A Week In The Making.

Ok, this post starts from Tuesday, getting on for a week ago I think so time for a good catch up. Jon arrived home with this gas range cooker which was going spare from somebody at work; I didn't ask for details as this happens all the time.

It needs a bit of a clean and some tweaking but will be just perfect to go in the cellar, once the required vent has been installed of course. Jon thought I could use if for jam and preserving plus being near the back door we can use if for keeping things warm if eating outside and also for extra cooking space should we need it any time. Sorry if I mentioned it before but we also plan to replace the oil Rayburn in the kitchen with a wood burning one in time for the winter and this will mean we can take out the gas cooker in the kitchen as we will have this one to use instead.

On Thursday Jon was on tea duty to make his fab bacon and cheese pasta bake so I had to avert a culinary disaster when he got home from work, attached the trailer to the car and promptly turned out of the back yard!

Never fear he was to return half an hour or so later with a trailer full of enough logs, already split, to do this to the woodpile. Ta da!!

A while ago, not this last week, we were given this lovely dressing table; Jon plans to do a bit of restoration and flog it.

In the Poly House, get a load of my cucumbers which are getting to the eating stage soon I hope but don't want to cut them too early even though that helps to increase the harvest as I understand.

I decided to subscribe to Grow Your Own magazine after trying it out and look what gift I've been sent already. Eeeek! (Gloves are to show the size of the trug.)

I'll just mention it briefly that we watched the football on Friday to cheer on our adopted homeland and even I could see they tried their hardest but were just not up to mustard on the day. Da iawn!

Yesterday we headed to Aber for the food shopping and a few necessary provisions. Mount Trading is my new favourite shop; I think there isn't much they don't have or that we couldn't make use of! We needed chicken corn and some sand for the enclosure and they had a good deal on three bags of compost.

I have been wanting to pot-on the beef tomatoes so bought four more planters from Poundland plus some tomato feed and slug pellets (I know I should be using something recycled but sometimes you just need a quick fix) I picked up what I thought was a protective sheeting for the broccoli but when I got it into the Poly House I realised it was a fleece protector; I guess it will do the same job although by the look of them I don't think I'm going to bother. Something has eaten the life out of my hard work and I'm a bit peeved but stuff(!) happens.

Next  it was off to Charlies for some seeds; last chance to get some beetroot sown and I also got sprout and lettuce seeds. I sowed the whole lettuce seeds in a drainpipe when we got home so hope they will be ready around the time of the tomatoes and cucumbers. 

Talking of cucumbers, it has done them the power of good re-tying the stems to the bamboo stakes as they are growing up lovely and tall now. Just out of interest, I don't know the type my cucumbers are but they are slightly raised in lines top to bottom and not squat with tiny bobbles on them like some I have seen. What other types are people growing?

This one is six inches long!

I have a connfession to make; Alfie and I have taken up the potatoes from my first bag of second earlies(?) and I think I shouldn't have waited a bit longer. I know, I know, I should have been a little more patient but we just couldn't wait! I have learnt a lesson anyhow, which is what all of this is about at times. I only put three tubers in the bag and I know I could have put in five so our yield was only 1lb 11oz - see here!

Alfie washed them all himself and counted them - 27.

I've left the foliage and everything as it was and maybe I'll get a couple more over the next two weeks or so...

The second bag to be harvested next month has five tubers in it so I have better hopes for the amount I will get. Having said all of this I am so proud of how they have turned out and we will be having them tomorrow with some of our mint.

Today, Sunday, we had a full fry up for brekky and I have bread on the last prove. I've been out and sown two trays of beetroot seeds in toilet rools. I've decided that whatever I sow these work for me when you plant out, that's me. I have been getting jobs done this morning because I am taking charge of the tv from 2pm to watch the tennis. Can't wait to see the guy who beat Federa again. Secretly?! I wouldn't mind if he won as he is only 25, first Canadian man in the mens final at Wimbledon and played so very well. 

Oh, occured to me the other day that I've hardly mentioned the Sewing Bee. I watched it on catch up on a Tuesday and have really enjoyed it. I was so pleased that Charlotte won and found it very special that she had such a wonderful relationship with her ex-husband's new wife, saying she was so important to the children. Bless!

Ok, I'm going to get the bread in the oven, clean the boys' shoes and may even make their packed lunches to get that job out of the way, too.

As ever, looking forward to what everybody has been getting up to this weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx