Getting Things Done Last Week

What a difference some new vinyl has made to the upstairs shower room. The floor was  a pale wood laminate and had worn away in places and lost its colour, so that it never looked clean.

The fitters measured up my bedroom after they'd laid the vinyl and decided what needed to be done to level up the corner where the shower came out of and thankfully took away the old carpet so that I could finish sanding and painting the skirting board.
I'm so pleased that everything upstairs will soon be finished (well, apart from the boxing in of the pipes in the bathroom which will be done sometime this month) makes it feel that I'm actually getting somewhere with the updating. All the work now will be downstairs which I'm not looking forward to. Workmen too close for comfort!!

Now the weather is cooler there is much to be done outside and I emptied the small compost bin onto the cutting garden and planted out the Alstromeria plants that have been sitting in pots all summer. Way back in June I ordered some mini plug plants of Hollyhocks and they finally turned up last week. They've been potted up now and will later go in the third quarter of the cut flower bed. But how frustrating to find out about a month  ago that next door neighbour has grown lots from seed to sell! She is raising money to replace a memorial bench but I only found out that she had Hollyhocks when I was doing the watering for them when they were away. I've managed to do some weeding in the front flower beds but the quarter circle garden behind the house is an awful mess and needs a lot of work as do the veg beds.

As they nearly say on TV  "the next programme paragraph contains pictures words that some readers may find offensive!"

Had a nasty shock one morning last week when I noticed a rat under the bird feeders. Spotting a rat in daylight means there are probably several more around. This is the time of year when rats move off the fields closer to homes and the time to set bait boxes. OK, I knew where the rat bait was but where on earth was the bait box. Last seen in the spring when Colin was ill and told me to fill it with bait and put it on top of the compost heap because he thought there were rats digging their way in under the compost bins. Surely the bait box isn't  buried somewhere deep in the compost bin? I've looked everywhere else but if it is in the bin it will be impossible to find until the bin is emptied next year. So a trip to the local hardware store and a new box bought and filled and covered with a tile to keep the rain off. DIE RATS! I shall stop feeding the birds for a few days so there is nothing on the ground for the rats, hopefully they will take the bait.

After 3 busy days of getting things done earlier last week  by Thursday I felt shattered, so had two days  pottering around at home and  going nowhere. I just did a little weeding but without feeling pressured to rush and get as much done as possible. I seem to be trying to keep busy...... going here, there and everywhere which is totally different to the way I used to live when most of my time was spent at home on the smallholding. Somehow I have to find a happy medium.

The two quiet days revived me so on Saturday it was back to a bit more garden clearing, and after buying a bag of multi-purpose and some late pansies I tipped out dead petunias and re-planted some patio pots for a bit of late colour. One veg bed is half full of Iceland poppy seedlings - more like a small forest really and definitely not wanted there so I covered them with black plastic - hopefully when I uncover in the spring they'll all be gone.

Almost a year ago when Col's treatment seemed to be working he bought a small poly-tunnel on line. He'd been looking and found a company who were clearing out their last tunnels and reducing the price so he jumped in and got it . When  it arrived it was put in the workshop and there it stayed because sadly he was then not well enough to even open the box. Eventually last month I got round to placing an ad in the Suffolk Smallholders Society newsletter and had 2 phone calls on Saturday and sold it to the first caller for £60. A very useful addition to the purse for September.

I'm still clearing and sorting a little something everyday. Last week another bag of books went into the car ready for a charity shop and  2 small boxes of books were sent off to Ziffit. The seed tin was sorted, old seeds chucked and unopened seeds that I'll never use have been bundled up for the car boot box. A couple of things from the garage into the dustbin. A bundle of old Self-Sufficiency magazines that have moved house umpteen times are going off to the Smallholders Society AGM. It does feel good to clear and sort.

Many thanks for comments and new visitors and hello and welcome to a couple more new followers.

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Sue