Sunday Music: I’ve Drunk Every Gin

Posted on June 10, 2018 by nicdempsey

This seemed appropriate for a weekend that contained the Queen’s official birthday and World Gin day.

 

 

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World Gin Day

Posted on June 9, 2018 by nicdempsey

I had a really fun conversation last night at work drinks. One of the guys was telling me that World Gin Day was completely made up. Well yes, all such things are, I said that I knew this because it was ‘run’ by someone I know (by know I mean met a couple of times and follow on social media!) the delightful Emma, aka Gin Monkey

He then told me about the made upness of today’s gin celebrations. Yes, someone, mansplained WGD to me! As I did last year, I am ‘celebrating’ World Gin Day by going to Junipalooza. This year with Ma, Sarah and Ryan but if you’re not sure how to celebrate, Monkey has you covered

Today is the Queen’s official birthday, so if nothing else, try a gin and dubonet

I would suggest that you start some fruit gins, make a martini, or any other gin cocktail you fancy, here are a few suggestions.

Have a good day, don’t drink too much!

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Friday Links

Posted on June 8, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

It’s been a week. Tomorrow we’re going to Junipalooza…

Here are this week’s links…

I heard this on the news last weekend and honestly, I laughed a lot. ‘Not a swimming place for Nazis’: A far-right lawmaker had his clothes stolen at the lake

The miller’s tale: poverty, obesity and the 45p loaf

Grace Dent: ‘The processed food debate is delicious, MSG-sprinkled class war’

I mentioned it on Sunday but it is worth listening to Alastair Cooke’s recounting of the Robert Kennedy shooting.

I saw something about this on Twitter. Trump invokes War of 1812 in testy call with Trudeau over tariffs. Wrong, Donald, Canada didn’t exist.

 

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Allotment Adventures: Too hot, too sick

Posted on June 6, 2018 by nicdempsey

I wish I could say that I did a lot of work on the plot over the last week, but it would be a lie.

I had a migraine on Sunday and although it was short and I was up and doing things in the afternoon, I wasn’t up to much.Because Ma had a car this weekend, we bought more compost. Which I did manage to wheelbarrow to the plot.  We earthed up the potatoes, watered everything, picked our first strawberries (all 6 of them), picked broad beans, spinach and salad and then had to home because I was not feeling well and it was really hot.

The nice thing about being weeding obsessed is that we can have a quiet weekend sometimes, it’s still in good shape. Yes my squash is behind, my cucamelons were eaten by slugs, I only have one cucumber plant alive and all my tomatoes are a bit weedy. But the sweetcorn came up, the squash are alive, the peas are flowering and there are pods, the raspberries are going mental and the salad and beetroot beds are looking fabulous. Also the californian poppies are everywhere, which I will show you next week when I’m on the plot and don’t feel ill.

The work list is pretty simple.

  • Sow more radishes and carrots
  • Find something to put in the circle beds at the top of the plot (the cornflowers and afgan poppies failed!) and I’m thinking maybe a french and runner bean tepee.
  • More compost on the big squash bed and one of the tomato beds.
  • sow kale and chard (which I’m still behind on!)
  • sow more coriander and parsley

That’s all I can think of for now. How are your gardens doing?

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Monday Miscellany

Posted on June 4, 2018 by nicdempsey

Last week was as predicted, interesting. I don’t like not being competent and I spent Thursday and Friday reminding myself that I’m not expected to know everything on my first two days. The commute has been fine but I need to be up earlier so I can get a desk, this is the first time in 25 plus years of working that I’ve worked in a hot desk environment. I also had a migraine on Sunday morning, which was not fun, I’m blaming heat, stress and not being good about my diet this weekend. Plus side, it was on a weekend and short. When you have migraines, this is a good thing. So it was horrible but it was a good migraine as migraines go.

Of course after the migraine I had to shop and go to the plot and thankfully, Ma had a car this weekend so it was pretty easy but the plot part had to be cut short because it was too hot. Watering got done and there hasn’t been too much slug damage, so all good, but it appears that this year is going to be a year that I am tasty to bitey things, it goes in cycles, some years I get bitten a lot and sometimes not at all.My basic plan for this week is work, rest and prep for Junipalooza next Saturday. What are you guys doing this week?

 

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Sunday Music: Abraham, Martin and John

Posted on June 3, 2018 by nicdempsey

On Friday nights at 8.45pm, Radio Four has a slot called ‘Point of View’ which by turns can be enlightening or infuriating, but last Friday it replayed Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America on the death of Bobby Kennedy.

The 5th of June marks 50 years since he was slot. I wasn’t even a twinkle in my parents eyes in 1968 but I know that it was a hell of a year…we already commemorated Martin Luther King’s murder earlier this year, and I’m not very well read about the time but on Friday night, I listened to the broadcast and I knew that it was Alistair Cooke because I grew up with Letter from America and I knew that it was about Bobby Kennedy. I have probably heard this broadcast before, it is powerful. But as I was listening to it, in the back of my head I heard this song and I heard Sam Cooke

I wasn’t alive in 1968, but this song, I grew up hearing. I knew what it was about, I knew it was a sad song, but listening to Alistair Cooke (of all people) I felt that I finally understood it and maybe it felt more relevant to me now because of the times we are living in.

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Friday Links

Posted on June 1, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

It’s been quite a week, my head is quite full of new work things.

This week on the blog, there was a miscellany post a day later than usual, the usual allotment update and the usual goal recap and setting post.

This week’s links…

I thought this was quite interesting. Chelsea Clinton: ‘I’ve had vitriol flung at me for as long as I can remember’ and while we’re on the subject of children of presidents, Ivanka Trump embodies her father’s family values. Quite.

I really enjoyed Katharine Whitehorn’s columns, I didn’t know her at all, although once at the National Theatre, during the interval, she sat on me. Apparently, in the crush of half time, I looked like a seat! This is really, terribly sad. The writer Katharine Whitehorn would rather die than live like this

There’s probably going to be a lot more on Northern Ireland over the next couple of weeks. The only Northern Irish woman with a choice is Arlene Foster. and Could Theresa May’s pact with the DUP lead to a united Ireland? Theresa May is a tactician, not a strategist. She can only see what is in front of her and has no understanding of the big picture and that applies to everything she does. She dealt with her lack of votes but tied her hands on anything to do with NI.

A recipe for focaccia

Antony Beevor: the greatest war movie ever and the ones I can’t stand. This is such a lovely rant…

68 questions you’ve always wanted to ask about decorating your home I don’t agree with all of these but I’m going to look at carpet binding!

 

 

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Monthly Goals: May/June 2018

Posted on May 31, 2018 by nicdempsey

How are we nearly halfway through the year?  May was a pretty good month. I finally got a permanent job which starts today. The allotment is doing well. I got a good mix of alone time and sociability and I got to go to a football match. It was all pretty good.

I did pretty well with my goals, here’s the recap…

Mind and Body

  • 10,000 steps a day.
  • Vitamins every day.
  • Feet and Hands.
  • Golden hour

These are all happening consistently

Budget & Spending

  • Stick to the spending budgets for food and household. All good

House Beautiful

This is pretty much all repeats of March because I didn’t get it done last month

  • Hoover once a week
  • Clean oven
  • Defrost fridge

Bank holidays for the win!

Allotment  (still the longest list!)

  • bonfire
  • sowing seeds indoors (sweetcorn, kale, more tomatoes, chard)
  • sowing seeds outdoors (french beans)
  • plant out tomatoes, cucumbers etc
  • frame in the bed at the top of the plot
  • compost (more compost)
  • seating area (we have a plan but it’s probably not going to happen this summer)

I didn’t get to the seating area because I need to source pallets, but we got everything else done!

Year so far

Reading – The TBR list on the Kindle stands at a 100 and the physical pile of books is at 32.

Household budget – I started with £83.75 and ended with £43.75. So I have £83.75 for May, and I’ll really need spend that because I’ve run out of everything…

Food Budget – I had pennies left, they went into the jar.

Saving – The jar now contains £120.32

June Goals

Ok so June is going to be interesting, I have a new commute and a new job to work out. The only social thing currently on the slate is Junipalooza and my weekly walk with Sarah and Fred, while I still can!

Mind and Body

There are some additions to this list this month. I don’t think that it’s good to overload yourself when there is big transition happening but I am aware that June will be an awkward month because I find change and transition difficult. So I decided to be a grown up about it and prepare and work with it so I get through it all gracefully.

I’ve been doing occasional therapy in the last couple of months to check in but with change and adaption seeming to be a 2018 theme, I’m back at least until my birthday.

The other thing that I’ve picked up on is that I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop and disaster to occur. I’ve noticed it and it’s bringing me down, so goodness knows what it’s doing for the people that have to be around me! I understand what’s going on but at this stage it’s behaviour I can and need to unlearn. I’m not denying that bad things can happen and I need to be prepared for that but I shouldn’t expect them to happen. So I’m going to make a habit of writing them all down. Not here but on paper, I figure that I’ll do it for a month and see if it helps.

  • 10,000 steps a day.
  • Vitamins every day.
  • Feet and Hands.
  • Golden hour
  • Therapy
  • Good things journal everyday

Budget & Spending

Time to be real, this month is going to be tough in terms of money. I have a week and two days of temping pay and then I won’t get paid until the end of the month and it may not be for a whole month.

  • Get through the month without financial explosion.

House Beautiful

  • Stick to the housework rota.

Allotment  (still the longest list!)

  • plant out remaining squash
  • sow more carrots and radishes and spring onions
  • sow chard, kale, pak choi and cauliflower
  • sow more salad
  • keep on top of the watering and weeding
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Allotment Adventures: Cucumber disaster

Posted on May 30, 2018 by nicdempsey

I planted 11 cucumbers plants last week, and at this point maybe one will survive, the others are dead, look at the bed of shrivelled, dead plants. The cucamelons are looking sick too!

The tomato plants are doing a little better, I planted out 35 and lost 6, but I did have spares to replace them, so we planted the others out and we’ll see how they do. This weekend I sowed some more cucumber seeds and potted on the basil.  On the plus side, the french beans are doing well, we picked our first broad beans, the salad bed is in overdrive, as is the beetroot bed which I thinned this week. The various summer and winter squash plants are ok and we’ve worked out where all the winter squash are going to go.

And the peas are flowering, which is very exciting.

Fruit is developing. Plums

Strawberries

Blueberries

Broad BeansSo now we wait and water. And sow some kale and chard and cauliflower for winter and more buckets for radishes and cauliflower and salad.Everything is behind this year but this week we still had chard, spinach, salad, rhubarb and broad beans, we also had cabbage from my plot neighbour! This is what I sent Ma home with this week.

 

 

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Monday Miscellany (on Tuesday)

Posted on May 29, 2018 by nicdempsey

I feel I should congratulate Ireland, well done on the referendum result! This is a vote for compassion and for allowing women to make the choices that are right for them. Now for Northern Ireland.

The week after a bank holiday is always a bit strange because you’re trying to cram five days work into four. My week this week is going to be even stranger, I’m going to spend two days trying someone in my current role and then two days in an altogether new job being trained. The move from competence to incompetence will be very stark for me this week.

One day every weekend, looks like this. Fred the dog refusing to give the ball back. Usually because he’s stubborn and very attached to his ball but the last couple of weekends because he’s been to hot to chase the ball. He is very good dog. When I get to Sarah’s he gets very excited because it means a long walk for him but he also knows I don’t like him jumping on me. So he starts to jump, remembers and turns while in mid air. I find it very amusing!

It’s also been really good to have a time every week to exercise and see Sarah, it’s been lovely to spend concentrated time with her, I don’t think we’ve seen each other this often since we lived together! This works…

The other day of my weekend generally looks like working on the plot, followed by drinks..

 

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