deccing - and some dirt and dust.

The spare room began to take shape - drawers reinserted and bed ready to be made. Once my bedroom is refurnished, this furniture will remain in situ in the spare room for the use of guests. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of brand new furniture and the return to my own room with excitement - but that will not be until after a lot of hard work cleaning, polyfilling, rehanging doors, painting, etc.

While I wait, my new guest room/old bedroom bed awaits me...

I did sleep, but do not feel 'at home' in the spare room. I am used to an open window with fresh air pouring in on me, whatever time of year it is. I am also used to facing East when sleeping, not West, and to hearing birds and animals outside rather than cars and people.

My final task down on that day of activity was to re-erect the alter from a table of items.

INDOORS 7

The recliner chair was dragged across the room and plugged into the second socket where the computing gear is plugged into a power bar. The bedside cabinet and 3/4 box were shifted to become bedside cabinets located behind the chair...

The latrer was placed in its new position. Next... I await my friend Liz to have free time and energy so we can move the bed, mattress, dressing table and chest of drawers downstairs! It won't be long before the carpet is ripped out and I can clean/polyfill the walls...

In the meantime, I tackled the next job in the bathroom. These two towels were old, dirty, ugly, itsy-bitsy...and heading for the bin. I tried to hang the new ones... much brighter, cleaner, and yet one was askew til a rehang after I scrubbed the tub and basin out!

OUTDOORS 8

Here is my early November frost morning shot of the leeks - including one carrot and 2 cabbages and the odd onion. In the background you can see what is left of my former fruit patch. I have moved most of the plants across to the new patch, as shown in the next picture, leaving half of the rhubarb for one more year and a couple blackcurrant bushes to be given away, and a few raspberry canes.

And here is the new fruit patch - gooseberries, blackcurrants, raspberries....the rhubarb is behind shot left front, where you can just see a dying down leaf. My final shot for this first frosty weekend in November is taken from the edge of the new fruit area looking towards the shed - you can just see my raspberry canes with the 4 bottled (and one unbottled) cauliflower seedlings up front.

Next is empty land - ready for spring planting! A trodden mud pathway splits it from the area planted with onions, broad beans, and garlic (also a row spinach/kale/3 butternut plants). The butternuts will die soon due to the frost - but I thought I would leave them another week...

There we go - the first leek pulled this year and what a big one! They look really shabby up top due to lack of rain, but several have already grown to a decent size like this one - my biggest of the year.

Mid November had me breaking the tops off the artichokes as they die back. I will be harvesting them shortly - once the ground is a tad drier. I also weeded my strawberry beds and dug out two blackcurrant bushes for my next door neighbor on a short 20-30 minute plot trot this weekend.

Back home, I pulled a few bits of bindweed from the base of the rose arch - but it will need the attention of secateurs in drier weather to remove the arch.

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This tiny little vegetable is a baby butternut. Alas, the first frost began to crumple the plant a little too soon. Yes, they were planted late, but I had hoped for the winter to hold off just a couple more weeks - never mind.

This is my kitchen windowsill - almost all the nasturtium seeds are now dried, the tomatoes continue to enter the house at around a half dozen a day and color up on the sill, and I have three spuds that will be planted whenever they chit - be it fall, winter, or spring!

November reached its first weekend and it being cold and frosty, I could not do much at the plot before my daytrip afterwards. I could however take a few pictures.

The first shows the patch beside the shed - where one cabbage and one Brussels sprout plants have survived slug-munchings. I have also planted some broad beans and garlic - a few of which are surfacing, although with the frosted soil they do not show up clearly in the photo. Behind the big purple Brussels sprout plant, you can see my clumps of mooli and rocket in front of the raised bed of strawberries.

The other strawberry bed and the dying nasturtiums are shown in my next shot - as are the artichokes. As you can see they are starting to die off - which means it will soon be time to harvest the tubers to munch!

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Here you can see one corner of my bedroom as is, awaiting clearance prior to  redecoration. There are mainly only small items, which I can deal with alone. However, I still have the chest of drawers as seen in the next picture, dressing table, and bed/mattress to take downstairs, and this will require the assistance of Liz.

And here is the spare room awaiting the furniture - above you can view the northern half of the room - mostly space at the moment - but where the bed, dressing table and chest of drawers will be sited. Below is the Southern half of the room which I expect to leave as is.

November began and an idea of maybe laying the bed E-W rather than N-S hit my head... Whilst this would not be as preferable for when I camped in the room, it would be much better for when it became a spare room and I returned to my own bedroom after a few weeks. I made scribbles and got out the measuring tape and...

...the floor heap is where the bed corner would go to if I did this. Here are the two main options I could toy with:

The next day I decided on the E-W alignment for the bed. I began to move items around in preparation.

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Here you can see how angled the fall of the rose arch is - it doesn't perhaps look this bad from indoors. The aim is to clear the bindweed, remove the broken arch, and tie the pruned roses to the house/tree.

In the poly tunnel, you can see that late October offers the last few tomatoes of the season along with a little parsley still. On the other side, you can see my cauliflower seedlings are doing well - both potted and unpotted. I plan to take 4 down the plot to grow direct in the ground under 'plastic bottle' green housing, and around a dozen in the poly tunnel in pots once the tomatoes are completely finished. You can also see one of my 4 chili plants and some chives.

On the back table you will find 2 potted onions, the last of the basil, a few more tomatoes, 2 turnips...

Outdoors, and autumn is beginning to need my attention. The former bird feeding table cum hedgehog hut is ready to cover in small branches and twines and other garden debris in the hope to attract a hedgehog resident for hibernation - while under the smaller eating apple tree most foliage is dying for the year. The plan in this area, adjacent to the hedgehog habitat, is to saw down the apple tree to a stump and plant a cherry tree in front...

In spring, the bulbs and other plants should brighten the area up once more until our next fall arrives. The decision to remove the smaller tree is based on the fact I have sufficient bramleys to cook with and the eating apples are too small to eat mostly so need to be cooked anyway. Also, I do not havea  cherry tree and prefer cherries. Whether or not this transfer will occur in this year or next, I don't know though...