INDOORS 34

My main indoor project for 2017 is to turn the above room- now with more sunshine and light due to the removal of the palm tree - into a coffee lounge - rather than a garden-paint-dump room.

March is going to be an expensive month. As well as the electricity bill, I had computer costs and a weeks vacation. My computer was taking so long to start up - one minute had become almost five - that I was wondering how many more times it actually would start rather than fail. I decided to have a look at new towers online while it did work on the first Saturday of the month, planning to buy a replacement later that day.

Argos - a company I have not used before as I dislike looking at picture books and poking buttons rather than seeing what I may wish to buy - had a good offer and also the option for same day/4 hour time slot delivery for less than five pound, so I decided to trap myself in the house for 4 hours and put in an order.

One problem with ordering online rather than in store, is that one cannot check to see the country of origin - and alas my purchase was from China. (I will remember NOT to buy the HP brand again for this specific reason, as I choose NOT to buy any Chinese products.) However, I had a new monitor/mouse/keyboard and printer as well as tower to set up.

I was due to tune in to a Buddhist webcast, so set up the laptop to view it on that, while I sorted out the new computer - updates, downloading programs, uploading stored data...and then locating around 100 bookmarks and re-bookmarking them and re-entering passwords...

It took me 6.5 hours that afternoon/evening, and a further 1.5 hours the following day - but I now have my 'emergency' laptop and 'regular use' desktop operational. I did change the mouse for my old one though - as I have a color-changing feature mouse that I particularly like.

This new purchase came with a free printer, my son was turning 26 the following week, and I already had a printer - so I asked which one he wanted and gave him my old one. The old one was better quality - but more than 5 years old. It amazes me how many wires one needs to connect in order to operate a desktop & laptop - with printer, speakers, monitor, etc. I am glad I am not dumb-minded when it comes to tech!

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Above you can spy one project I hope to tackle sometime in the next few years. I may need assistance or I may be able to DIY. The alleyway/bike shed is gradually falling to bits. A hole in the roof isn't much of a problem, as it isn't near my sons bike, the garden tools, or the wooden ladder.

Bits of the door-frame falling off allowing cats inside and wind damage are a problem - as is the winds pushing the side fencing away fro the roofing bar. Hopefully, I can rebuild the door frames and replace the ceiling and doors to save the fence.

My kitchen windowsill overwintered chili looks like it is sprouting new green growth to replace the dying leaves and has survived winter!

February came to a close and my camellia was flowering in abundance beside the front door. Although Liz said to do a major prune it would mean no flowers the following year, I discovered on UKHEREWEGROW that to cut it back mid-season might be an option to allow flowers to appear next year also - so this was the plan.

It was dropping flowers, which I had been enjoying for a few weeks already, and I decided to lop off the top third. I have no idea when dad last pruned it properly, but I have only snipped a few shoots back since returning to England and then inheriting the house, so I would say it has been at least a decade since its last major cut back.

The job was done, and I began to pop potential cuttings around the gardens, in case I could add them to preferable places. I planted 4 large cut-offs along the back fence, where I am growing a mixed hedgerow - predominantly of rose and yew, but with other plants as well.

OUTDOORS 15

So, there I was with the palm tree lying on the former lawn. I went out later on and dragged it up the path and dumped it where I wanted it to gradually rot down - behind the bird bath and beside the poly tunnel.

This left me with a stump and debris. My plan is to gradually move the debris and cover over the horizontal palm tree. If the stump wants to regrow, it can do so - I will chop it down each time it reaches 3-4 foot til it gives up.

Looking down the side, another project for February was to transfer rose bushes along the fence. I had begun last year with the yellow and pink rose bushes that had formerly clung to the rose arch next to the palm tree. This year, I finished the plan by shifting the 3 olde fashioned rose bushes into vacant spots along the fence - and today, taking two large cuttings from the red-pink rose in the front yeard to transfer into the back yard between the bird bath and palm tree.

My overwintered chili plants apear to have survived - at least the two on the spare room windowsill have. Their old leaves have yellowed and are beginging to crumple - but new shoots are issuing from the base of the former leaves. Likewise the chocolate habanero on the kitchen windowsill is still alive...

Not much has changed since my last poly tunnel shot - other than a small clump of cauliflower seedlings having been taken to the allotment and planted - in case we have no further frosts this year.

OUTDOORS 14

This was my view from the kitchen window until 2 days ago. My father might have been a professional gardener for most of his life and been able to grow many plants - but - his landscaping skills were not in tune with my own choices.

Planting a giant palm tree outside a window to obliterate the view for example, just does not sit well with me. I could not see the pond properly unless leaving the kitchen and going into the coffee lounge...

The right hand side fence was one main goal of 2017 for me - to plant a hedge along it, consisting of rose bushes from around the yard, yew cuttings and whatever I could find. Beyond the bird bath, next to the poly tunnel might be a better place for the palm tree - and preferably horizontal instead of vertical!

On the third Monday of February, I explained to Liz that I had planned to cut the palm tree down that very day - until spotting a wren collecting nesting material and seemingly staying inside the debris surrounding the tree to build a nest. She persuaded me to go ahead and chop it down, as the nest could not be finished YET...

After our coffees, I could not spot the wren around the tree - so went outside and did so! Luckily the old tree saw in the now collapsing leaky shed still functioned and after 5-10 minutes, I had managed to saw through far enough to topple the tree safely to the ground.

Now, I could see the entire back yard from kitchen or coffee lounge window, without having to look through both! There was also more light for the coffee lounge windowsill plants!

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Liz has been tidying up Betty's house and offered me her gardening bag. I was interested to find out what was inside...

On searching through just the top, I discovered at least 3 pairs of gardening gloves, some delphinium and marrow seeds and some garden tools. A couple of days later, when I had more time, I emptied the bag out and went through everything - having been told to keep what I wanted and toss the rest. There was actually quite a bit of useful stuff in there.

I definitely will not need to buy gardening gloves or secateurs for a long time, if ever again! In fact, it was very good timing - for a week or so later, my at-home secateurs broke.

Well, spring is apparently here - so say my frogs and the daffodils, crocuses, tulips, bluebells, etc. I tidied up the poly tunnel ready for its final season before it gets a new cover. Here you can see the lefthand side - where I have 9 prepared pots and a few bits and bots - such as last season's' parsley and rocket and the coming seasons onions and cauliflowers.

At the back, you can see I have cleared up the table of dead basil and tomatoes - all popped underneath to rot in with my leaf mould from last year - and set out some trays of soil ready to plant with 2017 seeds. Actually - I have already popped in some leeks and chilies... Another tray of cauliflower seedlings ready to take to the allotment adorns the table on the right.

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Here you go - it is now late January and not much can be done in the actual outside due to wet weather followed by icy cold weather, but indoors I can prepare sweet potato slips ready for the outside. This will be the first year I have grown sweet potatoes at the allotment - and the only time prior I have grown them at all was in Auastralia, where you just throw one in the ground and wait rather than make slips which appears necessary in the colder climate of England. So this will be on my kitchen windowsill for the next few weeks - only recently cleared of drying nasturtium seeds and ripening tomatoes.

Well, as I currently write up the next piece of this blog post it has now reached the first weekend in February and it is time to chit my spuds for the 2017 growing year. This is the 'Swift' variety that I bought a 10-pack of from Wyevale - 9 of which fit into one empty mushroom container.

The tenth, along with various saved spuds from 'King Edward' and 'Casablanca' crops last year - and 2-3 organic purchases of late 2016 - fit a second tub. Hopefully all will be well chitted and ready to plant by the close of the month - by which time I hope to also have dug over the former fruit patch and manured it up ready to plant them!

Alas, we had 2 weeks of rain followed by a week of icy frost, followed by a week of rain - AKA 'cannot dig' season. Alas also, my sweet potato has sat 'slipping' in the kitchen windowsill for around 2 weeks - without result. Not a single shoot or root has emerged and the 2 halves have shrivelled up slightly and begun to turn moldy... I wiped the white stuff off and gave them a further week - but nothing happened, so I planted them in a tub in the poly tunnel and if they grow they grow, and if not I willl simply ONLY have garden center purchased slips to plant in 2017, unless my second and last attempt - started the final week of February - suceeds.

INDOORS 33

I was all ready to move in to the newly redecorated bedroom mid-January. Liz said I should move in as soon as I could, rather than fuss about waiting for the final piece of furniture to arrive, so I did - on January 16th right after our discussion. Above you can see the collection of new items I moved in with.

Here is the now empty spare room. I say empty, but it is not really - I have plenty of guests already living in there that were sharing it with me before I moved back upstairs - as in a collection of at least a half dozen spiders! They seem to congregate around the computer area - I wonder if they like me playing Song Pop at Facebook and/or my monthly Ligmincha Dharma webcasts?

And here it is - the final piece of flat-pack furniture, that arrived 2 weeks after the rest due to getting lost in the warehouse. It has since been unpacked, built, and put into use.

As February arrives, I contemplate. My main plan is to fix the garden/exterior during 2017 (and fix up the coffee lounge, which should only cost £50-75) 'as and when' savings permit. I then have 2018/19/20 - a maximum of three years - in which to save enough to completely re-do my bathroom and alleyway.

Even if I do 'all that I can do' myself, removing a bath tub and either replacing it and installing a real shower over it OR having a shower cubicle installed and doing away with the bath altogether is going to cost a MINIMUM of £2000. Once done, it will add value to the house and be hopefully set for 5-10 years before repairs are required, but it is a major expense looming ahead that may hold off the repointing that will probably be required within the next 5 years.