Monday Miscellany: May Day

Posted on May 1, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday and welcome to May.

If you are in the UK and have a job that doesn’t require working on Bank Holidays, happy three day weekend. If you don’t fall into this category, I’m sorry, I hope it’s a quiet, easy work day or you’re being paid double time.

I start this week with the joyous prospect of no more builders. The floor was done last week and I’ve unpacked. There were some kinks, the bookshelves no longer fit perfectly in the alcove so I had to be an emergency book edit and I do need to take several bags of books to the charity shop! I did quite a bit of decluttering when we were packing the room up and I worked to put things I couldn’t declutter in away, so it all looks tidy and lovely.

Everything left to do is for me, it’s mostly about putting pictures back on walls and shelves up. I did some of that, and I finally got around to repotting my spider plants and did all the indoor sowing for the allotment too.

It was also (for me) quite a social week. I was out on Tuesday night for Ping Pong and Pizza with some of the team at work. It was fun and the Elizabeth Line was a marvel, I was in Shoreditch at 9pm but home at 9.50pm. When it works it’s quick! I took a day off on Friday, to spend some time with Christelle and it was lovely to have time, when we’re not completely exhausted from a working week (middle aged problems!).

Aside from a migraine on Thursday, it was a good week.

This week is another four day work week (followed by another – May is a great month!). Work is getting busier, so I’m going to spend today catching up with housework and prep for the weekend, I may sort out some more photos and take some more compost to the plot. There are no major plans for next week, I’m mostly going to be working and avoided the cunting bunting and coronation nonsense, I will not be volunteering or pledging allegiance. I will probably go to Ma’s because she has a DIY list, so I need to start working my way through that!

Have a good week!

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Friday Links: Everything is terrible

Posted on April 28, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

It’s been a while and everything sucks, here are this week’s links

‘Losing your home is a massive thing’: how the climate crisis came to Norfolk

‘They are men … they do nothing’: inside the home lives of women around the world

Mount of Olives becomes latest target in fight for control of Jerusalem

‘Identify how you want to identify, and God bless you!’: Michael Bublé on fans, faith and fitting in

They wield huge power over your day-to-day life, without consent or oversight. Who are they? Asset managers

I’m young but have no interest in the British cult of home ownership. I just want renting to be fair

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Allotment Adventures: Things in the ground and a wonky patio

Posted on April 27, 2023 by nicdempsey

Over the last few years, I’ve come to realise that nothing is ever finished, especially on the plot and particularly when we are getting big things done.

This weekend is a great example of that. We had a really good day on the plot but the list of things we still need to do is massive.

We started with planting the second early potatoes, which we planted in a bed this year. I did this back in 2020 because I couldn’t get the pots we needed. Last autumn, we up-potted the blueberries into the pots we used for the potatoes so we needed to get some more if we wanted to do them all in pots. Because we lost all the broad beans over the winter, we had a spare bed and we decided to save money and compost by using that bed. We have less maincrop potatoes and they’ll go into the pots we already have and after we moved the blueberries into their summer positions, we got those out reading for planting the main crops next week.

We sowed carrots, peas, beetroot and, in the polytunnel, radishes and lettuce. We also sowed the leftover beetroot seed in modules, for popping into gaps in planting later on, I want to try and do that a bit more with beetroot, beans, chard and herbs this year. We potted up the samphire and gave it a salt water bath. It’s looking a bit sad but there appears to be lots of new growth coming through. Ma watered and fed the blueberries.

New carrot bed

We dug up the last of the parsnips and leeks, and I got some salad and rocket from the polytunnel.

Then I got cocky and decided that it was time to lay the patio. I know there is a way to do this, I didn’t follow any of those directions! I need some more sand to finish the front three slabs but it’s down.

As you can see it’s better at the back than the front!

The last thing we did was feed the birds!

Assuming that it doesn’t take too long to unpack the living room, we’ll have two days next weekend and I have a worklist!

  • Get all the compost to the plot
  • Weed and top up all empty beds
  • Sow spinach and other salad next to shallots and in ex parsnip bed
  • Sow parsnips
  • Apply ant nematodes to polytunnel, blueberries and bulb beds
  • Module sowing for poly – brussels, kale, cabbages, cauliflower, parsley, basil, coriander, flowers
  • Module sowing for indoors – tomatoes and melons
  • Paint the shed
  • Tidy the shed
  • Net the gooseberries
  • Put up the poles for netting the blueberries
  • Finish weeding the front of the plot and shed
  • Trim the grass in the bulb bed
  • Strim the grass path
  • Weed the paths and top up with woodchip if there is any available
  • Finish weeding the pond area, rose garden and iris bed
  • Mulch the pond area, rose garden and iris bed
  • Join the rose garden to the iris bed and plant out the area
  • Plant out the herbs from Urban Herbs
  • Finish the patio
  • Set up the arches for bean planting
  • Turn the compost bin

I doubt I’ll get half of it done, but I can try!

The poorly samphire
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Monday Miscellany: Heavy Lifting

Posted on April 24, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

For the amount of grumpiness I have, I actually consider myself to be a pretty happy person. I have reached a age where I don’t really care what others think about my choices and honestly, I view being this age as a privilege rather than a problem (I have one grandparent and one parent that made it past 53, and I’m already older than my Grandma Iris was when she died!). However, there is one thing I’m not enjoying about this age, and that’s peri menopause, because it sucks and because one of the things I seem to be experiencing with it, is cystitis, which is what happened last week and was horrible and more debilitating than I remember…

So most of last week was not good, I worked from home for 4 days and took my antibiotics and didn’t drink coffee, alcohol or fizzy drinks and generally felt like pants!

By Friday, things were looking up, which was good because there was so much to do over the weekend. There was allotmenting and emptying the living room of most of its contents so the floor can be laid on Wednesday.

Empty-ish living room
Full bedroom

It was a productive weekend but I think it involved too much lifting heavy things for a woman of my age and fitness level, I’m shattered!

This week I have four days of work and Friday off to see Christelle, which also, thanks to the Bank Holiday gives me a four day weekend. In fact, the rest of the month is mostly going to four day weeks, next week and the week after due to the Bank Holidays, then I have a week off and one full five day week and another Bank Holiday! Looking at what’s happening with work, I was planning for this to be a quiet month before things really started to kick off but I’ll be covering for a colleague for this week and maybe some more of the month, so my busy period starts now…

Have a good week…

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Allotment Adventures: Weeding, Wheelbarrows and Rain

Posted on April 19, 2023 by nicdempsey

It feels like it’s been ages since I had a post about the plot where we made any progress but over Easter and last weekend, I feel like we’re beginning to make progress.

There has been a lot of tidying, Ma cut down the bonariensis, tidied up the mint and given the rosemary a haircut.

I’ve cleared the polytunnel, topped up the back bed, and watered the beds hard. The soil is really dry and we found a bunch of ants (the bitey kind) under some pots. So the action plan is to soak the path and beds in anti ant nematodes (which I also need to do for the blueberries). I’m not anti ants but I’m pretty sure that the bite reactions I get are because of the ants and I really don’t enjoy them!).

So the back bed is ready for sowing radishes, salad leaves and spinach, later this week or at the weekend, then at the end of May, it’ll be home to the peppers and aubergines. We also have a potato plant and I think a stray garlic in that bed (which I’ve left to do their thing). The other bed has chard, lettuce and parsley in it we’ll get what we can out of them until the cucumbers and melons are ready to go in in a month or so.

I really had to tackle the stray raspberries coming up everywhere except their beds. I found them in the shallots, the blackcurrants, all around the blueberry plots, the herb bed, and main amongst the irises and sage.

Raspberries straying from their bed into the sage

In ‘things that should have been moved in January but weren’t’, I moved the raspberry bed to the back of the plot and gave a bunch of canes away to all takers. The plan is for another blackcurrant where the raspberries used to be. I moved the raised bed that was ‘containing’ the raspberries to next to the gooseberries, we’re going to fill that bed up and it’s where the sweet potatoes are going this year.

New position for the raspberries

I’ve also moved the one of the rhubarb plants. The one in the corner of the plot by the path hasn’t been doing well, so up it came. In its place is a bbq rosemary from Urban Herbs, it’s been in the polytunnel over winter and in need of a home. To move the rhubarb involved weeding the ridiculously over grown grass at the front of the plot, the bulb bed is seriously overwhelmed with grass and as it turns out red ants! The grass in the bulb bed and under the tree is going to take more work because it’s hard to sort out what’s grass and what’s bulb leaves!

This is not the rhubarb I moved, I did weed all around it though!

The rhubarb crown split apart so I have four little rhubarbs I’ve potted up and they can be donated to the allotment plant sale in the summer. We also set up the tables behind the polytunnel for potting and plant storage. In addition to the rhubarb, there are some leeks, three thyme plants, some chamomile (roman and lawn), lemon bergamot, lemon verbena, two lavenders (pinnata). I have a plan for most of this, I just have to execute the plan, hopefully next weekend

I have a lot of planting to do.

I also planted a vietnamese coriander in the polytunnel, and a tree spinach and chamomile in the wild area.

It was busy but I still have a ton of work to do but I feel like I might be breaking the back of it. Priorities for next week are getting some beds topped up with compost so we can plant the potatoes and sow carrots, peas, beetroot, spinach and salad (yes I’m very behind – haven’t even sown tomatoes yet!).

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Miscellany: Mid way through April

Posted on April 17, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

It’s been a while. I’ve been struggling a bit recently, it’s post COVID, it’s living in a mess (because the building stuff isn’t entirely finished, yes I know it’s been nearly 3 months but we’re not finished with the snagging and the living room floor isn’t done, and thus the flat is not entirely unpacked), it’s work and age and all sorts of other things, including me being bone idle. When I’m struggling, there are things that just don’t get thought of and this space is one of them.

On the plus side is that the flat is more or less under control (unpacked boxes aside) and I’m also more or less on top of laundry, cooking and washing up!

I’m gradually getting to the things that do need sorting, putting things back on walls and arranging where things should fit. Over Easter, Ma helped me move some things about. I have a herb shelf outside the front door now! This coming weekend, I have to pack and declutter the living room so the flooring can be done next week. Assuming that’s done and the last of the kitchen things get sorted out, I’ll be in a much better place by May!

Then I can start worrying about all the things I need to do at the plot!

Home and mental health aside, the last couple of weeks have felt busy. Although by any objective measure, they aren’t that busy. I was tidying my desk last week and found a card that said ‘you know you’re old, when the bins go out more than you do’ which is about right.

Therefore last week, when I went out for a haircut on Friday and Ma and I went to see Dancing at Lughnasa at the National Theatre on Saturday AND I got to use my first aid training by stopping Ma from choking, felt very busy! The play was great but so very sad in a very Irish way.

This week is more sedate, work, hopefully getting the electrician to finish the snagging on the kitchen, I have two fridge freezers and I’d really like to be able to use both of them at the same time!

Have a good week!

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Sunday Music: Blue Monday – Orkestra Obsolete

Posted on April 16, 2023 by nicdempsey

This came via Sarah Rundle and it is marvellous

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Monday Miscellany: COVID recovery

Posted on March 27, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

It’s been a while, COVID knocked me on my behind and it’s taken a couple of weeks to recover. I had a a week and a bit of feeling like I should be fine, but being quite snotty, coughing and being completely exhausted. I was working but also going to bed at 8pm and sleeping for 10 hours.

It’s looking a bit more finished than this now

I did manage to work and do a couple of other things, there was a smear test. Unpleasant, but five minutes of embarrassed discomfort every three years is better than months of chemo or death. Yes, that is quite dramatic, but I’ve had abnormal cells detected and laser treatment and Ma has had abnormal cells and a cone biopsy. So why take a chance?

This is also why, when they call me in for a mammogram sometime after I turn 50, I’ll have the damn thing, I probably won’t enjoy it but if NICE says I should have it, this is how you mitigate risk. Go and do your health tests!

Ma and I spent a day putting together the wardrobe and the storage thingie I’d bought for the bedroom. The wardrobe is great, the storage unit is also great but not for the space. I want you to know I did measure and it does fit. It just doesn’t look right.

We have a plan, it will look brilliant in the kitchen and provide some much needed storage (yes I know it’s a new kitchen and there are more cupboards but you never have enough!) and the white cupboard can move into there. However, neither of us were up to that, I think that’s an Easter project! For now, things are slightly more tidy but I’m still waiting for a date for the living room floor and the snagging. The building team that did my kitchen have just had a team member die, so I’m not expecting it to be soon and I’m more or less resigned to it taking some time before the flat will be sorted. Slow and steady is the mantra, it’ll take some time to sort out. My only concern is seedlings as we’re in prime sowing time.

I did have a bit of meltdown on Monday, when I discovered that one of my new fridge freezers wasn’t working, it under warranty and I have a spare but it would have been a disaster if I hadn’t as they aren’t coming to fix it until this coming Tuesday. Then the washing machine had a blockage, it’s an easy fix it but the floor got an unexpected clean while I did it. Not to self, you need to check the drain regularly when the washing machine is off…

I started to feel better towards the end of last week, which was good, I saw Jo and Miss T on Tuesday, we when to the Science Museum and Jo and I tortured the 13 year old by being middle aged, I think there were some complaints about the nagging being in stereo! When your parent and godmother met in history and politics A level classes, it’s foolish to put them in a museum with an exhibition about the history of scientific instrument making in London and expect them not to read everything! I am completely unapologetic about it too, which poor T finds trying!

Tall godchild and shrimpy friend

Ma and I also went to Shefford for a belated Mother’s Day, early birthday celebration for Laura and to see the result of their building work, which was absolutely amazing!

Barney, my favourite nephew!

That’s pretty much been all the fun for the last couple of weeks. This week is busy. I’m in the office four days and one of those days is in Southampton. I also have all sort of exciting things arriving on Tuesday and I really need to get to grips with a routine at home that involves more office days. However, we’ve passed the vernal equinox and the clocks went forward so spring is springing and my brain is waking up…it’s about damn time!

Have a good week!

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Allotment Adventures: Hello Old Friend

Posted on March 23, 2023 by nicdempsey

It’s been a while but we got back to the plot on Saturday and there are flowers growing and things coming back to life but the weeds are trying to take over, so the aim of Saturday was to start getting it back under control.

We stared with some harvesting, kale, brussels and turnips. Ma cleared all the beds at the front, while I started weeding at the back.

Anenomies

When all the beds were weed free. We moved on to tidying up other areas. I started work on the pond area and rose garden, which was in danger of being overwhelmed with grass and other weeds and Ma started to cut back the verbena in the middle of the plot.

A lot tidier

It doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but it was and four hours later, we decided to stop weeding and I wrestled some parsnips from the ground and then we when home. I moving forward, I’m going to cover more of the soil with plants I want. In the pond area, I want to plant more thyme and camomile lawn to cover that soil. I think the saying is that the earth is modest and it will cover itself if you don’t! Once this area is weeded it’ll need a mulch with compost. I’ve been doing this since we first set up the rose garden and pond area and it has really improved the soil so I’m going to carry on doing it!

Loads more to do

Next week’s tasks are more tidying up. On Ma’s list is finishing with cutting back the verbena, weeding the mint bath, and cutting back the rosemary. On mine, finishing the rose garden weeding, getting the iris bed weeded. Then weeding around the gooseberries and ‘wild area’. If there is any time left, I want to stick the woefully late to be planted tulip bulbs in the ground, moving the raspberries and creating the new bed next to the gooseberries.

We have extra days on the plot over Easter, so that’s time to plant up potatoes, lay the paving stones and clear the polytunnel. We might even start sowing things, but the plot is about two to three weeks behind where it usually is, I’m trying to be relaxed about feeling behind! The first plot inspections of the year are in April, so I want to be caught up before then!

The beds are ready for new compost and sowing

Off the plot, this week is the week to order compost – yes it’s that time of year! It’ll be delivered on Tuesday, all 2,100 litres of it (that’s 42 bags). I’m hopeful that it’ll be enough for the year, it should top up the beds and mulch the pond and rose garden. I will need to buy seed starting compost separately but I’m hopeful that we’ll be done after that.

Narcissi and grass, lots of grass that needs to be weeded

The other decision I made this week, was to buy aubergine and pepper plants for the polytunnel. I still haven’t set up my seed starting yet and the living room is going to have to be packed and unpacked for the new floor and there isn’t space anywhere else in the flat. The other plants for summer can wait until later in April but the aubergine and peppers are new to me and they need a long season which I can’t provide. I’ve ordered 6 peppers (Big Ben and Hamik), 3 chilli peppers (Jalapeno) and three aubergine (Moneymaker) plants from DT Brown, for the polytunnel bed. Yes, I am a child and I did order the big ben peppers because my brother is called Ben. They’ll arrive in May.

Lots of work to do but it’s spring, it’s only going to get busier.

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Monday Miscellany: Sick

Posted on March 13, 2023 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

Well, it’s been a week! On Friday 3rd March, I came home, to a kitchen that still wasn’t finished and the cold that had been threatening all week making itself felt.

Reader, it wasn’t a cold it was COVID. Add to the list of things I don’t recommend happening to you at all, let alone when your flat looks like a tip and you don’t have a finished kitchen! I spent the best part of five days in bed, while the decorator was finishing the kitchen. That was finished on Wednesday.

I also managed to give it to Mum, which was just perfect, my friends are wonderful though, offers of food and shopping were immense, I’m very lucky.

On Thursday, I was back WFH in the ruins of the flat, sounding worse than I felt, but testing negative. Over the weekend, Ma and I have done some unpacking, there is more work to do, on Wednesday, some bedroom furniture arrives and I can finish.

Then before the end of the month, I need to clear out the living room for the flooring in there to be done and then that should be it for work to the flat for at least another 13 years!

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