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Starting today's post is evidence my spring cleaning is gradually progressing. Here we have the kitchen - finished. The coffee lounge, kitchen, toilet and my bedroom took me 13 hours 45 minutes to complete. As you can see in my next photo, I have now turned the kitchen table around so that it sticks out, rather than have it against the wall. This is to make it easier to get into the coffee lounge and to use the chopping board/table for cooking. Plus, I wanted a change.

I took several photos of my progress - including this gross shot of what lay behind and under the fridge - which I tend to only move out to clean behind every 2-3 years. The sink got a decent clean after I finished the room - for obvious reasons.

My under-the-sink trash sack filled up rapidly with a collection of filthy paper towels, cloths, etc - we put out two trash sacks that week instead of one! Although cleaned, the understair wine closet looks gross. Plans to repaint it at some point before the year closes are in situ. It is on my re-shaped to-do list - which has more added every time something is crossed off, it seems.

It is just 'yukky' looking, even if scrubbed 'clean'. Let's finish today with a shot of some more crops - once again a mixture of poly tunnel and allotment plot.

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Late July, I brought home a bagfull of food - not from the supermarket, but the allotment plot! It was predominantly chickpeas - the feathery podded plant most highly visible in the above picture - but along with apples from the garden, tomatoes from the poly tunnel, there was a selection of edible to wash and sort.

Above are the crops from the next day, which brings us to the close of July 2018.

I have begun to spring clean the entire house. I figured as I had so many projects on at once I might feel more at ease in my mind if I at least got up straight in the basic cleaning, allowing me to progress gradually on: repainting the front door, repainting and reflooring the toilet, having Windsor re-do our bathroom, and furnishing the coffee lounge.

My original plan was to tackle one room a day over the nine days vacation where my evenings are empty. Liz thought it would be better to leave my holiday time free to go out on, and get the chores done on ordinary days, though. I could see her point, though I didn't have any excursion plans and she was likely to be too busy during school holidays to spend too much time with me - but I began on the coffee lounge prior to the vacation.

I started at 9:06am on August the first, finishing just over an hour later. I removed at least 30 spiders, dusted the walls, washed the windows inside and out, vacced the carpet and corners and grotty areas, wiped the heater, plugs, etc, emptied cleaned and replaced the alcove contents, mopped the lino and painted flooring - and gave myself a 15 minutes coffee break, upon which I also washed the spuds I had dug up from the allotment that morning ready for lunch.

I was not very enthusiastic, as evidenced by the photo, but pushed myself to keep going and managed to finish the coffee lounge and start the kitchen.

The second day of the month - I removed 7 spiders who had crept back inside again, sigh. I was not very enthusiastic to start again, but forced myself to do a bit here and there...

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Here we can see that I entered the village flower and produce show for the second year in a row. On the first occasion, I entered rhubarb and longest rhubarb, as I also did this year, but last year I didn't get a placing whereas this year both rhubarb classes gave me a third place certificate! I also came second with my blackcurrants which I showed for the first time. I have also shared the comments I received. Finally, here are the items shown - being prepared to eat.

Here are the crops I brought home from the allotment one day in the middle of July. These include the first cropping of chickpeas from my first time growing them. I was not certain when to pick them - or if one dried them on the plant or on the sill...so just grabbed a bunch of stalks with the pods on to investigate. This is what the pods and seeds look like...

...one is supposed to eat the 'crunchy green' chickpeas in salads raw, and dry the brown ones for storage...

Finally for today - the latest selection of crops to come inside from the plot and poly tunnel.

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Here are the before, during, and after on our toilet - which needed replacing due to a chunk chipped off when my son dropped the lid/seat down too heavily. We have a much better cistern, a brand new loo and a softer seat, thanks to our regular plumber and his 6 hours of work. (Thanks also to my best friend Liz, who let me use her toilet while ours was out of action due to the plumber fixing it!)

However, a repaint is now required, as this new loo is not the same size/shape as the former loo. We will also have to relay lino, as the toilet base is also a different shape/size, and the joint behind the loo is visible/a dust trap now the pipe is smaller.

These are both jobs I plan to DIY - unlike our bathroom renovations, which are now at the stage of getting a quote.

Finally for today, I have started to paint the toilet - again.

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This is my butternut pumpkin plant. It was in the poly tunnel until the day I took it out and found it too long to get to the plot. Liz thought the flowers were dropping either from excess heat or lack of fertilization and it needed to be outside - but the garden path has to be its outdoor home as its too traily to get to the allotment and pop in down there.

The potatoes needed to come outdoors too, Liz said - so I brought out 2 of the 3 bucket-grown potato plants, leaving just one inside the poly tunnel. This is also a good shot of my side border now its topped with mushroom compost.

One of my four cucumbers had already escaped the 40-50 degree heat into the patio greenhouse, two more having been popped into a raised bed at the allotment. Talking of which, I took a few photos down the plot early July. The first shows the fruit patch leading towards the behind-shed onion patch.

The other side shows cabbages, tomato/chilies/lemongrass, corn, raised bed of strawbs and nasturtiums, with the chickpeas over to the left in front the bean patch. The following photo is much the same, but seen from the other end.

And here we are - the cucumbers in situ in their new home, a closer shot of the chickpeas, Brussels sprouts, and bean patch, plenty of spuds - and some weeds....ho hum. I spend most of June-July watering as it didn't rain, and cropping fruits..... :)

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Above is a reminder of what our bathroom currently looks like, though by the close of 2018, we are hoping it will be fancy and brand new. The first step is to peruse samples in a brochure of wall panelling.

One then orders the samples one thinks one might want and can match them up or discard them. I came up with three 2-color combos. I then pondered and perused...discarding two colors for sure. I came up with two options in the end. Option one the white and marble and option two the white and frost.

On consultation, my son just said white shows up the dirt best and he didn't care what color the bathroom was if it was clean. I consulted Liz, who although she doesn't live here and isn't likely to use the bathroom, has a good sense of style. Liz also prefers the white/marble option, so now I just need to consult with the bathroom fitter company as to how much of each to put in.

A brief interlude to show my shallots are easier to braid than garlic and are now hanging nicely on the kitchen wall over the work table. Next item on the bathroom saga is to go back to the shop and talk about my options/budget and ask them to come to measure up/suggest ideas/plan and give me a set quote.

In the meantime, I made some raspberry stuff - syrup, sauce, pie fill or jam? I don't yet know...

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I dug up the last of the shallots on the final day of June - and laid them out to dry before storing. This crop was good - I started with only 8 shallot sets and cropped about 3 dozen large shallots. A quick look at the back door after the final coat of paint...

July's first major task was done by someone else - the plumber! The toilet that my adult son broke was replaced - totally. As we argued about whether or not he was responsible for paying for it, he agreed to pay half of the cost - but also half the cost of the bathroom renovations. This has allowed me to start making plans and inquiries into replacing the bath with a shower and a few other odds and ends.

I had originally planned to call in at 4-5 bathroom stores for rough estimates, but after the first visit I decided to go with the company that my best friend Liz used for her bathroom renovations and various other household upgrades. I had thought they might be a bit too expensive, as had she, but on finding that replacing the bath with a shower would cost under 5 grand, I decided to stick with a company we know offers quality installation and service - and I came home with a brochure of backing panels options to drool over.

Here is my first self-grown lemongrass stem! Now we get back to that bathroom renovation project. Here are three photos depicting are as-is bathroom and I am certain you will see that although it is functional, it is a terrible sight. When I have tried to spring clean it, I give up after 5-10 minutes, as scrubbing doesn't budge the stains. We are finally about to launch a multi-grand bathroom renovation. HERE is what we currently have: EWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!