What I’ve Read – January 2017

Posted on February 1, 2017 by nicdempsey

So we start again with a new year of reading.

Hard Hitter – Sarina Bowen (Kindle bought)

We have already established that I like Sarina Bowen and her books are more or less autobuy for me. So, this is the second book in the Brooklyn Bruisers series, continuing my love of books involved sports I don’t understand and think are a bit silly (my list of sports that I do understand is football, I even understand the offside rule!). Anyway, I liked this one much more than the first. O’Doul is the hero who has mostly moved off from his troubled upbringing and is captain and enforcer (apparently ice hockey is pretty violent) of the team. Basically, all he has is hockey but the violence is getting to him. Our heroine, Ari is the team massage therapist and yoga teacher. She’s coming off a split with her boyfriend of eight years who turned controlling and abusive. O’Doul needs physical therapy but doesn’t like being touched. Sparks fly etc. Ok what I really love is that O’Doul is violent for a living and it’s wearing on him although he’s well able to physically defend himself but it’s always a last resort outside the hockey arena. He accepts that Ari isn’t where he is and although he wants more, he handles being told no. He doesn’t push, he isn’t posessive and he doesn’t solve Ari’s problem with her ex with more masculine toxicity. Sure he’s around but Ari has her own agency and he recognises that. His relationship with Ari also cause him to open up more to he’s team mates which is good because the biggest problem he has is that he’s isolated and doesn’t know how to ask for or receive help. Ari is a more straightforward character, she needs to learn to start trusting her judgement and recognising when she needs to ask for help and be honest with people that care for her. What I really liked is even during the ‘happy ending’ epilogue you can see she still isn’t being entirely open about what’s going on with her and he has to puzzle it out.

The Hanging Tree – Ben Aaronovitch (library book)

I feel like I’ve been waiting on this for ages. We’re back in London and Peter is more sure of himself in London and at work. You can see the Folly starting to grow, the addition of another doctor to help Dr Walid, but Peter and Nightingale are the practitioners and they are overstretched, there is the introduction to the Americans and another set of ‘rogue’ ie outside the influence of the Folly practitioners (and there’s something going on in that mother/daughter combo that I think will be developed in other books, one of them taught the Faceless Man some of his techniques) and Peter is trying to learn as well as help bring the Folly up to date. I like that none of that is explicit, except the growing list of things that Peter has to add to the paper that he’s writing. Lesley appears with her face and we find out who the Faceless Man is but it’s a revelation curiously lacking in urgency or twist. There has been some comment about the way Aaronovitch has Peter describe people by the colour of their skin and I actually really enjoyed that. When I read, I pretty much assume that people are white, like me, unless I’m explicitly told. I think that Peter does it the other way round and I think Aaronvitch is pointing out the subtle ways that race impacts our thinking. The Faceless Man also seems to be a racist (definitely a UKIP supporter) and he and the book seem to hint that he picked Lesley because she was white and connected (still) in some way to Punch. Another thing that becomes clear is how much Peter respects Nightingale and the ways that they are changing one another. Peter’s Mum calling Nightingale for updates on Peter and making sure he turns up to family things was nice. It’s also clear that people are in the habit of underestimating Peter and I really think it’s going to bite Lesley at some point because I don’t think that she’s realised how much he’s changed. I enjoyed returning to the world, but I really want to get on with finding out what the villians are up to. Maybe the next book…

Miracle on 5th Avenue – Sarah Morgan (Kindle TBR)

Do I need to tell you how much I enjoyed this? Nope, I don’t think I do!

One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 1) – Jodi Taylor (Kindle TBR)

A Symphony of Echoes (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 2) – Jodi Taylor (Kindle bought)

This is a strange cross in tone between alt reality and a boarding school story and I loved it. A lot happens and I’m not quite clear on the timeframe. Having said that, I really, really liked the first, bought the second to read straight after and am trying really hard not to throw caution to the wind and buy and read all the others and the short stories (the library doesn’t have them, I checked!)

Size Matters –  Alison Bliss (borrowed)

I read this in a day so it was easy and mindless to read but it didn’t leave me happy or content. No good book noise was made in the reading of book. Because it didn’t have any heart. The heroine’s mother kept putting her down and no one called her on it, eventually the heroine did but it and the other descriptions of family life never rang true, there was no depth to them. Good for an afternoon of not thinking too much but apart from the grandfather’s driving, I can’t remember too much about it.

A Gathering of Shadows (A Darker Shade of Magic #2) (Kindle TBR)

I liked the first one enough to buy the second and I will get the third when it comes out in February because I’m anxious to find out what happens next. I really felt for Kell and Holland for that matter, even maybe because of the mistakes that that they make. It was nice in this to have a PoV from Rhy although what I really want to know is where Kell is from because it’s weird the way that Rhy’s parents behave towards him. Anyway, this left us on a cliffhanger and I haven’t been this frustrated since Sarah Rees Brennan did it in Untold.

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Goals 2017 – January Review/February Set

Posted on January 31, 2017 by nicdempsey

We are through the first month of 2017, which as usual was a never ending slog of a month. However, like all things, January also passed and it’s time to recap January goals and plan for February…

It’s fair to say that my expectations of January were pretty low. The aim of January is to survive it with as much sanity as possible. However, given that it was January, it was a pretty good month. I went out a bit (dinner at Christina and Fred’s, cinema), I babysat the nephews in the hell that is Gambardo’s and saw Ben and Laura’s new house. img_5784I bought seeds for the allotment, did some planning for next year and got a haircut. There was wine because January is not the time to give up strong drink. There was also another bloody cold and having to wrestle myself back into a consistent workday/weekend routine. I did it and as it always does the consistency of it and the calm joy of a tidy house worked its magic and I started sleeping better. Not well, just better.img_5797

My goals were pretty basic too.

  • Use Bright Light Therapy Headset every day. I was given a bright light headset for Christmas. I’ve started to use it first thing in the morning. When the alarm goes off, I put this on for the prescribed 12 minutes and then I get up. This is something I want to do every morning to see if it has an impact. I did this every morning, it didn’t make me like mornings but I did notice that I was significantly more cheerful and less grumpy, even on days when I was completely exhausted and sick. So I’ll continue with this probably until the clocks go forward.
  • Get out of the house by 7:30am on workdays. I get to work by 9am every morning, but the day goes better if I get into work earlier and have some time before people come in and start asking me for things. So I’m committing to getting out of the house in time for the 7:56 train in the morning, which will get me in the office by 8:30 at the absolute latest. I aced this and was in the office early even on the days when it took an hour and a half to get to work (tube strike)img_5759
  • 10pm lights out on schoolnights. This really goes with the ‘get out of the house’ goal. Christmas holidays really mucked up my sleep patterns so I need to reset them. I need to sleep train myself again. This also means no screens after 9pm and making sure that ‘bedtime’ starts before 10pm, so I’m already in bed at 10pm. I had absolutely no trouble with this at all. Go me!
  • Daytime walk in the park. I want to start walking more again. I really enjoyed it in 2015 and it sort of fell by the wayside in 2016 as I didn’t feel that my foot was up to it. So this month, I’m going to commit to a lunch time walk (providing it’s not raining!). 30 minutes in Regents Park, which is just next door to the office and kills three birds with one stone; I get a walk, I get outside in the daylight, and I get out of the office. I was doing really well with this until I caught that pesky cold and I knew that if I left the office, I wouldn’t come back!  So 50% successful. 
  • Drink two litres of water every day. I’m pretty good at this usually but I didn’t drink enough water over Christmas, so I just need to get back into the habit. 100% success rate with this one, and I felt much better for it too, didn’t stop me getting a spotty chin as PMT ramped up but you can’t win them all!
  • Yoga. I need to make time for this more consistently. When I do, I feel better, but I tend to let it slide. So I’m going to commit to 4 times a week and see how it goes. I signed up for this so that should help. This was another 50% success, it didn’t seem to help with my sleeping and I need to make time but there was a night when I hoovered rather than get my mat out. Mmm, need to give that some consideration.img_5597

So that was January. Overall, I feel pretty good, these things did help me focus on the overall picture and I’m back into better routines and the flat is tidy and calm. When it came to deciding if I was really too tired to get a chore done or just couldn’t be arsed, I opted for doing it if it was going to take less than 30 minutes as a result, I hoovered, cleaned the bathroom and did the ironing on schoolnights and felt much better for it. The 30 minute rule also meant I spent more time on looking after me, stretching if I couldn’t face yoga and attending to my hands and feet which were starting to look dry and sore. So the emphasis on a couple of small things, led me to be able to tackle another couple of small things that made me feel better overall.

I have a challenging couple of months ahead, with the battle between what I want to do (read, drink gin, stay up late and allotment) and what I have to do (go to work, not spend all of my money) and other things that need doing. With that in mind, here’s are the goals for this month (and yes some of them are the same as last months!)

FEBRUARY GOALS

  • Use Bright Light Therapy Headset every day. As I said this worked better than I expected and I really don’t care if its a placebo effect, it’s a good one.
  • Get out of the house by 7:30am on workdays & 10pm lights out on schoolnights. This made a huge difference to my day to day experience, I’m still tired but the consistency of it is good for me and it really helps me at work. It’s also mean, that even when the trains have been playing up, I’ve been in the office before my manager which means I can get a head start on my work.
  • Going for a walk at least every other day. I didn’t do so well on this in January but even on the days that I didn’t get out during the daytime, walking was good for me. So that might be getting off the train or bus a bit before my stop and going for a walk. Or walking to Paddington from the office, the smog is a concern right now but I’ll work it out!
  • Stretching. I fell over on the ice last week and the next day I was really stiff and sore and had to spend a while stretching, this is something I have to do consistently if I don’t do anything else.
  • Defrost the freezer and clean the oven. That stuff needs doing regularly and although I did it before Christmas, it’s time again.
  • Make marmalade. I’m down to one pot of marmalade from last year, so it’s time to make some more while seville oranges are in season.
  • Allotment
    • Weed top of plot and plant new rhubarb crowns
    • Sow leeks, cavolo nero and sweet peas
    • Weed beds and prep for spring
    • Work out what to do with the ‘rubbish’ pile now I can’t burn it!

I want to generally focus on the flat a bit in February. One of the perculiar blessings of adulthood is how much of it is about keeping on top of things. I’ve been saying for years that as I child, I thought adulthood was going to be about eating ice cream and staying up all night but actually its about keeping on top of laundry and getting enough sleep! Last year taught me that in the summer the allotment will take up a huge chunk of my energy and time so I want to spend some time trying to get into a fail safe routine for the flat that means it doesn’t descend into chaos and filth in the summer!  I also want to make better use of the food I have before I buy more. I’m good at using up what’s in the fridge but I need to look in the freezer and cupboards when menu planning so I’m not over buying, which also makes the task of defrosting the freezer easier!

February is a short month so I really think that’s enough to be going on with!

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January in pictures – Part Two

Posted on January 30, 2017 by nicdempsey

I’m still working on taking photos and trying to take at least one a day.

Fireplace stones. 12 January. Christina wrote a piece about stone collecting. She tells me that I’m doing it wrong because my stones are touching. I know I’m doing it wrong because some of that pile is driftwood and there’s some incense in there too

Fireplace Daffodils. 13 January. I’m quite taken with my fireplace.Coffee. 14 January. On the way to Watford to take the nephews out, coffee was required.View from Shepherds Bush Station. 14 January.  I feel like I should explain that Ma used to work in Shepherds Bush and we used to go there to watch football and the subways have always had the sheep that looked dated in the 80’s and even more so now.Oli and the ball pit. 14 January. He’s such a good boyJoe climbing. 14 January. Joe was up and down this a lot, look at that determination.Post childcare wine. 14 January. Much deserved, I changed 4 nappies in a two hour period.Daffodils. 14 January. There is something hopeful about a daffodil.Seeds. 15 January. It’s begun, this is the first batch, working out where they’ll go is another matter entirely.Cookies. 20 January. I had a rotten cold that week but I had promised the nephew cookies, so cookies had to be baked.Monopoly. 21 January. Oli’s favourite game.Silly. 21 January. Sometimes it’s difficult to see my brother as a responsible grown up, sometimes it’s hard for him to be one! Also look at Ben’s feet, bunions are a family thing.Dirty window. 21 January. On the way home from Ben and Laura’s new house.Worn. 21 January. I hardly ever get on a Piccadilly line train with empty seats, so I hadn’t noticed the wearing on them, like a spotlightPizza. 21 January. Fox on the allotments. 22 January. Bold, very bold.Broad beans. 22 January. It was too cold and frozen and wet to do much but I was happy to see that the broad beans were starting to come up. I hope the whether doesn’t do for them.Plot 186a in January. 22 January. It’s hard to believe that in a couple of months it will all be green and lush and there will be a shed.Foggy. 23 January. It was icy and foggy this week, I took a photo of the street every time I left for work!Christmas Tree. 23 January. I walk past this house on the way to the station and they still have their tree up! I wonder if their going all the way to Candlemas on 2 February?Late. 23 January. The first of many late trains this week, not a good start to the week. Flare. 24 January. The fog does strange things to the lightComfort. 24 January. Lunch to soothe and comfortimg_5851Fog redux. 25 January. img_5856-1Waiting for the train. 25 January. It was late and foggy. My morning this week were predictable.Slightly brighter. 26 January.  Less foggy, still dark.Leaving the house in daylight. 27 January. A Friday treatThe dog. 27 January. At Jane’s for a haircutPattern. 27 January. The lampshade was casting patterns on the wall.Coffee. 28 January. At Ma’s, this is the mug I always have.Sky from the bus. 28 January. I spend about 5 hours on or waiting for a bus this weekendMarmalade in the making. 28 January.Shred. 29 January. I started the marmaladeFirst batch. 29 January. 

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Friday Links

Posted on January 27, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!  We’ll start with the ‘oh my goodness, what have Trump/May/ politicians done today to muck up the world we live in’ links and then go to other interesting things….

There is no such thing as alternative facts, facts don’t have alternatives….

If there were 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes in the last US election, wouldn’t you need to re-do the vote. This is a lie, there is no evidence of any vote tampering and it speaks to Trumps character (and not very flatteringly) that he would make up a story to make himself feel better about not getting the popular vote.

The first days inside Trump’s White House: Fury, tumult and a reboot. Who would have thought that Bush (W) would feel like a safe pair of hands in comparision to Trump?

Fallon accused of keeping MP’s in the dark over Trident failure. Apparently, the US, who make the missiles asked the UK government to keep it quiet. If we are going to have nuclear weapons (and I’m not convinced there’s a good case for that), then they shouldn’t be controlled by another nation. That American officials can go on TV and talk about it and ours can’t. That doesn’t make sense and to hide that there were issues before the vote? That’s dishonest.

The supreme court Brexit judgment isn’t a victory for me, but for our constitution. I do wish that this hadn’t come down to a well off individual taking the government to court. But the principle that Parliament is sovereign is at the heart of our Constitution. If we are to leave the EU and British law take precedence then that means Parliament and the press and the government should uphold that.

Why shouldn’t Prince Charles speak out about climate change? Climate Change is happening and if Prince Charles would like to put his money where his mouth is and off set and reduce his own carbon emmisions and that of his family, businesses (Duchy Originals) and charities. Fine, I have no problem with that. What I object to is his lecturing everyone else whilst not walking the walk. Aside from that, he is the next head of State and he needs to be very bloody careful about the lines he crosses or he’ll could end up like Charles I (we probably wouldn’t chop his head off though), actually carry on Charles, get yourself deposed!

On her flight May should read Trump’s book; the other guy is always shafted. I don’t often find myself agreeing with Polly Toynbee but I’m with her on this except for the Corbyn bashing, I’m tired of new Labour types moaning on about Corbyn…

Mother courage: swapping pregnancy in exchange for help. I think Pause is a great idea and while I can see that there is a issue in making women take contraceptives in exchange for support, I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad idea because it’s about responsibility. I remember a social worker telling me that that difference between a someone who’d had several children taken into care and other parents was that ‘social services parents’ did exactly the same thing and expected that their desire for it to be difference next time would make it so. The first step to getting a different result is accepting that this is not the case. Accepting the help and it’s conditions are part of that.

Should we throw in the towel and stop showering? I should confess, I’m a shower dodger. It’s just such a lot of effort, I wash every day and shower every other, I always wash my hands and use deodrant so I don’t smell – in my family, someone would tell me. I got out of the habit after the osteotomy, I couldn’t for two weeks (washed every day) and after that it was tricky because of my foot. I don’t smell and my skin has improved amazingly, it’s not as dry, less spotty and feels better.

The many-moons theory. I’m not really a great science person but I am fascinated by people that are and can just think about things like this.

The secrets of people who never get sick. Clearly not me.

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Chocolate Cookies in a Jar

Posted on January 26, 2017 by nicdempsey

One of Oli’s Christmas presents this year was a jar of ingredients for making cookies. I also made up a jar each for the Baxter’s because they both seem to enjoy cooking too and I figured that during the Christmas holidays an afternoon of easy baking might be just the thing to keep small children occupied and their mothers from going insane. The recipe came from Marmalade and Me and according to Oli were very nice (although quite a lot of the cookies were eaten by Daddy!)img_5705

They were a really good idea and I’m on the lookout for recipes that work like this for next year!

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Food Prep for lazy people

Posted on January 24, 2017 by nicdempsey

I had another (the fourth in 4 months!) cold last week, which left me I was tired and snotty this weekend. It’s also the last week of the month, payday is on Friday, and there’s a lot of food hanging around so I didn’t really need to shop, which was fantastic because I didn’t have much energy for it or for food prep for the coming week.

Food prep is an important part of meal planning for me, knowing that I have the food I need for the week and that I can feed myself with the least faff possible when I’m tired and grumpy is a gift to my work week self but sometimes when I’m time or energy poor, it seems like so much effort and I just don’t want to do it.

There is a lot of freedom in being single and childfree, because the only person I have to cater to is me, if I don’t want to do it, I don’t have to. When you have partners or children, you have to get it done, whether you want to or not. Conversely, because it’s only me, it’s easy to skip and think that it’s not important, but it is important to keep me on budget, to make sure I eat well and as part of self care. I am important, what I use as fuel is important. Which is a long winded way of saying that I did basic food prep this week, which took about 30 minutes of hands on time across an afternoon.img_5438I made a batch of bolognaise and cooked more pasta than I needed. That was dinner on Sunday night and 4 portions of pasta and sauce for lunches this week, I also sorted out breakfasts by straining some yoghurt and turning the last of the rhubarb into compote.  So breakfast will be yoghurt, compote and granola.DSCF4671Lunches will be pasta and sauce (except on Wednesday when we have a team lunch), dinners will be easy, my favourite spinach and chickpea dinner, dahl and flatbread with extra vegetables, a vegetable stir fry.DSCF3039 I’m out on Friday but by that point I will have an empty fridge because I made an effort, not much of one, but an effort anyway. Menu planning doesn’t have to be a big deal or major effort, some weeks it’s good to put that work in but other weeks, just do as much as you can, make sure that you have breakfast planned or lunch, it really makes a difference to your day.

 

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Friday Links

Posted on January 20, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I’m tempted to spend the day singing ‘It’s the end of the world’ however, I shall try and maintain a positive attitude despite the fact that an orange maniac is about to take office in the US and Theresa May has comprehensively demonstrated that the UK is screwed up!

Here are this week’s links…

John Lewis, Donald Trump and the meaning of legitimacy

This is about the impact that growing up in a poor neighbourhood in the US does to children’s health and outcomes. And this is why mixed social housing is important and why what’s happening here is going to destroy our society.

The situation is Gambia, reminds me what happens when politicians don’t believe in rules.

I’ve had a complete and utter nightmare with GWR this week. David Mitchell just about sums up why train privatisation doesn’t work.

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Allotment Adventures: Planning for the spring

Posted on January 17, 2017 by nicdempsey

I haven’t been to the allotment yet this year! Every weekend we make plans to go, it pours down with rain and that stops play. Last time I was there it looked pretty bleak. The raspberries have all died back, you can see where I plan to put the shed behind them and I didn’t cover some of the beds which I’m kicking myself about right now.img_5597Last year, I got the plot in May and basically just made it up as I went along. I got herbs and my gifted courgette plants in and then just created space and bunged stuff in the ground as I went along. I was lucky because it mostly went well and there wasn’t too much clearing to do.img_4346This year is more of a challenge for me because I’m trying to plan but I still I have no idea what I’m doing, reading is all very well but I learnt more from doing last year, I’ve drafted and redrafted a plan, mostly I want to grow all the things and that’s a recipe for too many plants and trying to use up 36 courgettes in a week! But Ma and I went to Wilko and made a start (and some impulse buys!).img_5797There are more seeds to buy that I can’t get at Wilko but it’s a brilliant place to start.

Planning for the allotment seems to be falling into two parts, longer term, more permanent planting and building. For me that’s stuff like sorting out a shed, more raised beds, compost heaps and what to do with rubbish now we can’t have bonfires. It’s also the longer term planting like rhubarb, aparagus and a strawberry bed and what to do with more problematic areas of the plot ie whether I’m going to pull up the raspberries, what I’m going to do about the blackcurrant and gooseberry bush at the bottom of the plot (they didn’t produce last year and are weed infested and it might be a better idea to dig them up and put another raised bed in). However, Wilko did give me an idea about my rhubarb issue. Ma and I both love rhubarb and there’s no such thing as too much. We currently have two plants (one moved so we can’t pick from that this year) and I had a plan to buy some crowns next year so form a row at the top of the allotment but Wilko are selling them for £2 so I’ll buy a couple and put them in. If they grow that’s great and it only cost £4, and I’ll get more rhubarb earlier, if not then it’s not a massive outlay and I’m still on track. I will need to do a lot more weeding of this though!img_5461

Wilko also sell asparagus crowns and I’m wondering if I can find some room for a small bed!

The second part of planning is annual plants, what food and flowers I want to grow this year. Assuming nothing terrible happens, we’ll have some rhubarb, plums, raspberries and gooseberries but the annual list is a long one….

the things that we liked last year and want more of are:

salad leaves – we really enjoyed salad last year and the more the better for this year, so I’ve bought mixed red and green salad bowl and a packet of mixed leaved (lollo rossa, lollo bionda, grand rapids and corarde). We’ll also grow spinach (lazio f1, perpetual), wild rocket and lambs lettuce (valentin) for salad and maybe watercress and land cress.img_4631

radish (french breakfast 3, sparkler) because I like them and I didn’t get enough last year!

french beans (ferrari) – we really loved the french beans last year and we’ll probably grow more than one type but this is what we have at the moment

runner beans (scarlet emperor) the runner beans were my thing and they got destroyed by black fly but they were really good while we had them!

herbs (coriander, dill) – I let the coriander and dill go to seed which I’m hoping will come up again, if they don’t I’ll just resow in the same little beds.img_5342tomatoes (Orange banana and Amish paste and some cherry tomatoes as yet undecided). What we got from the tomatoes, we loved, but I have learned from last year, I’m only going to grow cordon varieties for blight prevention!img_4826

cucumber (wautoma, boothby’s blond, minature white) I was given a cucumber plant last year and it grew three cucumbers before it died! but they were really tasty cucumbers! This year we (ok I) want to grow a couple of types because they were amazing and I want to curry favour with Oli, who is a big fan of cucumbers!

courgette (black beauty) – I will confess that 6 courgette plants was too many but we do like courgettes, so I’m going to grow 2 plants this year and give any other plants away!img_4590

carrots – orange (nantes 5) and purple (dragon purple) carrots because I am a child!

sweet peas – last year I bought a set of sweet pea plants from the discount table in homebase, they were amazing. So we’ll have a couple of pyramids of them at the top of the allotment.img_4621peas (hurst green shaft, oregon sugar pod, early onwards) – I want to grow a lot more peas this year and do some sucessional planting too

flowers (nasturtiums, marigolds, california poppy, afgan poppy) we grew all of these last year, the nasturtiums and marigolds as companion plants and the poppies were just there. I saved seeds from the afgans and we’ve had to move the californian poppies so we’ll sow them all again.img_4340

New things that we haven’t grown before:

herbs (borage, parsley, chives, basil) I have some space next to the permanent herbs (rosemary, oregano, sage and thyme) where I’m going to make little beds much like the dill and corriander ones) I’ll also grow some to companion plant with the vegetables.img_5044sweetcorn (incredible f1) – I wasn’t going to grow sweetcorn but got carried away and bought the seeds, maybe I’ll find the space for some three sisters planting!

leeks (lyon prizetaker, blue de solaise winter) I love leeks and would also like to have things to harvest in the winter. So leeks…

cavolo nero – I don’t think I have the patience to grow cabbages but loads of people at the allotments grow it and say it’s easy to grow. So we’ll see!

chard – we planted this a bit late last year so it’s not really grown much, I’ll plant a bit earlier this year!img_4969pak choi – this was a fail last year, now I know to net it to stop the pigeons eating it, I’ll try again

summer squash (summer crookneck, patty pan) some variation from courgettes and good to eat.

winter squash – (butternut – butterfly f1, baby blue hubbard, boston squash)

beetroot – we sowed late last season and they are sitting on the allotment not doing much but Ma loves beetroot so we going for a three, two red (moulin rouge, detroit 2) and a golden (golden touchstone)

potatoes – I really wasn’t going to grow them but there was a variety called ‘Nicola’ so we’re going to grow 5 seed potatoes. Enough for novelty but I’m not going into massive potato consumption because there isn’t enough room on the plot. We may have to grow these in a bucket!

flowers – I would like at some point to have a cutting garden, but I don’t currently have the capacity for planning it. But we bought some dutch irises, my grandma was called Iris because they were flowering in her father’s garden when she was born in May. Seeing as the gardening gene must have come from Grandad Bright, I feel that irises are a must! We also have some wild flower seed to sow and some cosmos (sensation mixed).img_5417

We already have garlic, onions and broad beans planted before Christmas. So all I need to do is buy the rest of the seed, start it off, find room for it, stop it from dying, keep the allotment weed free and buy and build a shed and do all the other stuff. Easy….

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Think Cheerful Thoughts

Posted on January 16, 2017 by nicdempsey

It’s Blue Monday, the unhappiest day of the year. Apparently 2017 blue Monday is set to be the unhappiest yet due to a combination of Brexit uncertainty, Trump’s becoming President at the end of the week and miserable weather adding to our usual January woes…

So today is a day to be nice to yourself and others. I’m going to think about the hopefulness of daffodilsMy lovely nephews who were so delightful on Saturday…And the excitement of a new growing seasonimg_5797I have no plans this week outside of work and sleep. I want to make an extra effort to leave work on time this week and spend an extra 15 minutes on housework, boring but important!

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