Thursday

An early start to the day with meetings. Before I started I realised it could be a very warm day so went to open the greenhouse, only to find that the whole shelf of seedlings had somehow been thrown off and were upside down on the floor. Unfortunately I had no time to do anything about it so in for my first meeting.

After the first couple of meetings I could finally get out and sort out the mess. I was quickly back inside to get my gloves though as there was a huge slug in one of the containers… blergh! A couple of the seedlings had been taken out but not too bad and I managed to find few that might recover. So I repotted and can just hope that the rest don’t go the same way.

After a few more emails and having had a pretty torrid week, I remembered that I only work a 4 day week and I have definitely felt that I have done my share this week, they can’t have every bank holiday. So I took part of the day at least.

I put all the seedlings from the windowsills out in the sun and saw that the sunflowers were well overdue for potting up. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while clearly. Out in the sun myself it seems that it’s time to get the crop top back on and whip out the sunscreen.

Just as I finished Matt came to collect me for a run to Luchon to get the metal work for the first part of the insulation on the first floor. It was a pretty quick run down and back, and since we’ve gone for the 3.2m (the top is 3.3 but will be under the dropped ceiling) we don’t need to test Matt’s new trailer contraption.

Back at the house and Matt has a call so I head back to the garden (after checking emails). Definitely some more work to be done out here. Thankfully, I’m pretty single minded and managed to get it finished just before my 16:30 call (I dragged Rhys along too just to make myself feel better that I had to work late at the start of the bank holiday – thanks Rhys!)

When I finished up my call Matt was on another. I was feeling impatient however to show him how brilliant I was, so after about 5 mins of sitting still trying to watch birds on the feeder (and the birds evading me) I decided there was only one thing for it. Wash the car!

Still no Matt and no birds though. Eventually, Matt finished. He was particularly underwhelmed, but then he’s rarely blown over. He did however come to help finish sticking things back together (with a hammer and even more tape). But the cold frame is back mostly in one piece – although it may be a bit wonky and covered in tape. Hopefully it will do, it better had as I’ve filled it pretty quickly.

This has however now created space on the windowsills in the house so must be time for more seeds, yay!

Time for dinner and to try to drag Matt away from work. I’m glad he’d enjoying what he’s doing but it’s the start of a long bank holiday and he’s still working! Finally he stops so before bed I force him to edit the blog entry so you all get something to read for easter.

Now he’s off to bed it’s more updates for me before I follow.

[14 April 2022]

Good Friday

It’s definitely a day to potter about in the garden, oh wait, if I had my way that would be every day. I look forward to retirement and just pottering about the garden from the first signs of spring to early winter, I wonder what I’d do over winter, maybe just hibernate.

Matt has finally fitted the jacket onto the water butt. In case you’re interested, the idea is that the jacket helps to reduce to growth of algae and other micro-organisms in the standing water. More pressing however is the need to fix the tyre on my wheelbarrow. It’s been duff for ages and while blowing it up works for a few minutes it doesn’t last and I need something more reliable. I tried to get on with collecting the seeds of the hollyhocks. But of course I had to be on hand to hold bits and pieces to pull the inner-tube out. It was very surprisingly quick to find the hole, didn’t even require a bucket of water, I just hope it was the only one.

Job done and wheel back on. Matt is off to do some mowing whilst I’m off to plant a few more seeds, I’m pretty sure we don’t have enough things growing yet! Also a bit more tidying to be done in the vegetable garden.

The other job that definitely needs doing is tackling the rather large woodpile. Sadly it’s a particularly useful pile and all of it needs to be chipped so it’s a one bite at a time job…

A few outside jobs done it was time to unwind with some more homemade sushi.

[15 April 2022]

Saturday

It’s been a really busy day. I was out of bed before 11! I had a lot to do in the garden.

Matt had already been up trying to see if he can fix the leak on the outside tap. Unfortunately it seems that it is an odd size, made of the wrong material, something else. He basically couldn’t do a lot but fix it up as best he could with plumbers tape to reduce the leak when we need to use it and just cut the feed again. I’m sure Matt will work it out in time, he usually does. Time for a quick spray of his new trailer attachment to prevent rusting – good call. He also started to do a bit of trenching but it was too hot for it and I convinced him that it would be better to wait for the guys to put the boiler in and just use their trench – smarter not harder people! [Of course there were good reasons to run it his way but that sounded better and was much easier so my idea won.]

Anyway, I have work to do. The vegetable garden isn’t going to finish itself and there is a lot to be done. I need to finish the edges of the two dug beds and get cracking on the next one. Time to try getting some spinach, lettuce, radish and beetroot started. I’ve actually been enjoying the flowers from the red cabbage we never got round to picking at Christmas due to Covid – the bees seem to love them too. Of course the cat decided to ‘help’ and became a little slutty against the spade trying to impress Matt when he came over, somewhat different to a few minutes before…

While I’m pottering about on one side of the back garden, Matt has taken to the lower branches of one of the very large pines in the garden. Look what he found while he was there… a bird’s nest. It looks like an old abandoned one but he obviously left it alone anyway, just in case. I have to admit that I was a bit unsure and it does rather reveal the secret hide away spot but actually it does look better for it.

After flirting with Matt the cat did manage to find a rather interesting lizard to impress him with. I have to admit that it worked, for me too.

I’d promised Matt that I would make roast chicken for dinner and since I’d made the commitment I was damned if I’d let him down. It was too lovely outside finally to be stuck in the kitchen so I make a temporary outdoor kitchen. I also made a pretty damned good roast.

After a long day in the garden and all the jobs we’ve been doing the cat was exhausted of flirting and we went back to tv and chill mode. Meow relaxed on Matt while I had a nap and then up to bed and she stole my ipad. I don’t know what was playing but she was pretty enthralled.

[16 April 2022]

Easter Sunday

I’ve just woken up however I suspect that incredibly loud noise downstairs was also intended as a wake up call. Between Matt and the cat it’s hard to get a lie in. It’s not such a bad thing today though as we need to get to the Huxtables’ early so I can’t faff about too much.

Matt however has put in the new hob to make sure it works, at £1k it makes sense to ensure it works before it’s out of guarantee. However, with the current island there are a few problems, not least that we can no longer get the draw in underneath it…

Of course my job is to find a temporary solution and to get all the stuff put somewhere sensible. Naturally this means moving some of the less important things from the kitchen to the hallway cupboard. Then the washing up needs doing. Of course we should actually be getting ready to go out. So quickly change course and get in the car, only to realise we forgot the one thing we promised to bring (mint sauce) so we turned around, which was a good thing too as I hadn’t opened the greenhouse and it was stinking hot again.

Finally at JC’s the easter egg hunt was on. I wasn’t as good at it as thought, I’d forgotten about the dogs and the need to keep them out of their reach – I know, school girl error. So while Matt and I only got a few mum’s advice to ‘play nicely and share with the other kids’ wasn’t really necessary as they offered me all theirs too. I didn’t take them (however now writing this that was a mistake, I already ate all of ours).

Lunch was amazing. Thankfully Matt missed Fred and Will’s description of escargots as being like muscles. They were really lovely. I had lots. Then we had lamb, and finally a very good cheese cake. I need to go home and have a nap after all that food!

I was asleep as soon as I was in the car. I woke up enough to get to the couch and go to sleep. Apparently I also woke up again around bedtime and had a chat with Dodd. Time to get myself to bed.

[17 April 2022]

Easter Monday

Seems Jonny must have filled my glass more times than I remembered. I would love to have stayed in bed for half the day but sadly we’ve already had a day off and can’t afford a second, particularly if the weather is going to change as per the forecast. So up at out into the garden.

Since we’ve decided that the power will be run alongside the other pipes and wires for the boiler, we’re not going to have to extend the end of the current trench so that needs to be filled in. While Matt shoved in the stuff we’d previously dug out I ferried back and forth some more from the rather large pile by the pool to fill in the dips.

Today’s big job for me however is more work on the vegetable garden. I started by clearing some of the top grass mulch before realising that the mulch by up the bays at the back was much closer. I also reconsidered my plans and decided to relay the hose above the ground but below the mulch to reduce evaporation, water the plants lower on the roots to encourage downward growth, and to the sides to allow me to plant two rows without hitting the pipes (and hopefully these photos will help me to remember where I put them too).

The back mulch by the leaf bays has much more leaf matter from the oaks which will help to aerate the soil, while the grass cuttings are rich in nitrogen to replace that used by the tomatoes etc that pull loads of it out of the soil. Still took many many trips back and forth, however Monty insists on a minimum of 5cm and the thicker the better, so hopefully my 10cm would make him proud.

Much of the bottom layer was already partially mulched and quite wet, some even nice and crumbly, then with a layer or the dryer stuff at the top to suppress any weeds. Usually I’d consider wetting it a little to encourage the worms and promote breakdown, however with the oncoming wet weather I decided not to bother.

Matt finished filling in the trenches and removing the numerous rocks that had been dug up.

Once done he came up to join me and to start bordering up the remaining beds. He did a pretty good job actually, they look straighter than the existing ones. It does all look much smarter with them in and makes it much easier for Matt to help mow/strim around the beds. It will also help me to mulch them, once I finally have the will and energy to get them fully dug over, rotovated and then mulched (and when we have the weather for it).

That’s plenty enough exercise for one day though and my back and neck are sore so time to relax and start thinking about the return to ‘proper’ work.

[18 April 2022]

Tuesday

Back to the grind with a bump. We both have loads on and I’ve got this big launch event on the 7th June so a million things to do. Matt is also incredibly busy so we both work late. My neck is very sore and I’ve had a cracking headache all day (no, I didn’t have anything to drink yesterday), so eventually just fell into the reclining chair for a nap while Matt finished even later. Reheated roast chicken for dinner, at least that was a result.

[19 April 2022]

Wednesday

Another busy day today. Neck still hurting but a bit better than yesterday. More working late – no such thing as free time off, it all just gets rolled up into the weeks before and after.

Matt has been commenting on the large bag of tomatoes that I took out the freezer to make space for the shopping on Saturday so guess I need to do something with them. I’ll never be an ‘Instagram star’ I always forget to ask Matt to take photos of me. Anyway I spent my evening turning the tomatoes into passata. Thankfully I have asbestos fingers so was able to take most of the skins off once they were heating in the pot, I wouldn’t advise it to most though. But I made about 2/3 pint with the bowl I had at hand. There’s still a crate full in the freezer in the basement however and with that in mind Matt’s first question was what I was now going to do. I guess whatever we have for dinner tomorrow will be in tomato sauce!

While I was making the sauce I also spent my time while it was cooking cleaning the kitchen floors – they were pretty terrible to be honest. It took Matt quite a long time to notice all the work however, despite raising his feet at the appropriate moment. He has been working most of the evening though. I have a good use for the new passata though, meatballs with plenty of sauce, yummy!

Also need to get these blogs updated, just because you got two at the weekend doesn’t mean we’re done.

Meow seems to have picked up a tick but I’m not made for removing ticks alone, I just got scratched so going to leave that for Matt, wash it out and put some cream on it and go to bed.

[20 April 2022]

Thursday

Just another busy day working. I called the dentist and got Matt and appointment – he was grumpy that it wasn’t immediate but he can’t do next week as he’s in London and he should just be grateful that I reminded him, twice, that ‘we’ needed to call them or there would be no appointment at all.

Work went on late into the evening, meanwhile Matt beheaded a chicken…

[21 April 2022]