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I began my task the day before, cutting 4 pieces of card from an old computer box, thinking that this could be inserted behind the thin wooden board my late father had put in situ once the soot was gone. I shredded the boxes that I found inside it, as they are plain and will make good compost.

I planned to reseal the board over the card and fix it with contact then cover it with burgundy. This task was set aside for the middle weekend in April. meanwhile, I planted a chili seedling in a ginger wine bottle that I filled with mud and card and water and coffee grounds and stuck on my bedroom windowsill.

Back to my mid April task - here is where I began, with this rather yukky looking fireplace issuing an aroma of soot. My first task was of course to wipe it over and clean it up a little. Doing so I located 2 or 3 loose tiles, sigh - time to buy more glue!

I then set to work measuring and cutting the contact, ready to apply once the soot had been removed and card inserted behind the board - or so I estimated...

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This is a rare sight in our household - all three laundry tubs EMPTY! This signifies that I have been busy doing bowlfuls of laundry AND the weather has been fine enough to dry enough clothing to get more bowlfuls on the line til there are no more garments left to be washed. Usually the backlog of still-wet laundry hanging outdoors leaves no line free to continue til the baskets are empty.

We had some extremely strong gales of around 70mph over the Easter break and some of the front yard daffs got bent. I brought them indoors and placed them in the spare room at first - but then took them up to my room, as nobody would see them in the spare room. I think they look much better in the bedroom, where I can enjoy them - or could til they died off a week or so later.

The next task was begun the middle weekend of April - the fireplace. My late father had boarded it over and contacted the board, then rather messily patched it up - but it was bulging where the jackdaws who nest in our chimney had shifted soot and fallen debris down the chimney. My task was to remove said sooty mess and fix the board to make it look nice for the spare room the former bedsit/lounge will soon become.

This was the mess I had to deal with - and thinking it might take around 30-40 minutes to complete the task, I began 2 hours before taking my friend for a walk. I actually completed the task only 20-30 minutes before I had to leave the house and go to fetch her.

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I next began to do likewise in the run between the kitchen window and bird bath - digging out the ivy and bindweed and replanting plants as I went. I also planted out the sweet peas.

In the polytunnel, things were beginning to shoot out and get repotted. Above you can see my leek seedlings, a marigold, brussels sprout...

...and below, my rather ahead of itself for April potato plants. Most potatoes are just surfacing...but these monsters are raring to go and already gone.

Above you can see that quite a few cabbage seedlings have sprouted and that I repotted a handful. As to the 2 pea plants below, I took them down to the allotment plot on the second weekend in April and they are now firmly planted and housed within cut off plastic water bottles to save them from slugs for a week or two.

Behind the peas you can see a few tomato seedlings popping up still - I also repotted a half dozen or so of these this second weekend of April. Finally for today, take a look in the patio greenhouse - the cabbage up top is now also taken to the plot - along with the single brussels sprout seedling in a previous photo - the rest remains!

THE PLOT 8

On the first Monday in April, I came back from a coffee trip armed with 3 sheets of Myplex from the friend I had shared coffee with. Within a couple of days I had encountered a fairly good weatherwise day with a little free time, so taken it along to the allotment plot to place around my blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes.

This was successfully applied and fastened down with a mixture of bricks, hooks, and a wooden board. As you can see from the second picture, the fruit bushes are beginning to shoot with new growth for spring and the rhubarb is doing exceptionally well with the estimated 'first rhubarb crumble of 2016' date for the latter half of April.

Jumping to the front half of the plot for an update - from the bean canes forwards is empty - currently - and ready to fill. I hope to pop a few beans, tomatoes, peas, and some salad crops in the patch already dug over and ready. I shall need to dig out some patches of the grass pathway to fit in the corn and other planned crops, though. The Myplex down this end was left on the plot by the previous plotster and is currently being used to kill off the grass ready to dig over for one batch of crops later in the season.

Oooh, look! I have a strawberry in flower - yes the crops are doing well, plenty of growth and it is getting exciting drooling over the delicious self-grown produce that awaits me later on. The onion sets I planted not so long ago are shooting healthily and there are plenty of flowers on both batches of broad beans! (& not a black fly in sight - yet!)

My final shot for today's post is of the plot taken from the back. Here you can see the garlic and broad beans - followed forwards by the potato area - and I have ONE spud shoot up to date - the new strawberry bed, mixed patch and shed. To the right hand side of the picture, you can see beyond the fruit patch to the second batch of broad beans/garlic, onion beds, raised bed with frame ready to roll with melon/butternut/nasturtium/squash, strawberry old bed and weed basket.

THE PLOT 7

Here you can see that I have now - the first weekend in April - planted all three 2.5 kilo bags potatoes. This first full season, I am growing Casablanca earlies, King Edward (and 3 Red Desiree) main, and Charlotte salad. My strawberry bed to the side is not doing so well. Some of the plants when moved to this new raised bed took well - while the others shrivelled and died. Never mind, I still have one old bed as well...

Here you can see I grabbed another dozen or so of the free bricks and used some of my ripped off roofing felt to 'secure' the shed. I am hoping this prevents wind-movement, or at least keeps it on slab rather than on path next time we have severe gales! It seems to have worked with the iron posts/string and a few bricks, so the reinforcements might just be what is needed.

You can also see that I have dug out the grass/weeds along one side of the shed, as I do my spring dig-over to tidy up. I am trying to get less path and more growing area on the plot site. After planting 7.5 kilo spuds and a lot of onion sets along with the fruit plants, I do not have much room left - until my garlic/broad beans are ready, cropped, and gone that is. Talking of which - here you can see the first bunch fully flowering...

You can also see my rhubarb putting on some serious growth. It looks like there will be rhubarb crumble on the dinner menu by the close of April this year, with broad beans appearing on the dinner plate not long after!

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It was time to work in the poly tunnel. I sowed some corn in big tubs and some herb seeds, and watered my huge potatoes. Most people have 1-2 inches of growth on their spuds - as my outdoor half dozen have - if any, but my poly tunnelled spuds are doing well! The leaf-mould continues to decompose - and I must compare it to my friends shortly.

It was not long before the polytunnel overflowed into the patio greenhouse. Here you can see my tray of leek seedlings on the top shelf, sweet pea and tomato seedlings on the next, pak choi/radish I am collecting seed from on the next alongside a Camellia seed I am trying to grow, and then the 'ready to go' tomato grow bag below.

Back to the poly tunnel, and here you can see the next step - taken early April. Those spuds keep on growing, don't they? I have now potted up a half dozen or so leek seedlings in smaller pots. Below you can see the cabbages coming through in the large pot, with a few replanted in the pot in front.

This shot shows the other side - where I have a couple of peas, a brussels sprout, some tomato seedlings, and a melon all doing well. As for an update on the recently replanted apple tree area - here you can see most of the plants doing well.

THE PLOT 6

After 70mph gales, my friend drove me down the allotment plot with me fearing what might be found on arrival. Not quite as bad as feared, a couple of boards and some felt were off the moved-one-inch shed but the cold frame and poly were....gone! We located them 2 plots along and carried them back and fixed it up as best we could - but I have decided to stop using it and dump/donate the frame, now that I have a usable poly tunnel at home. For the time being, I have placed it in the spare raised bed - until such time as the melons/butternut are planted.

On the webpage at Facebook, it was advertised that there were some free bricks - I collected a dozen or so of these. My initial plan was to use them on the black stuff my friend had said that she would give me when she found it that would go around my fruit bushes to keep the weeds down - but after leaving the bricks around the shed whilst waiting, I realized that they might additionally hold the shed in place were further gusty gales to arrive.

This shot shows my planted artichoke/onion patch, with my former cold frame inhabitants behind. The broad beans are flowering, garlic growing, and only the lemongrass is doing poorly - but that was an experiment anyways. Behind, you can spot my fruit bushes - JUST begining to shoot out for spring, with my now-planted potato patches to the right.

Jumping forward a week - you can now see that I have begun to dig over the next bed ready to sow. next to the shed, is a long stretch with 2 blackcurrent bushes, excess onion sets, and a couple rows seeds that have yet to surface - carrot/mooli - and much space. I dug over said space - ready...

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In addition to securing the hooks to the wall - and plastic cover to the frame - I placed a tomato grow bag in the base of the patio greenhouse. I did have one tomato seedling pop up on the windowsill, so estimate it may get used this year!

March continued, and our pallid daffodils were putting on a fine show in the front yard.

Next mid-March task for me was to pot up a bucket of herbs for the poly tunnel - basil, parsley, and coriander - hopefully.

The daffodils were beginning to end up for the year in the back yard, though the larger paler ones out front were still flowering.

I started to tackle a redesigning of the back yard, as I became fed up of having my late father's choices lain there. I don't really think his ideas match mine too well. I began by digging out ivy and bindweed from around the apple tree and giving it a prune - the eating apple tree that is, not the Bramley tree.

I then filled the space in front of the tree - that had been occupied by a tulip or two and weeds - with various transplanted plants a couple of strawberry, a bluebell, some of those purply-pink flowers with white spotted leaves, a few bulbs from here and there, and a couple pieces of lemon balm from Liz...

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After a while, I decided that the gigantic one might be happier leaning in a wall corner - such as the lower hallway - and also moved the dangly trailing one there beside it.

As you can see, the taller one is around a half meter high in two thick sturdy shoots. I left the middle-sized one in the spare room, for now. I will see how they do now they are repotted with spring warming the rooms up - but may move them to the poly tunnel or my bedroom again next winter.

Just to show you how tall the geranium is - I took a photo by the kitchen window.

Later that day, I turned to the fireplace. As you can see, there are 3 tiles in the front that are missing. I had the tiles and some super glue - so my next task was to replace them! This was done without too much of a problem - but I popped the glue and paint tubs in front just to make sure they didn't fall off too soon, as I was running low on glue.

My final task for this busy day was to repaint over the damp patch which is now successfully vanished. The wet looking area is the new paint... Hopefully, one more coat should finish the painting of the spare room. Then I will need to secure the board over the fire place and cover it in metallic foil paper. Once that task is done, I am more or less ready to purchase the carpet!