Saturday

Matt was up early and off to the shop to get some breakfast, thankfully I don’t have this weakness for food early in the morning so I got to stay in bed. By the time I got up he was already planning for lunch, bacon and egg pie. Sounded pretty good and he had to have another egg (after the 9 in the pie) to brush it with so I had the rest scrambled for breakfast.

The weather was pretty dry outside and I’m keen to get cracking with a few bits and pieces. I know I said last night that we’d concentrate on the important things that need to be done now, however the garden also counts and Matt didn’t seem to be pulling me to do anything else immediately.

First job, the new ‘balcony’ tables. Making extra space on the veranda to put my plants and cleaning up the cold frame.

Second job, the raised planter box – it took 30 seconds but got it out of the dining room. It’s quite deep though so going to need to think about how I use it.

Third job, my new greenhouse. When mum and Tonia came over in October Mum brought over a lovely little temporary greenhouse, for which I was very grateful. It’s not going to be long before I start to try to take over the house with pots, trays and seedlings. It was brilliant fun, I hope Chris had as much fun making theirs as I did. It was like oversized Mechano. No drills or screwdrivers, just click in, I loved it. So much fun, it was like my own personal Krypton Factor!

Meanwhile Matt was clearing a space to put it next to one of the garages. It won’t get any afternoon sun but will get the morning and lunchtime sun, which from my experience here the plants seem to prefer. In doing so he unearthed a small but perfectly sized concrete base. It had a thin layer of scrub and had been overtaken with weeds between the cracks but explains why not much had grown there and was a perfect size. We also had some left over weed matting which should help and the judge had a good look around, seems I passed.

In my mind it was time to start filling up the new greenhouse with trays upon trays of seeds. Matt however reminded me about the ‘important, priority’ jobs, so I was dragged by the ear back into the house.

House job 1, help Matt to rebuild the scaffolding. A simple job, but definitely a two person job. It’s often surprising how many big jobs are reliant on the small things, requiring someone to stand, hold and pass things. Matt is now able to get up there and finally get the last bits of plasterboard up on the outside.

House job 2, Camp – Measure and fit the plasterboard. Chaney – put on the second layer of undercoat.

House job 3, cut the channels into the walls for the electrics to the ceiling to run the lights etc up. This doesn’t seem like something I can help with so I’m off. The weather has changed a bit since I went in but a very light drizzle won’t stop a British gardener, it never stopped Monty.

So first things first, clearing and cleaning the seed trays. Then working through the new seeds to see what should be planted now. There are a few seeds from last year that seem to have escaped the mice (very few) but I don’t recall what they are. The seeds look like little brains. I remember planting some last year because they were so unusual, but still no idea what they are.

Some petunia, Zinnia (F1 Hybrid), Sunflowers (Beauty of Autumn), random 2021 thingys, Poppy seeds. All potted up and ready to go into the new greenhouse.

Matt is still upstairs but looks as though he’s nearly finished doing the channels and is ready for the next step which was running the gaines and wires for the lights.

Since I haven’t been beckoned by the powers that be (Matt), the next thing is to have a look at the vegetable garden. It’s in rather a state and looks abandoned. I’d already made a start on one of the beds that was used for tomatoes last year. The next is bed 1, which housed the sweetcorn, cornichons etc. Both bays had heavy feeders that will have left the soil parched of nitrogen. For a bit of crop rotation these will next be used for the root vegetables (carrots, onions etc) which all need to be in soon(ish).

It was really hard work getting that bay dug over and still plenty more to do with it, rotovating, mulching etc, but despite the drizzle the first part is done. Also a few more big rocks dug up, which is certainly going to be important for root veg.

Feeling back broken it’s time to head in. I need a little sit down before I can do much more.

Matt has already cleaned up upstairs and is cracking on with dinner. Thankfully we still have some more curry so it’s not too much. After a bit of relaxation I decided that we needed a desert, and following my chat with Joan last night about the joys of lemon drizzle cake it seemed only appropriate to make one.

Definitely the right decision. It was lovely. In fact we had seconds. Good thing too as wouldn’t have fitted into Cress’ Haribo box without it, and we don’t have anything else to use as a cake tin.

A little time to relax and unwind before Matt is off to bed and I’m here writing to you. Two episodes of Doctors later I’m still here but finally done and off to bed too.

[5 March 2022]

Sunday

Weather isn’t looking too great again but there are plenty of jobs to be done inside. I’m back into the ensuite to do more painting white. Not the most exciting job but it needs doing, if we don’t get a good flat white the next very expensive colour coat will also look patchy and we don’t want to have to do lots of coats of it.

Matt is working in the pink bathroom getting some more of the behind the scenes work done – running the cabling for the lights, power and underfloor heating (or at least the gaine is in for the heating, the cable will be done later once we have the rest of it in place). Matt also had to take off some metal brackets that used to hold up an old medicine cabinet, I’d like to find a way to reuse that but sadly the original brackets have to go to finish the walls. [Clearly the sparks are still flying in our relationship.]

Next up was getting some more plasterboard on. Obviously he needed some help with this, manoeuvring an almost full sheet of plasterboard up isn’t that easy and certainly needs two people.

Things are coming together but clear that we are going to need to get the top of the wall up quickly too and it’s going to need the scaffolding in there to get it up. Jury is still out as to whether we can get it up as one piece or if we’re going to need to do it in two. The more pieces the more work in taping, joining, sanding etc.

It’s cleared up a bit so I had a tour around the garden between showers to see what was going on. The cherry and japanese quince are definitely coming into full bloom along with a cheeky little helebore.

We’re then off to go and collect a couple of bits I’ve picked up on Facebook Marketplace. If I’d realised quite how far it was to get the first piece I’d probably have planned this better. Unfortunately the second person also hadn’t checked their messages all day so ended up that we didn’t have their full address so bit of a waste really. They got back to me later so hopefully can pick up the wine racks later in the week. Did get some more fuel for the heaters though so that was something, I suppose the other drivers were initially wondering what we were doing parked up in a service station in an electric car.

Clearly purchase #1, the rose, is going to need a clean. I’ve had a go with cotton buds and some isopropyl alcohol but not perfect. I’m going to have to think about this and maybe see what paint brushes I have to really get the dust out of the detail.

Good news for the day was that some of the chillis/peppers appear to be sprouting. We also have some cayenne seeds so best get those planted up quickly today too or they will end up a long way behind. Hopefully they’ll all work and we will have a swath of chillies, you can never have too many!

[6 March 2022]

Monday

Working during the day but there’s still more to be done in the evening. No rest for the wicked they say and so I’m not sure who Matt and I were in a previous life.. Still, we have to get things ready for the plumber to come.

Into the bathroom and we have managed to get the plasterboard up. I then finished the painting of the top part of the wall above where the tiles would go. It’s not completely done but I’ve got all the undercoats finished now.

Next up is the sink units. We need to know where the wastes are going to go and therefore the heights are crucial. A bit of adjustment here and there to get the draw heights to align and we seem to be in business.

[7 March 2022]

Tuesday

Just really busy with work. Managed to finally make time for dinner eventually though. Chilli for us tonight!

[8 March 2022]

Wednesday

Time to take advantage of all the work that we did yesterday and take the morning off to go skiing. Sometimes compromises have to be made and we have been working very hard. Plus it’s a perfect day to get out and make the most of living by slopes.

Back at the house and it’s pretty much t-shirt weather down here. Amazing how much difference a couple of hundred meters of altitude makes. Time to crack on with work and get caught up on the day.

Meow is making me laugh drinking out of the garden bidet, it’s not as though she doesn’t have much nicer and cleaner water in her bowl but she’s odd like that.

After work there was time for a bit more planting. We have plenty of hollyhock seeds knocking around the place so may as well give a few a go. The ones we had last year were pretty spectacular.

The other job is to get the pipework done to fill the water tank, no point waiting till summer and we don’t have any rain. I wonder how long it will take to fill?! Back into the house and Matt has some more work to do to get the board secured for the bath taps.

That’s enough for one day. Time to have dinner and a sit down, we’ve been pretty busy.

[9 March 2022]

Thursday

Busy working. Matt and the cat clearly have a thing for each other though.

[10 March 2022]