SPRING CLEANING 45

This is my windowsill with the remains of my birthday bunch of flowers after 3 weeks duration. I have of course not just been sitting on my backside, but planning the next stage of the house makeover. The next stage became the toilet, due to not being home much of the day til my next vacation from my evening job for carpet arrivals.

Firstly, I vacced the cobwebs off the walls to make them clean - now all the spiders have finally moved out of the room, allowing me to redecorate it. Next, I polyfilled...

...and that is as far as I got in the third week of May. The final week began and I went around my friend's home for coffee - I came home with a pot of paint that she has mis-bought and didn't really want after all, with us in agreement that the pale yellowy color on walls/ceiling would go lovely with the planned cream gloss door/frame. It only having been a couple days since polyfilling, I had not begun to use the spare mauvey paints as planned previously, but was eager to get going on the yellow.

I had to make sure I did not splat paint on certain items - such as the loo, of course. I tossed the former shower curtain over it for a couple hours and took the brush to the ceiling on the penultimate Tuesday of May. The light was bright, but it began to look clean, if not much different to the 'dirty-stained-white' left behind by my parents. Once the walls have been painted and everything top coated, I plan to pop off to buy a tin of cream gloss.

GARDEN GLIMPSES 39

Looking down from my bedroom window, you can see that the exotic palm-like tree is about to flower - again. This will be the third or fourth year in a row after not having done so for a few years. Looking out from the kitchen window, you can see how much of the along-the-fence area I have now dug over - almost up to the bird bath!

May arrived and while cleaning a freinds' kitchen counter I discovered an abandoned spud. It had begun to chit while sitting on the bench. I showed it to her, suggesting she plant it in her garden as it was past being edible. She said I should plant it at the allotment - but I already have at least 80 spuds there, so I popped it in a bucket in the poly tunnel...I mean, you wouldn't want to eat THAT potato as is, would you?

May continued and here is an updated photo of the back yard area - along with some starlings! I have also taken another close up - showing some corn, tomato, cabbage and turnip plants.

I have now added a few more and most are going well - although a couple have been munched by garden inhabitants. It is now the season where everything takes off - mostly weeds. I have pulled bindweed nearly everyday this third week of the month....along with trimming brambles and trying to ensure wanted plants have space to grow...

The plan now is to make a neat organized external border with a messy wild center - in the back yard.

THE PLOT 11

This shot shows the flowers on my strawberries, along with some of my cabbages, and a couple of blackcurrant bushes. While my next shot shows the broad beans and the fruit area - where I recently erected the netting. You can see how dry the ground is - for once. Rain is forecast for tomorrow though, and we could do with 1-2 days light-medium rain, as we have had quite a lot of sunshine this week - including the past 2 warmer days.

The above shot shows the netting - and my prolific rhubarb. I have so far removed 17 stalks - and offered a few to the next door plot in exchange for some of his purple sprouting broccoli! You can also see clearly how useful my friends Myplex ground covering will be as the weed season begins.

My final shot from the first week in May shows the garlic and broad beans in front of the potato area - and that I have done a little bit of weeding along the edge. I have actually put in a further 2.5 hours weeding since these photos were taken - as well as snipped the edges and finally Cuprinolled the shed!

We are now entering the final week of May and I took a few more shots as well as putting in a few hours work - mostly weeding and watering. As you can see above, more than 80 of my spuds survived the frosts and have now been earthed up. This may look a little messy/level, but I planted them deep so earthing up levels them out and only rises them slightly.

Finally, for todays' show, a glance at my fruit. Here we see the blackcurrants and gooseberry bushes, with raspberry canes behind. Most of the area is now netted and Myplexed, and I am anticipating a good crop!

THE PLOT 10

I managed to find large brackets at a store in Rustington - so applied one inside and one outside to secure the loose fitting side panel. I have not been able to cuprinol the shed walls, nor apply the new wig with glue, due to the weather, though.

May began and I was greeted by better weather. The crops were beginning to emerge and prosper. A very exciting time of year, if busy - for there is a lot of work to be done, too.

Here you can see the new weed bag, with the strawberry bed behind. There are now at least a dozen flowers in the strawberries. Behind is the next raised bed - and today I noticed a nasturtium and either a melon or squash seedling. Behind that is my onion bed - and most of the onion sets are shooting and growing now. The bush-like structure beyond is my broad bean patch - and I now have at least a half dozen beans forming!

The shrubs behind are my blackcurrant and rhubarb and gooseberry and raspberry plants - all doing well, shooting, flowering, a few small fruit beginning to grow...

Coming back from the rear on the righthand side of the first photo, you can see my other patch of broad beans, with what appears to be a large empty area - but NOPE - that is my potato patch and I have at least 53 spuds survive the frosts!

Next, is my raised bed with strawberry runners that were planted anew this year. the rows of caned things include tomatoes, cabbages, peas, beans, and a Brussels sprout plant. I also planted a dozen corn seeds - but as this was only done yesterday, I do not know if any will grow - surrounded by marigold seedsb

Finally, you can see that I have begun to dig up the path. I aim to have the plot grass free/turned to mud paths, by the close of the year. Here is a close up of that area...

SPRING CLEANING 44

The final closet was opened also, and my expectations were met for once. I expected to find 'kithcen stuff' and an old mincer that had once made mincemeat for our mince pies each Christmas. That is indeed what was found in the third closet.

I also found another teapot, more glasses, some empty-but-dirty jars and....yet another bloody mug! Well, that was the end of the 'treasure' hunt - plenty more garbage for the charity store and tip, it seems - out of all three wall closets, the only items I may actually retain are the unopened pack of 6 sherry glasses and the family mincer. I can buy vegetarian suet and perhaps make some mincemeat filling for vegan mince pies 'once or twice' before selling/dumping the 'antique' - or maybe I will just donate it to a museum...?

The actual task of emptying, cleaning, and then the joy of filling the space with dresser overflow was postponed due to life, however. For the time being, I will manage by piling juicers on top of measuring jugs and pizza trays inside of colanders...

Such was my intention til one morning I had some spare time and energy - so turned out ONE closet .I have now shoved the overflow from the dresser into this closet located above the dresser - but still have the other two to go.

This shows the bar on the bottom of the stove when it fell off whilst baking a cake late April. It obviously hadn't been cleaned inside - and I did not previously know it even came off - or would go on again. I guess that is another little chore for me to attend to in May - cleaning it.

April ended with my 50th birthday - and so my windowsill became a mass of beauty for a while when my best friend surprised me with a bunch of flowers as a gift. 3 weeks later, as I post this blog, the three large white flowers are still in a vase on the sill, but the others have been placed #'elsewhere' when fading...

GARDEN GLIMPSES 38

This was the blossom in abundance upon the tree outside next door on the grass verge this year. Usually, the blossom is gone within a couple of days, but this year it lasted around 2 weeks and was very thick and pretty. Here follows another shot from my yard towards the tree, including my own pieris tree which is also blossoming currently, as well as its fiery red flowers.

Below my tree, you can see my natural wild front yard contains a few yellow tulips, a bluebell, a grape hyacinth, dead daffs, sedum, and other bits n bots. The frogs love to hang out under the undergrowth, and so I haven't properly trimmed the ivy and brambles as planned...

In the final week of April I was hard at work, both at the plot and in the back yard. Here you can see how the patch under the smaller apple tree is going.The lemon balm Liz gave me is going well; I popped in a violet; the bluebell is in flower; various bulbs are at varying stages, and a few other things are also growing.

In front of the kitchen window is also coming along. Here you can see that I have planted a few excess cabbage and tomato seedlings as I have far too many for the poly tunnel and allotment plot. You can also see the chives and mint in my herb patch and the strawberries.

Here is a closeup of the patch nearest the kitchen - showing the bulbs, a marigold, more of Liz's lemon balm, strawberries, a violet and my favorite plant - which also came from Liz's excess - the furry greyish one, which grows flowers of my favorite pinky-purpley color.

SPRING CLEANING 43

I was a little delayed in my attempt to unfix the stuck kitchen wall closets due to an incident at lunchtime. After the delayed fireplace fixing and walking my friend, I lunched then ran down the village to fetch lunch for the friend I had walked - only to find another friend's husband lain on an ambulance stretcher writhing in pain on their path next door to the lady whose fish I had fetched...

I did however attempt the task of prising open the wall closets the next day using the carpet cutter knife and this is what I found hidden away. In the first closet I expected empty coffee jars - but I must have taken them out to use before painting as this is what I found -

Hmm...a couple of dirty wine glasses (I have 4 decent and 2 super-posh ones of my own) and some of my late mother's cookware, along with yet another mug - arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I thought I had gotten rid of all the family mugs, groan. It is not likely that I will keep any of these items. To the next cupboard - which I anticipated was stocked with wine glasses...

Well...yet again, not quite what was expected - and more mugs. I am now certain that my late parents had an obsession with mugs. There were also jugs and some of the expected wine glasses. Once again - I have my own and will likely dispose of these unwanted extras. On to the final closet...

THE PLOT 9

My friend gave me a lift to Wickes, where we grabbed roofing supplies to fix the shed roof. This was done middle of April, alas the weather postponed their usage and I am still awaiting fine weather for a few days in a row before ripping shreds off, removing batons that have not yet fallen off, gluing the new felt down, tacking it down, and re batoning it down. She had also offered me the use of her ladder so I could do this job properly - and then hopefully I will not need to fix the roof again for some years.

Alas, her husband had an accident and therefore the ladder borrowing is on hold for now. In the meantime, I picked my first crop for 2016 - 5 large stalks rhubarb. This made a crumble and enough stewed rhubarb for two more sits in the freezer. I recalled what I was told about feeding the rhubarb when picking - and promptly fed the remainder of the plant - which promises multiple further pickings during the next few months.

Frosts were recurring. This necessitated the covering of already spotted potato shoots. I had found 2 then 4 then 12 then almost 20 on successive trips to the plot across the 3rd week of April - and on my last two trips I had to take action to protect the new growth so as not to lose my anticipated huge harvest.

Having never grown potatoes in bulk before - previously growing 7-8 plants maximum, but now 7.5 kilo seed potatoes - I am hoping that this will eliminate potato purchases from Riverford - allowing me to buy other organic products that I cannot grow - lemons, bananas, mangoes, limes, red wine, hommous...

This meant fixing the spuds so the frost did not murder the crop! I had been given various advice from sources as spread as fellow allotment plotsters and a gardening book given to me by Liz- and formed a few possible plans. The first time I popped grass clipping over top and the second a little sprinkling of soil. Hopefully this will save the day - if not, my broad beans, onions and rhubarb are all doing exceptionally well.

SPRING CLEANING 42

The sheet of perspex was around the correct size and sturdier than the cardboard my late father had used. I am therefore hoping that it will retain all further fallings of soot and debris for a longer period before they begin to seep into the room and need further attention.

I managed to sellotape it into position quite painlessly. I was then able to consider applying the sticky backed plastic contact sheet to secure it firmly. It was a bit crinkled, and not perfect - but it was only cheap stuff.

Next, my task continued by overcovering the crinkly stuff with the final layer - hopefully - metallic burgundy Xmas wrapping paper. I had seen the color matched the curtains that my friend kindly washed for me so grabbed the sheet ready...

It was a little messy but I had more wrapping paper and more sellotape - and a little more time... so I applied another layer.

That seemed to do the trick and is probably as neat as I can manage without professional tools and using cheap materials! Good enough....

So I began to experiment with the decor.

SPRING CLEANING 41

I began to vac up the soot and apply card - however, the wood board I had expected was only a large piece of stiff cardboard and even with the new card did not hold nicely at all. I dashed out to the poly tunnel to find a piece or perspex, as there were no stronger cardboard boxes in the closet.

Giving myself a few minutes break, I perused the job I hoped to complete later in the day - 3 wall-closets in the kitchen were stuck shut when I painted them. I had not bothered for a while, but now I have accumulated more cooking utensils, the dresser isn't very roomy. My plan for later in the day being to force them open and clean them out - all 3.

In the meantime, I continued to work on the fireplace. My handy helper ate much of the soot and debris stashed behind the 'board' which I was then able to push back into place before I could apply and fix the perspex to secure it.

The job was already taking longer than anticipated, necessitating glances into the lower hallway to check on the time, as I had a 10am agreement to take an elderly friend for a walk.