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Here we see the iris flowers that fell off the bulbs when I brought some home from Liz's gardens recently - I plonked them into my kitchen soil tub of odds and ends 'in case' they decide to grow.

Well, here we are back on the subject of redecorating the coffee lounge - and here is the paint stash. Liz giving me a tub of paint to cover the walls that are not going to be done in the artsy mosaic mixed color design sort of persuaded me to 'get started'.

I removed the spiders and swept the floor. I tidied the stuff and got a good look at the available paint. The plan is to use up all the odds and ends in the tins that are left over from painting the rest of the house in a decorative mosaic mural on one wall, paint the ceiling with left over ceiling paint from the kitchen, and the rest of the walls with the tin Liz gave me.

First, I had one more corner to sweep up. I decided to dump the two smaller pieces of linoleum, just keeping the larger piece as the base for the coffee lounge - which will enable me to mop the 'pathway' from kitchen to back door with ease. This pathway gets very dirty with muddy gum boots and dripping washing.

All done - no spiders, tidy room, swept floor - it was time to do the grotty chore that would take a few hours if done properly - washing the ceiling, walls, and floor. I figured it being about 8.30am, and my being free til 5pm, and the weather being iffy - although sunny - I might as well begin at least. Perhaps if I cleaned the room before lunch, I could hop down the allotment, or walk round to the mailbox, or potter in the poly tunnel after lunch...

I began - wiping over a part of the ceiling and upper wall with a cloth soaked in water with a little washing up liquid added. I was not really that enthusiastic - but determined to get this boring part over and done with, so the more fun bits of actual painting could occur. I kept seeing the sun shining brightly through the window at me, though...

Here is as far as I got - as the phone rang. The option of walking a local beach with my best friend - along with the inevitable coffee we usually partook of on our trips - had saved my day from dirty cloths and the coffee lounge was once again 'postponed'.

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Looking across the onions I am growing to seed/sets, you can see my internal weed pile - a necessity as the weed bin got overly full and there were more weeds coming. The far reverse corner is pictured below - showing my compost bins, garlic, shallots, and fruit area close to and the rest of the plot beyond.

In the other corner, beyond the neatly trimmed and reshaped edges, is my rhubarb - already spurting out ready to grow for me in 2018. It is surrounded my more garlic - not grass/weeds!

Late February, and finally it was time to start work on the poly tunnel project back at home. Above is a quick reminder of how it WAS. Below shows how it became shortly before my best friend Liz arrived one Sunday late in the month.

I had light-dug around the exterior and rip-cut the poly off. This exposed my tubs of soil, pot of parsley, and tools.

Liz arrived and we began our work around 9am - here is a view just before coffee break, as Liz trotted home to fetch a smaller spade and stronger stepladder. Our task was digging a trench round the outside, while mine was to cut out/back the brambles further along the fence than I had done and hers to trim the apple tree/trees above the poly tunnel a bit further with her saw than I had with loppers.

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This shot taken late November shows my new rhubarb, which successfully grew into a plant this past season and is currently fading away for winter. Hopefully, with a surrounding of horse muck, it will provide amply rhubarb for the next 3-5 years. Also in view are some raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries...and the shallots and garlic that have surfaced.

Looking back towards the shed, you can see that I have weeded my raspberries and blueberries, and have several onions shooting through - as well as a few stray 'spare' garlics that I planted around the fruit area.

Here we are - I am all ready to get planting in the poly tunnel and allotment plot for the 2018 season - seed wise that is. As January faded and February arrived with a full moon and mostly sunny day, the poly tunnel had still not yet been recovered and the plot not yet dug over for the new season.

Spring has sort of arrived though - here is the first snowdrop of the year in my garden - 3 more have since followed, while Liz has a carpet of them along with primrose and iris and....

Liz is sharing her spare wheelbarrow with me - so the shed down the plot is now quite full! As you can see below, it is now mostly dug over ready for the 2018 growing season - finally. There remain just a few weeds around the shed and raspberries at the close of February.

Above you can see the front patch - which is where I hope to begin planting in March/April. Also, one of my three raised beds. I plan to use 2.5 for strawberries and 0.5 for nasturtiums. the other two are pictured below

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I was uncertain where to begin on the multiple cleaning and clearing tasks involved, so started at the entry to the room, by removing the draught excluder. This had been tacked into place by my parents in order to keep their door gaps to a minimum and house warm when heated.

Having removed the door, only using the heater on minimum setting for the sake of my chilies anyways, and not liking filth-grabbers, I persevered with the removal - using a screwdriver to prise it away from the wooden bar it was attached to.

Having removed both sides and the top, it was time to give it a soap-down to clean it up. I still have a problem with the two door hinges to the right being difficult if not impossible to remove. The screws have been painted over and so has the other side of the bar to the free one - hence paint removal and scraping, scratching and prising will have to commence on my next session.

As you can see, I did get some work done - although it is a long way from being a room in which I can slip to flop out on a couch with a cup of hot steamy freshly made black coffee and curl up with a book - or entertain coffee sipping friends - or even nibble a snack meal such as vegan pizza or a slice of pecan-ginger loaf.

I did manage to remove the door latch socket though - and polyfilled the gap. I have since pushed it into place, smoothed it out, and will apply a second coat and sand it down shortly. I sigh as I look into the room - this does not look like a cosy couch with coffee table yet, does it?

Alas, incentive and inspiration failed me for a week or two - before I commenced by washing down half of the back door and then...taking another break to do other stuff - such as going to the cinema with my best friend, trotting off to the allotment with compost scraps, shopping...

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Here we have the after-Christmas-dinner candles and port wine scenario from the 2017 festivities. Following, is my late December 'got to do something' pantry turn around - yes, not just the usual shuffling of a few items into best before dates, but a total re-do.

This time I put things in groups, such as all the fruit and nuts, all the raw food energy bars, all the chestnuts, all the curry kits...but still in order of best before date.

It looked a bit messy, and I was sure i could reorder it in a neater fashion - so on NYE, I took everything out, wiped the shelves clean, and put things back.

That takes us to February - at which point I got down to serious work on recreating a coffee lounge out of the former outhouse-darts room-dining room-store room.

As you can see, the room was used for gum boots, paint, and bags...also chilies and other plants, tools and planks of wood.

My first task was to polyfill the exterior holes and cracks in the brick work. Once the weather permitted this at the end of the first week of the month, I was ready to begin the slow task of turning a messy grubby room into a neat and tidy lounge with coffee table, sofa and carpet. The first job after the external brickwork fix was to remove most of the interior cobwebs, which I have now done.

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I managed to find an almost suitable rack at All Seasons and carry it home. This was my next diy-decor task to be tackled. It did not look too difficult, and in fact, I did not even have the excuse of it going to take a long time to do enabling me to sip a glass of wine, this time.

Five-ten minutes and it was done. One shiny new shoe rack to pop - by the door, perhaps? I put it there to see - then decided to move Henry and his box of bags/tools and position it in my spare room, where it looked neater.

Next, I decided to check the fridge, freezer, and pantry - in preparation for the close of the year. The fridge had the following in situ when I checked early in December, prior to finalizing my grocery and fruit n veg orders for Christmas week.

The freezer was fairly well stocked, despite munching fruit from the plot continually from March to this very week - there was a lot of it this past season, so I still have a bag or two of rhubarb, strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant - and several of gooseberries.

That left my pantry - hmm....well stocked yes, but a tad untidy and in need of attending to - yes, it is time to pour a glass of wine and do my favourite chore - turning out the pantry!

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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.