INDOORS 5

This is the reason my old Henry blew a fuse. My son had allowed about a foot of this gunk to build up, clogging up the tubing and brush attachment. The new Henry was ordered Sunday afternoon, Asda promptly sent it, and it arrived at Yodel sort center before midnight ready for next day delivery, Monday - but, as I write this blog on the following Friday afternoon, it still sits at the yodel SC.

I have however moved forward in other areas. I had an enjoyable 6 hour trip out with a group of friends Thursday, and purchased two cans paint ready to redecorate my bedroom. Here is a color illustration of the shade selected.

I got so cross at the non-delivery, I cancelled and requested a refund. Now, let us recall that it sat in the sorting office from Sunday night thru Friday night - without the company managing to deliver it to its intended destination - me. By Saturday morning, less than 12 hours after I requested a refund, the parcel managed to have been returned to the sender...

Getting on with my bedroom redecorating, the next task - and only one left before getting a new vac - was to transfer a dusty bookshelf full of books from the bedroom downstairs into the spare room. I had originally decided to leave it in the room with the cupboard Liz gave me for Christmas - but then I figured - I live in a whole HOUSE, not just one room now - why should I have my bookshelf in my bedroom when I could have it with my computer down in the spare room!

I managed to wipe it over, managed to get the books out, and just about managed to get it down the stairs - though I got stuck a few times and scraped paint 3 times trying, so should probably have waited til Liz helped me shift big furniture - and refill it. I had to ruin one book (One I shall never read again anyway) to prop the shelf up, though - as it tilted forward and seemed unsafe otherwise.

Finally - good news! Liz phoned to ask if I would like a lift to a nearby Currys store to buy a new vacuum and I said YES! So I finally have my new Henry and my son has my old Henry - and we can BOTH keep our rooms clean! In one way this is good, that he broke it and I repaired one - as now HE has his very own vacuum - to use and to take with him when he gets a mortgage and moves out - which could happen in as little as 3 months!

Meanwhile - Asda sent me an email asking me to rate the Henry I never rec'd from them and yodel twice left messages on my phone telling me to inform Asda that they had lost my parcel and needed to report it as missing...

OUTDOORS 5

Here is a shot of my recently renovated fruit quarter. I have moved some of the rhubarb crown/leaves to one corner and transferred blackcurrant/gooseberry/raspberry. I have just 2 gooseberry bushes to shift and a few raspberry canes to move, and then can dig out any remaining plants to offer fellow plotsters and dig the former fruit quadrant over ready for vegetable crops next year.

I will keep the rhubarb as is for one year too though, so I do not need to eat from the new plant for the first year. You can also probably see that I have moved the Myplex across. Next, a shot of the old fruit area at the back of the plot - a bit of a mess.

Front weed-bin side quarter in the final plot photo taken mid-October. A clump of oops-weeds, then my leeks with 2 carrots and 2 cabbages, and my giant artichokes. These are now offering pretty yellow flowers and beginning to fade/fall a little. Soon, it will be time to dig them all out and pop back just 1-2 roots, as this amount is far too many for just myself. I will be able to pass on some of the roots to fellow plotsters later this year.

The area around the artichokes also needs a good weed - it housed my onions. most were cropped, a few didn't grow and have been replanted to grow overwinter/next season.

October passed its midst and I popped down to re-dig spare soil areas, water, crop, transfer the gooseberry bushes, and check the progress on crops. The mooli are almost ready and I have sampled the first for 2016. The leeks will mostly be ready to start harvesting soon although looking shabby due to lack of rain and with a few smaller ones needing to catch up. The rocket, autumn raspberries and nasturtiums are in their last week or two of use. The artichokes will be harvested in a few weeks, as will my 3 cabbages and single Brussels sprouts plant.

Back home and the rose arch is now leaning at even more of an angle. It will not be long before I put some time and effort into the back yard once more and rip it out.

INDOORS 4

I set to work gloomily Tuesday afternoon, wiping over bedroom furniture ready to be moved down to the spare room. The 'next day' delivery vacuum that did not arrive Monday (which was the next day) as promised, had not arrived Tuesday either, but I had no choice but to start cleaning things ready. I cannot move them downstairs until the carpet is vacced though, and would have preferred to have vacced under the furniture as well as wiped it over.

I decided to investigate the old vacuum. It might have been a motor blow out, or a fuse in the plug, or one of any number of possibles - the only one of which I could actually check/fix without an electrician to aid me was the plug fuse. I managed to use logic and figure out how to open a modern plug - not with a screwdriver as in the olden days, but lifting a plastic flap!

A 13amp fuse appeared - not surprisingly. I searched about the house to see if I could find something with a 13 amp fuse in to test out - just to see if a repair would be cheap and easy - or impossible. The laptop computer didn't have a 13 amp, the drill didn't, but the kettle did!

I tried and yes - the old vac did now work again! I was still not happy, as the kettle needed it more. I replaced the kettle fuse and emailed my son - suggesting he buy a new 13 amp fuse, and that he could then have the old vacuum as his very own after the new one arrived. (That would also have the added benefit of my not having to loan him a brand new vacuum and risk having his blow another fuse - or worse.)

In the meantime, the carpet is yukky... so instead of progressing with the room, I cooked a lemon/macademia cake!

INDOORS 3

I left the vac out on the middle Sunday of the month for my son to clean under his bed as mentioned in my last post - and dusted around in the spare room - but...

...the next time I saw the vac I was horrified. The brush head was clogged with clumps of filth and dust - the entire tube was packed solid with muck. I realized there was likely to be a bag FULL of muck, but had had no idea my son would just shove the nozzle under the bed and not look where it was going or check to see that all was well.

I managed to wipe off the excess muck, clean out the tubing, and with a rather grim face proceeded to use the vac in order to clean up 1-2 small clumps left on the upper hallway carpet after replacing the bag. The vacuum did not work. My son had killed the vac outright - not just clogged it up.

Some distressed frowning on my part, excusing himself on his, lessons in how to use a vac and how to clean under a bed issued, and complaining on both sides later, my son said the supermarket where he works sometimes sell Henry vacuums and he supposed he would have to pay for one with the rent payment next week.

Finally, I ordered a replacement online and have billed my son. Although ordered on next day delivery, it put my plans to clean up my bedroom furniture ready to move out again. It seems my plans to redecorate my bedroom are cursed!

And things get worse. I ordered online Sunday and was emailed twice - order accepted and order sent to courier. Alas, when checking the tracker the parcel apparently 'arrived' late Sunday night - but has not moved since.

It is now Tuesday afternoon and the exact same result appears on the parcel tracker. I telephoned last night after work and the supermarket said they would ring the courier in the morning and phone me around 8am - I did not hear back from them either.

I look at my lovely new carpet - just 2 months old - and sigh... I can't get that flick and muck off it til my new vac arrives!

INDOORS 2

This is a caterpillar. He came with the organic broccoli I purchased and I set him free by popping him in a scraps bag with some green stuff. He decided to stay with me rather than wait til I went outside and climbed out of the bag and up the wall - across the ceiling - down the wall - and stopped HERE - above the fridge.

I did try to take him off the wall to take outside, but he was stubbornly clinging on and determined to pupate right THERE. The next day he began to pupate - so I guess I shall eventually have a butterfly in my kitchen!

Here you can see the chili plants progressing - each plant has 4 'hot lemon' chilies dangling from it. Once the chilies are harvested, I will attempt to over winter the plants.

I have now brought in my chocolate habanero plant - again. It began on the kitchen windowsill, got planted in the yard, put in a pot in the poly tunnel, and is now back in the kitchen.

I was ready - yet again - to progress with my bedroom decorating in the middle weekend of October. My plan was to thoroughly clean over the spare room and then the bedroom furniture that was to be moved. I hoped to move it sometime soon, when my friend is over her cold - and at least to buy bedroom paint on one of my two nights off from work.

Alas, my plans were ruined yet again. The last time I was raring to go - I got bitten by a large dog. This time, the vacuum failed. I was not happy to spot some small black living insects in the recycling box my son put out a couple of weeks ago, and have since nagged him to clean his room weekly. His response was 'ok - but I can't clean under the bed'. My response was to loan him my vacuum - which has a very long tube and small brush and can easily fit under the biggest of bed, let alone my son's wooden single bed. This was a mistake.

OUTDOORS 4

It is the end of the first week of October and here are my leeks - as well as 2-3 onions, one carrot and 2 cabbages. They look shabby and need some rain! Everybody's leeks are the same. I was not impressed to find someone/thing had removed an entire leek when arriving this monring though - but have not had much trouble previously with theft.

This shot shows I have dug over and edged 1/3 the plot. At the shed end I shall plant borad beans, garlic and onions, while at the camera end I shall transfer fruit.

The second week is now done with and I have progressed by planting a few garlic/broad beans, transferring most of my fruit (2 gooseberry bushes and some raspberry canes to go), and digging over the soil.

At home, the rose arch that was begining to tip over in the wind has gone down to a further angle. It is maybe soon time to remove it altogether, trim the rose bushes, and tie them to something more suited - the house and the palm-thing, perhaps.

Back at the plot in the middle of the month, here is a shot of the over-winter season bed at the front of the plot, just behind the shed. The melon/squash things will probably be too late unless we have an exceedingly mild winter, but can be pulled and popped in the compost once we have a frost. They were free and they came up from the compost, after all.

You can see a row of small green seedlings next to them - that is either kale or spinach. I planted a row of both and one set came up - but it is too small to tell which as yet. A few garlic, broad beans, and onions add to the area, and you can see where my shoes/boots have begun to create a mud pathway.

I have decided not to have grass or stones as path - too messy and not as manouverable. Mud pathways are better - cost-free and can be dug out and moved to new locations whenever I fancy.

OUTDOORS 3

October began, and on the first weekend I had a spare Sunday. I began by digging over 1/3 the allotment plot and digging in some horse muck and the contents of my larger compost bin. I pulled a few weeds, watered the leeks, and took a few crops home, too.

At home, I watered and cropped my tomatoes and potted up around 30 cauliflower seedlings. I was then heading back to the plot. This second session, I did my edges, pulled weeds, redug the dug over area, planted spinach, a few garlic and kale, and worked out what would go where fruit wise.

Here you can see the state of the plants and weeds along the old shared fence in the back yard. The bindweed was murdered by the next door neighbor prior to her putting up the dog-proof fence, but as I don't want to eat chemicals, I can no longer eat any of the crops I planted along my side of our shared fence - the mint, coriander, corn, and turnips are all wasted.

Soon, I plan to rip out the dead plants, weeds, and unusable crops into piles for the hedgehogs and toad to enjoy. This should leave a few tiny shrubs, a geranium, a purple plant my friend Liz gave me, and a small side-angled hedge. The long term plan is to grow a hedge of 3-4 foot height along the old fence and let the old fence rot. In front of the hedge, I will then plant flowering plants and maybe a few herbs.

Back on the allotment and at the end of the first week I was viewing the plot. This first shot shows the area that housed the runner beans and corn. remaining you can see a cabbage, a purple Brussels sprout, and rocket/mooli. To the left, my nasturtiums are doing well producing salad leaves/flowers and seeds, the strawberry bed has been weeded, and the artichokes are growing huge and flowering. To the right, you can see my other strawberry bed, the area I have dug over, and some growth from melon-squashy things that came out of the compost. At the back, you can see raspberries.

INDOORS 1

Here are the computer bits and pieces, downstairs in the spare room, awaiting set-up once the furniture was carried downstairs. I set out to do so, a little wary due to my leg.

Left behind after I succeeded was a total mess. A long lost cashew nut, much dust, debris, cobweb, and miscellaneously dropped behind the desk items appeared - including a pair of winter typing gloves, water and beer bottle tops, and a jar mixed beans.

I did succeed in setting up the computer in the spare room as you can see above, & it works... I tried it out soon afterwards, with the upstair ISP modem. The most difficult parts of moving everything downstairs were the typing chair and the photo closet. Both took considerable mental effort to find the best way to do so safely for my lump-ridden leg's benefit. Everything arrived safely and I now have an in-use computer corner.

Here is a shot of my hot lemon chili plant cutting - or one of two of them - sporting chilies at last. The outdoor plant has given me two, whereas these cuttings I took and left in the spare room have each given me at least 4, now!

The kitchen windowsill is well and truly occupied by crops - here you can see some semi-ripe tomatoes ripening, nasturtium seeds drying, and apples sitting waiting for me to cook with them. The dish with the lump in water in situ is a sweet potato that decided to shoot - I figured I might let it and plant it shortly as an experiment!

OUTDOORS 2

This shot shows what is left in the patch that used to be strawberries and my pinky-purple plant from Liz. The purple plant is another plant Liz gave me last year and it seems to have survived the poison/bindweed, so I will leave it til it spreads then transplant some of it.

Mid-September and the poly tunnel is productive. Here we see the tomatoes - some are almost over but others are just beginning - and all are producing or have produced plenty of cherry toms! You can also see my bucket spud and some of the basil in this shot.

Here is another clump of baby cyclamen - this patch is situated under what used to be a rose arch and will be a step thru between two rose bushes without an arch when I have fixed things after the bindweed falls away. I am fed up of fixing the arch, and don't even want it really - one rose can be tied to the walls of the house and the other will grow up the palm-thing.

At the plot, I am harvesting the last of my new and salad potatoes and the first 1/3 of the King Edwards. If my method of wrapping them in kitchen towel and storing them in the bread bin/cardboard boxes works, I can dig them all out before September in future years - but I am cropping them slow but sure this year, in case soil is the better storage option despite wire worm.

As well as spuds, Nasturtium flower, leaves, and now seeds are in abundance, autumnal raspberries that survive the raspberry bugs, the first rocket leaves, and the last of the corn have all been coming home with me - I also have some more runner beans to pick, shell and either use as dried bean or bean only beans.

The penultimate week of September saw me adding compost to the well-dug was-spud area in preparation for autumn/winter crops such as broad bean and garlic which will go in in 2-4 weeks time.