I’ve been absent from this space for a while (so much for using it for accountability!) but not absent from being thankful. In no particular order here are some of the things I’ve been thankful for over the last few weeks
Family
We’re not the physically closest family in the world! I see Ma a lot and we all talk fairly regularly but we do get together for birthdays. This month we did lunch for Ben’s birthday, we’re do it again at the beginning of December for Ma’s birthday. It’s nice to spend time with each other (and to see the dog!)
Home
I’m not properly done sorting out the flat post building work but I do love my little flat and I’m so thankful to have a place that’s safe and secure.
A new coat
I finally found a light coat that’s just right for autumn and that’s smart enough for going into the office.
Violas
I bought 12 viola plugs for £4.99 in the summer and they have been a joy, a bright spot in autumn, and I need that.
Community
I’m not a terribly social person but I’m so very glad that 15-ish years ago, I decided to go to Grace. While I find belief in God easy, church and community can be difficult, I’m grateful that I have a place I can do both. Grace is 30 next month, it’s weird to think I’ve been involved on and off for half of its life.
Nice bedding
It’s well known that I love my bed. This year, upgraded my bedding and it’s been lovely because it’s wearing so well. It’s more money than I have ever spent on sheets and duvet covers but it’s been so worth it. Also changing your bed weekly is one of the best gifts you can give yourself, because sleeping in clean sheets is amazing!
Baths
I’m back into my autumn/winter routine of being in the bath for at least 20 minutes a night before I go to bed. While the amount of time I have to spend cleaning the bath is not fun, I’m enjoying the time and space it gives me and hoping that eventually the relaxation will kick in and it’ll help me sleep
Last week I wrote a Friday Links post but then decided not to post. Because I wrote in anger after a discussion about the situation in Gaza. My basic point was that I can be horrified by what Hamas did at the beginning of the month AND I can also be horrified by what Israel are doing in Gaza.
I’m going to be candid, Israel was built on the back of two catastrophes. One, the ‘Shoah’ was done to them, the other, the ‘Nabka’ they did to others. I could also point out that the Israeli state came to being with terrorism (look up the Stern Gang – see where some of its leaders ended up) and one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. None of that is an excuse or a justification for killing 1300 Israelis. However, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is context, it’s ridiculous to think otherwise. I think we should also be clear that if we were Palestinians being treated as they are, we would probably also feel that we had good reason for what Hamas did. It’s not right, it’s human.
Frankly, I hold Israel to a higher standard because they have all the power here and they claim that they are more moral than Hamas, while they commit war crimes. 1300 Israelis and over 5000 Palestinians. You can argue that Israel doesn’t mean to kill anyone but people are dying anyway. Are Palestinian lives worth less than Israeli ones?
You will also note that I’m not using words like Jews and Muslims because I recognise that there are people on both sides decrying the actions of their ‘leaders’ Israelis speaking out again the bombing in Gaza and Palestinians speaking out against Hamas. If an elderly Israeli hostage can wish peace on her captives. Everyone in this conflict can try a bit harder to think, to not react with rage and just stop for five minutes.
Here are this weeks links, some of them are older…
It has been really difficult this month to find the time for the plot. Ma is on an every other week cycle and I’m busy and tired and autumnal so it’s hard.
However, I am determined to get the plot in good shape over the next couple of months so we can kick off in spring on the right foot.
So we’ve cleared most of the tomato beds and one of the polytunnel beds. We planted the garlic, in two beds outdoors and I’ve planted the other 17 or so cloves in the polytunnel bed. One of the tomato beds has had chive plants growing in it and I’ve left them in and planted violas and primroses as well as some plants that I know won’t survive the winter! It’ll look pretty until I need the bed in the spring! The brassicas are dealing with a massive whitefly invasion, it’s seen off all of the red cabbages and the red Russian kale in one of the beds. My plan for that is to clear it and maybe plant some broad beans instead. I bought some more kale plants and put them in the poly so we have about 20-ish kale plants, they are very small at the moment but we like kale, I can make pesto with it and surprisingly, it’s a veg that I can always give away at work!
Garlic bed one
We had a frost at the beginning of last week and I took a quick early Monday morning trip to the plot to rescue the winter squash and dig up the sweet potatoes. This year has been the best yet for sweet potatoes, we got just over 2 kg of them and some of them were a really good size. This is certainly the best harvest we’ve had so we’ll do them again next year and hope for better weather. The winter squash haul wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great either. Some of that could be weed pressure, one of those beds is over run (it wasn’t that great on the sweet potato bed either. I have a plan for that for next year. I’m going to weed them, top them up and cover with black plastic and plant through it. For the paths around the squash beds, we’re going to weed and I’m going to lay down weed fabric (I have a load of it that my sister in law gave us when she gave up her plot). It’s not my preferred method but I can’t keep it all the paths weeded and this will reduce the pressure. Down the side of the squash bed nearest the path, I’m going to lay down weed fabric and plant sunflowers. They look pretty and it’ll give the beans something to climb up!
The overrun squash bed, last month, it looks worse now!
Last weekend, I was planning to pull up the peppers in the poly but they look really good so I’m going to give them a bit longer. My plan was to plant that bed up with lettuces, chard, mustards, rocket and so on, we’ll see if that happens!
Chard and garlic bed in the poly. The plants in the corners are vietnamese coriander and lemon verbena.
This weekend I started to tidy up. After clearing the summer squash beds at the front, (the frost had done their work) I planted the three blackberry bushes in one of the beds. They haven’t done well in pots and so I decided to put the blackberries in there and see what happens. We do have a plan to move the other square bed right at the front and use that area for the strawberry towers! I also cleared the ‘widows and orphans’ bed of squash and tomatoes and cut down the tomatoes on the grow bag. There was thyme self-seeding in the rings so I planted them up, if they grow great, free plants and if not, I’ve lost nothing!
New blackberry bed
We also harvested the last of the potatoes (1.6kg), two cabbages, and some beetroot. Not bad for October! (Ma took home, winter squash, some last patty pans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beetroot and a cabbage. I’m happy with the harvests we’ve had in a bad year!)
Cabbages!
After Ma cut up all the squash into the compost bin, she started to sort out the strawberry towers. We’ve lost some we also have some runners, so it was a case of trimming the dead leaves, making sure each layer had three plants and topping up the compost. We’ve lost some plants but with the runners we’ve broken even. For year two of my grand plan, we need 24 new plants and eight new planters. I’ve ordered 30 bare root plants and I need to order two more sets of planters. Maybe next year, we’ll have enough runners that I don’t have to buy more plants!
Meanwhile, I started to weed the front of the plot. From the front to the gooseberries all weeded and then I planted all the plants that have been waiting patiently! Comfrey and sage went at the front corner where I dug up the poorly performing rhubarb at the beginning of the year. I then covered with cardboard and compost.
A tidier rhubarb corner
The camomile lawn (six plants) and thyme were planted around the bed that the blackberries were in. I’m hoping that it’ll spread and help keep the weeds down! The lavender (Provence) went on the corners of the flower bed and blackberry bed and the roman camomile went in with the other one I planted out a couple of weeks ago. I know it’s a lot but apparently, I’m a maximalist in the garden and it could be drugs!
There is a heap of things to do and in no particular order:
Paint the shed
Tidy the shed and the polytunnel
Prune the jasmine and give it some better support
Clear and cover rest of the beds
Weed and woodchip under the plum tree
Grease band the plum tree
Trim the grass paths on the right
Weed, woodchip and prune the gooseberry bushes
Weed, woodchip and prune the blackcurrant bushes
Weed, clear and mulch the herb beds (that was the first bed I planted, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage – there’s also a lemon verbena and some chives but there are also herbs everywhere on the plot!)
Weed, clear and mulch the wild area in the middle
Weed top up the sweet potato bed and hot boxes
Trim the lavender, oregano and rosemary bushes
Sort out the rose bushes
Weed, tidy and mulch the iris, rose and pond gardens
Weed, cover and woodchip the paths around the squash beds
Weed, top up and cover the squash beds
Weed and mulch the pink and white bed at the back
Sort out the boysenberry bed
Tidy up the back paths and sort out the weed bin that you’ve been composting
Turn the compost
Slug nematodes for the polytunnel – which is slug and snail heaven at the moment.
Sort out support for the raspberries and
Next week, I need to get the Halloween stuff out for the pumpkin walk and maybe, I’ll get to that pesky grass under the plum tree.
So much to do, I don’t want to do very little and then panic in March, I’ll like to be pretty much there by the end of January, because by that point, I’ll be planting onions, alpine strawberries, aubergines and peppers and getting ready for the next season…
I’ve been away. There was some peri-menopausal illness, three very busy weeks at work (that’s not going to change this side of Christmas!), some adjustment to the fact that it’s dark a lot of the day and the lifeness of life.
At the beginning of the month, I read a post by Sarah which mentioned the theory (attributed to Norah Roberts) about when you have too many balls to juggle you have to decide which are glass and which are plastic. This space is plastic, my health, my work, my family they are glass and so I put this ball down while I tried to manage the glass balls of my life.
So that’s where I’ve been, working and getting to grips with the new parts of my job (which I am sort of enjoying and will enjoy more, when I have more control!), sleeping, organising myself a bit better, seeing my family, you know life.
Other than the usual, we did family lunch for my brother’s birthday. It was lovely, the dog is still my favourite (even though he can’t be trusted around food of any sort!)
I’m working on getting the plot tidy, and next week is the Pumpkin Walk, which is already sold out!
This week is busy, four days work and one day off for a haircut. There’s a Grace dinner tonight and everything else is all about work and sleep. I’ve come down with my usual autumn tiredness, although at this point, if I’m not tired, I think I’m sick!
I’ve always said that I don’t have curly hair, its mostly straight and just rebellious in places!
Menopause is changing that a bit, which I was expecting because Ma’s has got curlier in spots too.
The first thing I did was talk to Jane, who cut my hair so that it curled more easily (it may have been layers but it’s not obvious when it’s straight
Post haircut selfie
There are hundreds of products out there, so I started with cheap and easily available Umberto Gianni range, and no it’s not really cheap but you don’t need to use loads so they do last, and tried lots of different methods.
I have myself in a routine now. I haven’t changed my shampoo and conditioner either. So after I’ve washed my hair, I briefly put it up in a towel. Then I brush it out and use the curl cream. Once that’s brushed through, I add the hair gel and scrunch, followed by the mousse and scrunch. Then I let it dry, at the moment that takes about 5 hours (I’m going to need a diffuser in the winter)
When it’s mostly dry, I scrunch again so my hair isn’t crispy.
That’s pretty much it for product. I can’t not brush my hair, it just gets too knotted, so if I’m sticking with the curly, I brush it with a wet brush and that’s usually enough to reactivate the curl.
Last night, I admitted defeat and set up the light lamp. It made this morning slightly less traumatic, although it didn’t make me any happier about it!
Last week felt really busy and this week isn’t going to be any less busy. Back in July, I mentioned that July seems to be a point of the year where my work life goes haywire. That was true this year and usually by this point I’ve rallied and the volume of work has decreased. This year, my understanding has increased but the workload has not.
We’re all busy and because the only unchanging thing in my professional life is that ‘change is constant’, it’s going to be a roller coaster from now until Christmas.
From a personal point of view, it’s probably not a bad thing. I like to get things done, so having a big old target and needing to produce isn’t the worst thing as I head into wanting to hibernate for the winter.
This month, it’s my brother’s birthday, the Pumpkin Walk at the allotments at the end of the year. More generally, as we head towards Christmas, there’s lots going on, which can only be a good thing!
It’s been another really depressing news week. A 15 year old got stabbed (boys are afraid girls will reject them, girls are afraid boys will kill them), Suella Braverman thinks all refugees and immigrants liars and criminals, which given that both of her parents are immigrants says something and none of it good. Rishi Sunak is going to abolish inheritance tax and not finish HS2 and we’re opening a new oil field because apparently what the world needs now is more carbon. Modern life is indeed rubbish…
Ok so I missed last weekend’s exercise and thankful posts so here they are.
Exercise
The aim was:
Three days of yoga
10,000 steps a day
1 set of the following each day, 20 squats, 20 sit ups and 20 press ups.
I didn’t manage the steps but did everything else and I’m going to do the same thing this week.
Thankful – Week Three
The bounty of the allotment. It’s not just the produce, it’s the exercise, the conversations I have when I’m on the plot. It makes my world bigger, I have outdoor space and as I go into winter, the plot gives me a focus beyond that. The rest of winter is great, I know but even as my brain shuts down a bit, part of me is planning for next season. Gardening is a profoundly optimistic hobby and my brain really needs that.
My Kitchen Aid was the best birthday present ever, I love it and I use it…
Last week, marked six years since I was made redundant. I wasn’t happy or sure what was going to happen, but with the hindsight of 6 years, it was the best thing ever. I tempted for a while and then in May 2018, started at Quilter. I don’t do the job that I was initially employed to do but it is a measure of the company that they saw what I could do and kept me on. That has continued and I enjoy my work so much more that I ever thought that I would enjoy work. Turns out, it wasn’t me, it was them and I’m so thankful for all the changes that it brought and for the company I find myself working at.
Ma and I have decided that allotment work is best tackled in the morning. If we get up and go straight to the plot and work to about noon, we are, or at least we feel, far more productive.
Still getting the odd strawberry
Ma picked raspberries and trimmed the winter savoury and thyme. She also fell over and managed to completely destroy a pot that had a blueberry in it. No-one believes me but even when I give her sitting down jobs, she falls over!
She must have hit it at just the right spot.
Fortunately, I had a spare and my allotment neighbour and I re-pottted it!
I picked tomatoes and took a bunch of the plants that were done or too blighted down. Which led to me, weeding the beds and tackling the sides of the beds at the front again. I wanted to get the plants that were languishing in the poly, into the ground so I combined the projects.
I cut the grass down, weeded, planted, laid cardboard around and covered in woodchip.
Tidier
Down the sides, I planted corsican mint and thyme, I had a pinnata lavender in a pot that has not been doing well, especially when compared to its twin, which I planted into the ground and is romping away, so that went in. I had a free bbq rosemary from Urban Herbs that needed a home and last year I’d planted another at the front corner of the plot and it survived but wasn’t thriving, so I took it out and put both of them in front of a bed on this run. The last space was taken by a roman camomile.
Little rosemary plants
Finally, I planted out some camomile lawn by the patio.
I have some more plants arriving this week and I have some comfrey that needs planting out. So my plan for this weekend is to tidy under the plum tree and at the front. The comfrey is going in the weedy corner that the rosemary was in (after I’ve weeded!) and I’ll add some manure to feed the rhubarbs. If there is any wood chip left, I’ll use it to mulch that area.
I think that’ll be it for this week but Ma is back the week after and I really need to sort out the strawberry runners, re-set the front poly tunnel bed for autumn/winter and clear the tomato beds. We may, if they arrive by then, plant the garlic.
the wild pond area
For October and November, I need to clear and cover beds we’re not going to use, tidy and clear the paths on the other side of the plot and do the same to all the beds on that side of the plot (gooseberries, wild area, iris garden, rose garden, pond, squash beds and the pink and white bed and boysenberry. You can really see that I don’t walk the path on this side and it’s unruly. Yes, I do love unruly but not that much, it needs work and it’s going to be my focus for the winter.
this is a couple of weeks ago and the bed is in a right state..
Well I completely dropped the ball for the blog over the weekend. Last week was busy and I was a bit ill. I think it’s probably a combination of antibiotics and something I ate but out of nowhere on Tuesday night, I was violently sick. Which meant I didn’t sleep much that night and WFH and in the office on Friday, I had to go to Fulham for a flu jab so was halfway into work anyway! Work has been and is busy and by the weekend I was just stupid tired.
Sunday was an allotment day and the NHS fitted in Ma’s second cataract operation for yesterday. So I went back with Ma on Sunday afternoon and stayed until last night. Everyone is very happy that Ma’s eyes are done, and when her pupil stops being quite so dilated (seriously right now one of her eyes looks like she’s been on all the good drugs!) and she has some reading glasses (not being able to read or do codewords would be a tragedy for her), she’ll be golden!
All of this to explain that I’m not quite up to speed on other aspects of my life right now!
This week is you may have guessed going to be focussed on working and trying to get my home life more under control. At the moment, I need to really nail down all housework and food prep on the weekend because it’s just not going to happen Monday to Friday, I’m too tired after work and as it gets darker, I’ll just lose all motivation to do anything.
Nic Dempsey 