I’ve spent the past couple of weeks watering someone else’s garden. (This isn’t some ~deep~ metaphor, I’ve literally been watering someone else’s garden.)
My daughter agreed to water her boyfriend’s parent’s garden while they’ve been away on holiday, and as they live two villages over and she doesn’t drive, it inevitably fell on to me to facilitate. Because of the ridiculous back to back heatwaves we’ve been having in the UK, we’ve been popping over every other day and what started as begrudging transport duties rapidly became one of my favourite parts of that day.
You have to understand: I would love a greenhouse but my garden is really too small for it to be feasible, and these folks have a greenhouse. And while I was mostly there to water the tomatoes and beans, I couldn’t help but spot the sad looking spider plants on the back shelf, a recently trimmed Christmas cactus, what I think is a Wooly Torch growing up through the shelf above it, two varieties of pepper (spicy, not sweet) and a tiny Jade with a possible mealy bug infestation.
I left the poorly Jade and the cacti alone (they’re probably loving the sun) but successfully managed to bring one of the spider plants back to life which has brought me some ridiculous level of joy. I’m not entirely sure why; it’s obviously not my plant, and they’re not exactly difficult to keep happy. The peppers, tomatoes and beans have done okay and touch wood – as of last night – nothing was dead. I’m hoping everything will pass muster once the parents get home tomorrow.
The funny thing though? I’ve been so busy watering someone else’s garden I’ve been forgetting to water my own (now that feels like a metaphor).
Back when we moved in 2018, we discovered a leak in the downstairs ‘bathroom’ (amongst many, many other problems which I ranted about across two separate posts: Appearances can be deceptive [..] and Moving Tales: Part 2) I said, on making that discovery: the leak appears to be coming from the shower, which is a… read full entry »
I posted a house update back in May that included some pictures from the garden and some notes on what I’d planted – or was going to plant. Four months on and things have progressed: both out in the garden, and up in my head as I plot next years… well, plot. Not everything has… read full entry »
I posted at length late last year about all of the things that had gone wrong with our new house. This week marks a year since we moved and as I feel like we’re finally starting to settle in — I know, after 12 months! — it seemed poignant to give an update. Many of… read full entry »
After my last post on food storage for potential Brexit shortages, I’m sure I’ve convinced you all that I’ve gone full-on ‘tinfoil hat’ wearing, zombie apocalypse predicting, hippy nutjob. Let me reassure you that, while I’ve always been a bit of a hippy nutjob, I still don’t think there’s going to be a zombie apocalypse…. read full entry »
One of the things I realised quite rapidly when I first started freelancing — and it’s an obvious one, really — is that you’ll have good weeks and bad weeks. I say weeks, not months, because with the up and down nature of freelance income it really can be that volatile. While everyone else is… read full entry »
In my last post about our recent house move I expressed frustration about a series of relatively minor but annoying problems that we’d had so far. The two main issues were the lack of hot water, and a mystery leak. Shortly after posting I started pulling out wood cladding in the downstairs bathroom (part of… read full entry »
Having blogged back in February about jumping head first and putting an offer on a local property that we were not really ready to buy, we finally exchanged and completed on the 22nd. Excitement and trepidation had been building for some time, and with the help of friends and family we prepped and packed virtually… read full entry »
The older I get the faster time seems to fly by, but nothing could have prepared me for the whirlwind that has been the past 6-7 weeks. I started 2018 with good intentions. With the gift of a year’s gym fees from Gaz for my birthday, and a vague plan to get up at 6am… read full entry »
Alright me duckies, how are we all? You may notice that things look a bit different. I’ve gone a bit old skool, drawing inspiration from some seriously old layouts of mine. Kudos if you have been around long enough to remember the originals. I’ve not finished faffing with it but it’ll do for now. Or… read full entry »
