THE PLOT 2

January brought very strong winds and heavy slashing showers of rain for the first couple of weeks. In just the first couple of days a problem arose at my allotment plot. My shed blew halfway off the stone slab base onto the path beside it. It also lost most of the roof felt. I did not take a photo and felt quite disheartened.

I managed to lever the shed back onto the slab base using a 50YO spade, collected the pieces of roof felt and locked them inside the shed, and returned, despite the slashing cold rains, with iron posts. I malletted these into position around the stone slabs to prevent the shed from blowing right off again, although I cannot get it into the original correct position for the time being.

The 5 iron posts and some string have held the shed on the slabs for now, and a fellow plotster cheered me up a bit by leaving 2 bags filled with seeds in my bin, giving me something more enjoyable to do than worry - drooling over the new season ahead in the dry comfort of my house afterwards. I got totally soaked at the plot, though as you can see from the photo I took as soon as I removed my coat when arriving back home.

I have managed to replace most of the old felt on the shed roof for now. The plan is to get a lift from a garden center with a new roll of roof felt to cover over the roof once more then place and hammer in a couple of boards along the join, as the boards on the sides seem to have held it sufficiently.

As to actual crop/soil work, I have once again been weathered out of luck. It was the third week of January before I could get a 20 minute session in, where I pulled some weeds and finished pruning the fruit bushes...but little else.

At the end of the month, my seed potatoes arrived and I laid them out on the coffee room floor to dry, and 'begin' - along with the onion sets. The coffee room looks and smells more like a shed at the moment - but once spring arrives and the ground is prepared properly, all these items will be popped in the soil at the plot - I hope.

WINTER WONDERS 35

With blisters and a stiff-muscled backside, I was proud to have done with the job of carpet removal - but it did not end the job of spare room renovating. As you can see in the above shot, I have a new problem - not only do I have a dozen or so still not properly fixed flaky-paint dots, I now additionally have a damp patch in the corner.

Thankfully, my friend gave me a LOT of paint - I am going to need it. Next up, might be to await dry weather and mortar up any unspotted previously holes in the corner of the exterior wall, heater on, then repaint....

The next task to catch my mind was the toilet. My son did not need his wall or ceiling paint left overs for touch ups, only the gloss, and I had some spare from the ceiling of the spare room and a few others walls and ceilings about the house. I planned to use the spare paint to create an artistic toilet of multi-colored design.

I began by washing most of the first wall - alas, there was a spider up in the top right hand corner and although I nudged its web to hint, it would not budge. I gave up. I can paint the toilet anytime this year...

Back in the spare room, the damp patch grew and grew. I put the heat on low and waited. There was nothing I could do while it rained to fix the problem. As I type, we are on the second 24 hour period without rain - if it does not rain tomorrow, the last small tub of mortar will be mixed and the offending holes filled in. Alas, it is now dark and the forecast appears to be for overnight rain, so the task might have a wait a little longer. (It did...and still as I post this we have rain every 2-3 days at least, sigh)

GARDEN GLIMPSES 32

As I left you in my last gardening post, I had done a little tidying up in the poly tunnel and on the patio. Here are a few shots of the poly tunnel as it stood at the end of 2015. Above you can see the right hand side just inside the door - one lump of white board laid as flooring and the corner of the framework. Below is looking a little further inside on the right hand side - to the framework itself.

As you can see, I am using the lower region to position watering cans etc, while the top will be filled with trays of seedlings when spring arrives and it is time to get started planting new veggies. So far, I just popped a few onions in - in case we don't have any more frost and they can get a head start!

Next up you can see the far end of the poly tunnel. where an old dilapidated table stands - I assume it went with the four plastic green garden chairs...either properly or in my parents' eyes. More space for a few seedlings and trays here - although it will mainly be my work bench once the patio greenhouse is erected and a few trays are positioned inside that.

A few miscellaneous items remain scattered about - mostly plant pots. Also in view are my 4 bags of soggy leaves - AKA leaf mould for 2017! Coming back down the left hand side towards the door, you will find the contents of my final photo for today.

A few rescued garlic sprouts from among my strawberry patch that failed to surface last year, but arrived this have been potted, along with the rest of that white board - formerly a bathroom or kitchen cabinet. that will be where my tomato growbag goes once I buy it - and maybe a few more pots!

WINTER WONDERS 34

Let me start today's post back in the bedroom - with a shot of my closed closet door. Well, almost closed - as you can see, one of the tasks lying ahead of me in the new year is to rehang the closet door - as it does not shut.

Talking of tasks lying ahead - by the close of 2016, I hope to have recarpeted and furnished the spare room, repainted, carpeted, and furnished the bedroom, and repainted the toilet. That will leave painting the ceiling/carpeting/refurnishing the coffee room, re-sheeting the poly tunnel, and completely renovating the bathroom for 2017.

Back to the spare room. The week between Xmas Eve and New Years Day was vacant of evening work, leaving me free post morning duties to do as I chose. without the need to be done by 5pm. My friend had promised to drop the curtains off sometime soon, and I decided to get on with the spare room in the meantime to occupy my spare time and energy usefully.

I therefore hacked up the carpet under the heater with my new lino-knife and a third the carpet in the center of the room under stuff. Moving the stuff to the back of the room along with the already bagged carpet my friend and I had worked hard on previously, I began with the remaining remnant.

In the above picture you can view the bags of carpet, my painting chair, 2 pictures and 4 bags of 78's that are going to the tip when my friend has time to take them, and to the right you can see the small pile of stuff that is yet to be sorted or to remain. The recliner chair will remain unless sold, the vacuum stuff also - the rest is mostly to be gotten rid of or just painting left-behinds.

I gave up, took a couple hours break, then went back and finished the job.

NO CARPET!!!!

None of that horrendously loud, itsy-bitsty, covered in muck, out dated, monstrosity remained un-bagged. The room had a clean slate floor - almost literally, as it was tiled - ready for me to select a brand new carpet! That is - after my friend takes the crap to the tip with me - she might be a little too busy for a while, though due to overseas guests due anyday now...

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This strange item is a childhood memory of mine - that I have since thrown out as it serves no current purpose. I did however wish to record it as a photograph before doing so. My grandmother used to sit in a tall winged arm chair in her living room and was deaf. I was often told not to shout as her hearing aid hurt her if I did. This grandmother died shortly after I turned 4.

While I was three, she gave me this piece of woven fabric and began to teach me embroidery stitches. The idea was to make my mother a 'pretty' sample of my newly learned skills. It did not get completed, although as you can see my Grandmother did teach me several different stitches prior to her death, and I chose various colored threads to carry out my work. I am rather impressed with my edging stitches - though the ones in the center are rather messy.

This next shot is proof that I now have an empty corner rather than a pile of messy bag filled boxes in my bedroom. When it stops raining while I am there, I hope to carry home from my friend's place my brand new cupboard to site in the corner for now, and relocate elsewhere in the room once redecorated. The spring water is piled upwards now to make more room.

Inside the closet is not as messy as I had imagined - and here it is when two of the boxes of bags had been stuffed inside. It was mostly empty cardboard boxes and blankets. I recalled the 2 suitcases had been stashed there, but not much else. Luckily the box of carry-bags and the carton of plastic bags both fit - out of the way!

Onto the kitchen, as December drew to its closing half, I purchased a mop. I had used a broom with spray canister up til now, but finally invested in a mop and mop bucket at last. Finally for today's post, shortly before Christmas cooking on Christmas Eve, I retidied the pantry - yep - yet again!

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I was not feeling very well - with a mildly upset stomach and heavy head from sinus issues. I did however want to get something done, so pushed myself to tidy the corner a bit more. Regular readers will recall that I did begin this a few weeks ago. However, a friend of mine is giving me a tall cupboard for Christmas and I have decided to place it between the window and closet doors and use it to house my socks and underwear etc. It will be the first piece of new furniture for my bedroom and I am getting quite excited thinking about how neat the room will eventually be when redecorated and with new furniture and carpet installed.

As you can see, I made an effort and am now left with just 2 large cartons - one houses my plastic bags and the other my shopping/trip bags. One day, I would like to stash these in the closet behind the boxes, where I seem to recall throwing a couple of suitcases from my relocation back to England after 22 years living in Australia...

Alas, I will need to sort out the closet door - as it does not shut properly. I think and hope that I can rehang it myself - or with the help of my friend, at least. You can probably also see a pile of 'crumbs'...

Sigh - it appears that soap-muncher the mouse at some point attempted to relocate into my room from the loft. From the result, I can inform you that mice like to chew Tesco plastic bags more than other brands - and they do NOT like Sainsbury's' bags at all!

I have now 'fed Henry' and have a nice clean area prepared for my promised Christmas gift. I can drool away about throwing the rubbishy old furniture out and getting nice new stuff after a repaint, now....with this tall cupboard being the first arrival!

GARDEN GLIMPSES 31

The first Camellia flower opened its bud on December 17 this year. Now that there is enough light to use it, I have begun to tidy the poly tunnel so that I can do so - half as a poly tunnel and half as a potting shed. These next two pictures show it as it was half way through my tidy up. Naturally more work will be done before spring seeds are planted and housed either here or in the patio greenhouse.

In the left shot you can see my bags of leaf mould and the broom bucket that had a broken handle being reused to be a potato bin. There is also dead hanging stuff and an empty table and a thermometer in situ... On the right, I have placed some trays ready for seeds and the watering cans - along with the onion sets I already planted.

The bucket underneath is now also in use as a potato bucket and situated beside the former broom bucket. At the back, the table now has a few pre-seed trays ready to go. There are also new trays on the staging from the patio - which as you can see below, needs a tidy up also - before erecting the patio greenhouse. That white thing may end up in the poly tunnel too...

Oh look! I did remove it...to the poly tunnel. This is how the patio looked as December passed beyond Christmas and approached its close. The chairs I do not want, the weeds and grub needs clearing, and the pots filling with soil and putting either in the poly tunnel or on the patio front and I will be ready to erect my patio greenhouse!

THE PLOT 1

Regular readers may have heard me mention that I now have an allotment plot. I have indeed worked a plot at the local allotments since late July - and I have decided to include updates on this venture in my blog, as it accounts for much of the produce grown by me allowing me to use the back yard for whatever I wish rather than cramming in patches of veggies wherever I can.

As December passes from the middle to end, I took these two photographs. The first shows the right hand side of the plot from front to back - taken from behind the shed. It shows my third raised bed - currently empty but well manured and ready for 2016 - a manured ready for 2016 patch, path, leeks I have yet to pull situated in what will become my 2016 potato bed stretching right back to the last little area of my plot - where I currently have a half dozen carrots amongst garlic and broad beans - all doing well. You can also see a few of my raspberry canes. I apologize for not having weeded the leeks prior to taking the photo, but our weather has been somewhat wet and windy lately.

This second shot illustrates the left hand side of the plot, from front to back. You can see my giant weed-bin, where I place anything which I cannot put into the compost bins - such as fruit bush cuttings, weeds with seeds, etc. These will eventually rot down or be taken to the tip/burned. The patch beside it will house nasturtiums or marigolds when weeded/dug over.

To the right, is where the former plotster had his spuds - as I dug up many while digging it over. It is now vacant and manured ready for 2016 - except for two fruit bushes and two potato plants which decided to grow themselves. Back on the left you will spot 2 raised beds of strawberries, behind which is a dug and manured area with artichokes and three onions in. I will probably put the rest of my onions here in spring.

Behind that is my cold frame/mini poly tunnel where I have 2 onions, 2 pak chois, and numerous garlic/broad beans growing happily. Beyond that is my fruit bush area and a lump of weedy soil I have yet to address. Fruit wise, I have the strawberries, raspberry canes, a few gooseberry bushes, several blackcurrant bushes and a clump of rhubarb.

WINTER WONDERS 31

Here we go with an update on the spare room saga. The third and final coat of playful pink has now been applied all around the room. It looks messy at this stage, but I have since applied touch-ups of the two mauvey paints since and it is now looking better/neater. Photos coming...

Here is evidence that investing in a new bucket ready to purchase a mop was a very well timed venture. Within a week of having purchased said mop-bucket, the old bucket I used for the broom when using water snapped its handle. It will now be retired to the poly tunnel for use as a potting bucket. Back to the spare room...

I have at mentioned above, now completed the touch-up procedure to make the lines between different colors less splodgy. I have also attempted to cover over the flaked patches - and am finally beginning to win that battle also.

This looks much neater, doesn't it? I am almost ready to move the furniture to the walls and scrape out the rest of the carpet - and I have now bought a new stanley knife for cutting it away from under the heater where my friend said we would need a sharper knife for the job.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 30

Above, you can see a view of the yard next door, now that the council have gutted it. The green plastic stuff on top the main green wire fence is hopefully not going to be left behind as it keeps falling into our yard. I do not know if my father or the lady that used to live next door put it there, though. If it was us, I would throw it out myself.

Regular readers will note that next door had even more junk than my late father left behind him at the end of their yard. It took my friend and I several trips to the tip to get rid of all dad's garden garbage and it looks like next door's council workers will be back to take another load shortly!

Here is the 2015 cider stash - all created from the Bramley and eating apple trees my late father left behind in what is now my inherited yard. I 'like' apples - but I do not love them to such an extent that 2 trees do not over produce for one belly. My son helped me munch through the eating apples and 2 friends got a bag of Bramleys each, but I managed to make all this cider along with still having 2 dozen bags of frozen stewed apple in the freezer...

Well, this is my fence these days, now that next doors' hedge has been erased and only the wobbly wonky fence remains. As you can see, plenty of light for the poly tunnel - which will be used as a potting shed and poly tunnel during 2016 and probably beyond - though usage beyond may entail a recovering.

My plans for the hedge include inserting cuttings of yew, privet, and cotoneaster into the gaps between the holly and elder saplings, forsythia and honeysuckle remnants. You can see that I have used a sheet of perspex to act as a partial windguard for the 4 plants my friend gave me earlier this year.