INDOORS 43

Here is a shot of the left behind hinge that the door was yanked from - sigh. Some work left to be done! However, next up was external matters and the poly tunnel took my attention away from the coffee lounge for a while. When I balanced the planks on top a white foot stool and sawed at them, it was quite easy to cut the wood Liz had given me correctly ready for the poly tunnel - but it is currently stored indoors, as Liz was busy one week, I was busy the next, and...

However, that area is now to be used for tools, both garden and cleaning, and so forth - so the planks of sawn wood are not too much of a problem until I come to wash and paint and carpet the inset. Which might not get done until after the poly tunnel - as the poly and poly tape are also in the coffee lounge...

In the kitchen, on the sill, is a dish of soil with various items stuck in - some growing and some not. You can see a living and a dead chili cutting, some dead flowers, a living geranium, a dead rose, and some living flowers that came from John's funeral card seeds. There are also a plastic tool and a feather.

My next task was to sort out the untidy shoe rack areas. Above, you can see my shoe rack by the front door - erm... AKA an empty beer carton. Below is the 'real' rack in the coffee lounge.

Covered in mud, half the plastic worn off and the iron showing through all rusted. I did not want to bother attempting to clean it up - so went out to buy a replacement, with the idea of having it in the front of the house and away from my coffee lounge - which is still in the process of being cleaned up ready to redecorate and furnish.

OUTDOORS 31

Today's post continues with the allotment shots of early October. Strawberry bed #2 and nasturtiums are on the left, with artichokes, mooli, turnip and leeks, and a dug over area central, and my weed pile to the right.

Next up, my first strawberry bed and nasturtium patch need attention - as does the weed bin and weeds next it. The sprawly thing is a zucchini plant, which has yet to bear fruit - although plenty of tiny fruits are in situ.

Back home, and here is the poly tunnel situation - my next major plan is to recover it - as you can see, much work needs doing. weeds to clear, roots of weeds to dig out, poly and wood and poly tape to buy....

Liz offered me some wood that she had found in her garage turn out. I took my measure along - and YEH! The wood will suffice to cover that needed to fix the poly tunnel's new roof/cover - AND fix my broken (strawberry) raised bed at the plot! I also ordered some poly and poly tape online, as none of our local garden centers have anything...

Next step - awaiting arrival of poly supplies/sawing wood/buying nails/grabbing Liz to assist me to hang the new roof! November drew to a close, and as it did so I took a few more photos down the allotment plot. I had done some hard digging and the result looks great - for now.

The bed in front of the shed - which needs a Cuprinol that I didn't get done before the cold weather - is the dug over patch that has now been topped with a layer of fresh horse muck to winter in ready for a quick spring forking and 2018 growing season. You can see a border of weeds around the shed, but otherwise all is pret.

Going around the corner - the weed bin, which is totally filled has a few roots to dig and pull. I have composted one part of the first strawberry bed - which I will mend soon. The nasturtium bed beyond is now half covered in strawberry runners. Around my leeks and setting onions I have dug the soil over and you can see I even dug up most of the path and weeded most of the raspberry patch.

Still to go, a few patches of grass/weed, some roots, and a proper dig over that which has only been roughly dug so far. Otherwise, I am ready for spring! Well almost - the pile of weeds/old path/pruned fruit bushes in the center needs to be covered over when I finish the weeding.