What a Sow and Sow - February.

Hello there, before I begin here is my usual greeting at the start of all my posts, just incase this is your first visit, so best wishes to everybody as we are once again in lockdown and hope you are coping well physically and mentally.

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Right it's January 18th today and, as is the norm, I'm not getting up to much outside in the garden. Having said that I have begun some work in the polytunnel which is adding fresh compost in a couple of places. I also gave my compost 'daleks' a bit of a turning but if you have seen my recent super professional, 🤣 ,YouTube video you'll know I explained my plan of making two compost bays out of pallets. I really would like to get these made as soon as possible; Jon has access to as many pallets as we need so we can hopefully get this done by the beginning of next month.

Ok, seeds. These are the things we like to eat and that I hope to grow this year!

I may sow some Early Nantes carrots in the polytunnel in a container this month. However next month will begin the main sowing dates. As I said in my last post I'll be following advice from Charles Dowding and my polytunnel book; I've decided to keep sowing, keep sowing this year to make sure I have no gaps in the polytunnel or outside in the beds. I'm sometimes worried about wasting seeds but I often put things outside the front door in our egg house for people to help themselves to and hopefully I'll still be able to do that again should I still have some spare seedlings. During the first lockdown I enjoyed swapping lots of things, including plants, via our community Facebook page. 

Right February will begin with the following: (MS stands for multi-sow)

Turnips (MS) Purple Top Milan, the classic variety.

Spring Onions (MS) Ishikura, a mild flavoured bunching variety.

Khol Rabi Delicacy Purple tasting similar to stems of broccoli which I love in soups or stir fry.

Cabbage Greyhound, an early variety with pointy heads to harvest  from June/July.

Cauliflower All The Year Round, such a versatile seed.

Broccoli Matsuri F1 which is a compact variety, may be easier to protect from pests.

Aubergines Black Beauty which I'm trying really hard with as never been successful and so want my own ratatouille!

Salad leaves of various sorts, whatever takes my fancy really and these will go direct into the polytunnel near the door again so they don't get to hot.

Peppers including a Romano red one and one called Etiuda Orange, possibly a third that I may have ordered - more of that later.

Basil Red Leaved which is so very tasty and Sweet Green as it never fails.

I have some herbs in pots in the polytunnel ready to plant out when the weather is right.

Tomatoes are something I'm determined to keep improving on after last year's better efforts - 

Maskotka a bush variety to grow in pots, some outside and in the polytunnel.

ILDI F1 a lovely, small yellow plum type needing some support.

Marmande which are a large, fleshy, late maturing bush variety.

Big Mama Plum Large are good for soups, sauce and salsa - these I hope to have a go at bottling if I get enough!

Tumbling Toms which are not frost hardy so will be in hanging containers in the polytunnel.

Maghrebi are a fleshy, blight resistant variety.

Should be something to suit everybody out of that little lot.

In pots, not sure of the name but red, I have 60 sets in the poly house. Of those 20 are looking good but not so sure about the others. Here comes the order issues, I received an email the other day saying my order of Vulcan Spring planting onions are on their way! I don't remember ordering them but they may be a replacement as I've had a few issues with orders recently! Some space will have to be found for them along with something else. My seed spud order came but only half of it was right. I expected a 1st and 2nd early order but got the first and then some maincrop ones. I'd decided not to grow the latter as I just don't have room for the plants when they get to the full size and they are the only things I really like to rotate and that doesn't work well for me - where they'll go I don't know, probably growing bags as I do luckily have some of those in the poly house.

The MS items are the only things I will have tried this method with so far along with the leeks I'm still harvesting and we're really enjoying those in soups and pies just now.

Still on the subject of orders, I have coming in the next month or two Rhubarb crowns of  Temperley, an early harvesting variety and I'm also very excited about establishing an asparagus bed so have three crowns of Mondeo variety arriving in March - work to be done on the bed for those.

Flower wise I'll sow some marigolds to pop in between the tomatoes plus they look pretty. I have annuals outside the poly house and various perenials and others in the planters outside the Airbnb rooms.(Funny describing them as such seeing as we're not intending to take any guests throughout 2021.)

So that is my plan for February so far, quite a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to it. The weather here in Wales is quite wet and miz right now and I'm only inclined to get outside if the sun is shining a little bit, guilting me to get my wellies on and so something! I love it when I get out there, though, and here's why.

I'll keep you up to date when I get started but would also love to know if you are growing something for the first time and how you get on with it.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

 

My Little Patch Of Paradise.

Hello there. I'm here and we're back in lockdown, again! For fear of sounding like an old record I hope you are staying safe and keeping sane. I'll leave it at that.

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As is my want with my posts I start I rarely finish them without some sort of interruption, like a day or two. My husband quite often tells me I try to do too many things at once, the same as when I try to carry too much if tidying up or putting away the pots - I do drop things! We're currently on day two!

Anyhow, I'm here thinking about the outside of our little homestead, my little patch of paradise althoug it isn't looking much like right now! We have had our polytunnel since April 28 2020 so I didn't have time to make the best of it but I was however quite pleased with some of the results; amongst others we had salad leaves all Summer into Autumn, a fabulous amount of kale even though only I eat it but hope to change that. My point is that I want to get it up and running as early as possible to maximise the space over this year.

Currently it is home to the following:

-    20 or so dwarf peas Meteor

-    spring onions

-    a variety of salad leaves

-    a small amount of garlic and onions left over from the ones planted outside

-    10 or so khol rabi

-    three small broccoli with teeny tiny heads

-    2 small kale 

-    pots of parsley, oregano and lemon balm 

-    sweet peas

Some of these are seemingly in suspended animation but look fairly healthy. I hope that once the weather starts to warm up a little next month they'll kick back into life. Something which has come back inside are the strawberry plants; these are about seven or eight I think which were runners off those I cleared out at the end of summer. I gave them a tidy up and have hopes they will develop nicely -  they are called Delizz which are a late fruiting variety.

So looking towards sowing and growing for 2021 I'm not keen on starting many things too early in the year, but I may put some Nante carrots in later this month as these will possibly give us a small crop before those outside. Mainly I'll begin next month when I'll be doing my best to follow Charles Dowding and his sowing schedule with more multi-sowing than I tried last year. My polytunnel book by Joyce Russell says peppers and chillis do well in an unheated polytunnel so I'm crossing my fingers for those to crop this year as I've never done well with either; the latter will have to be a mild variety with more flavour than kick! Any suggestions?

A job for in the polytunnel before much else is to clear some un-successful turnips out; shame about those as I love cooking with them. (Since beginning this I've had another look and there may be a couple growing better. Anyhow, they'll eventually come out and all along the back wall I'll add fresh compost and that is where the tomatoes will be this year. I think they will get more light there due to the way the polytunnel is positioned  to the rising and setting of the sun. I have compost I bought some time ago, which is great seeing as we are in lockdown and cannot get any unless buying feed or bit and pieces for the sheep or chickens.

I'm aiming to do a post by the end of the month about my sowing plans for at least the next two or three months, wiggle room allowed obviously, but I've also set myself a little challenge; check out my freind Tracy over at Our Smallholding Adventure, along with her YouTube channel, as she absolutely loves a challenge. Mine is simply to make a YouTube video where I speak as I'm not keen on my voice when it is recorded but I'll do my best; I want to show the growing area, polytunnel and poly house, oh prepare for some work in progress shots! No point not being honest, real life is what you get in my garden. I'm not good outside in the bad weather but I really am looking forward to sharing my plans for when I'm up and at it when a little of the warm Welsh weather returns.

Aaaah, I knew I'd sneak some in-house stuff in! I have some Seville oranges and will next week be turning them into marmalade to add to the stores of preserves I have in the cellar, some made by me and others gifts. My first time of making it so wish me luck; I'm a nervous preserver but very keen to have a go at things. 

NEWSFLASH - In my last post I showed photos of inside the polytunnel and poly house but I have just uploaded that video I talked about and you can find it here.. I watch a lot of YouTube and people are soo good at it, like Tracy and also Hugh and Fiona over at English Country Life. Me I managed to film the whole 11 minutes in portrait only realising at the end. Duh! Hope you still like what you see!

Bye for now,

Lou.xx

2021 - A Fresh Start.

 Hello! 

This is my first post since December 7! We enjoyed our quiet Christmas the same as we always do, so no change for us really. New Year's Eve, too, was quiet as normal - just the Hootenanny with a glass or two of bubbly then to bed.

To hope the coming year of 2021 will be an improvement on the last is an understatement for most people and for those I feel so sorry for all the loss, heartache, difficult times and challenges they have had to face. However I am and will forever be full of gratitude for our being safe on our little homestead, Jon still being able to go to work, our boys carrying on with their schooling at home (though challenging at times, too) not missing going abroad and just happy to be where we are on my little patch of paradise.

I wish everyone a healthy 2021 and look forward to sharing all your, and my, doings in the coming year, be it your sowing n growing, baking n making in the kitchen or craft projects.xx

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Anyway, onwards.This is the view which greeted me at the back door this morning. We had a good covering of snow yesterday and a little more over night but the brightness of the day had already begun to melt it; beautiful sky anyhow.

Yesterday and today I took a few photos inside and out, in the poly tunnel, the garden and the poly house. However, the first photo is of the man who came to scan the pregnant ewes on the 30th. We had a fantastic result as out of  43 ewes we had 26 singles and 17 twins! Fantastic.

Back to sowing and growing. I have very little growing but here goes!

These are my leeks; I haven't harvested any from these tyres but plan to do so soon. I did take up a few from one of the other beds as they were the only thing in it and I wanted to cover it with some mulch; I'm going to try those this evening; they;re more like baby leeks but...

The onions are still coming along nicely...

and in the top of the toilet I have some annual flowers peeping through...trying to grow quite a few flowers this year for a change. Ooh, that reminds me I must make sure I've Marigolds on the list to go with the tomatoes...

plus the bulbs I planted last year appear to be coming to life once more.

Talking of coming back to life the Stellata Magnolia is showing some buds and ...

on the ground beneath it I think are the beginnings of the daffodils!

I don't have much going on the poly house but these are the red onion sets I planted a good while ago and so far 20 or so of them are springing into life;I intend to plant these out in February.

In the poly tunnel the sweet peas are doing ok, need to check when and where I'll plant those out. I was just way too late last year and I had none so fingers crossed I'll get a much better result this year.

I have a few pots of herbs just pootling along which are two pots of  Champion Parsley, some Oregano and then there is Lemon Balm. I'm still hoping to make a good herb 'garden' in the tall planters outside this year.

I'm very pleased that the three broccoli plants seem to be in suspended animation along with the dwarf peas and salad leaves. Apologies for the green algae stuff on the surface; need to clear that off.

So, that was the show now for the tell! 

I've made my list for seed sowing and I've been really thorough, I think, to really try and not have empty beds outside from about July/August time which is what usually happens.😖 Going to keep sowing and keep planting out to try and avoid that hungry gap.

I'm going to do my best to make the most of the poly tunnel as we were already getting on for half way through the year when we bought it in 2020, sounds weird saying that already. I have plans for starting things in there are well as seeds for germination then to be planted in the beds and areas outside.

As we're not intending to take any Airbnb guests for the whole of 2021, this gives us the chance to do some projects in the garden when we don't need to worry about there being some mess and upheaval. A lot of clearance needs sorting around the beds and tyres as I'd eventually like to have membrane and pea gravel down to make the area a lot more tidy.

I'm really quite envious of people with big compost bins so that's something I have room for and Jon has access to any number of pallets we need for the job. 👍

I'm sure there are lots of things I want to do, would like to do, need to do but we'll get to that at some point.

That is about it for me. I can't wait to hear about your plans for inside and out over the coming months so why not drop me a line in the comments? 😊

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

A Few On Fursday!!

Hello there.

Before I start I just want to check, as usual, how everybody is. I hope, wherever you are, that you're keeping safe whatever the restrictions are for you and yours. xx 

Yesterday I took my eldest for his last "check in, catch up and prepare" day at school, which also happened to be his last day in Year 8. He's very excited about being in year 9 from September, best year in school according to him, although more excited that he has NO MORE HOMESCHOOLING to do and can have a lie in, obvs minus the fag!😁

The youngest has his last day tomorrow and will feel the same way about the issue of homeschooling, but is an early riser so he'll find something to do until he persuades his elder brother to play tennis in the garden or drags him to the next thing on the list of jobs to do, which they will STILL have during the holidays as they have done alongside homeschooling!

I admit to having found the whole assisting the boys with lessons really quite stressful at times so I will also be glad to see the back of them. I love the mornings when I can get up unnecessarily early just to have some time to myself, organise my day and enjoy a whole pot of coffee uninterrupted by empty-legged tweens on the hunt for food. 

We've been informed that the youngest will be back in school on September 10 and the eldest on the 9th but for how long and for what regular days we are unsure just now. Also no confirmation about transport yet - I've been running them these last few weeks but by then they may be taking their bus routes, but I'm happy to be taxi service of mum if needed.

I was chatting to my very good friend Tracy from Our Smallholding Adventure the other day saying I'm more than a little anxious about a new outbreak of the virus. As the summer holidays begin, the children are no longer 'in school' and relaxations are made on quarantine for returning travellers there may be a new spike. I also went food shopping yesterday for what, I hope, will last for at least three weeks - not even bothering trying to get a delivery, never had one yet as others are more needy. I'm still happy to stay at home now as much as possible. Jon will be on leave for two weeks from July 24 so we'll all be at home together, safe, and it will be exciting, too, as we are gaining a new member to our homestead, a sheep dog for Jon.👏👏👏

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Ok, after that little ramble my blog today is also about the garden and poly tunnel, as normal. I never really manage to do the Six On Saturday on social media, hence the title of this blog post.😀

The weather these last few days has been changeable; we've had rain, not much sunshine but humidity so this has been causing me a little anxiety regarding my poly tunnel. Why, you may ask, well since I had issues with a bit of mould and mildew I've been keeping a close eye on it.

This morning I took a turn around the garden to take the photos and see how everything is doing after some rain and the weather today being a little warmer than yesterday.

Starting in said poly tunnel it is looking quite healthy just now. I have some gaps  but still on that learning curve but getting there. The new path is much safer now. I am wanting some floating shelves put up on either side for trays, tools etc but that is a job that can wait until Autumn I think.

The tomato plants are doing fairly ok. Some of them have leaf curl which I get every year; sometimes the leaves then go really tough and no flowers appear so I have taken them out of planters and the poly house before as no good feeding them when there will be no return. However, there is good fruiting from two of them which are Tomande in the background and the nearer ones are Cuor di Bue which are two of four plants given to me.

Now finally I have some growth on my Marketmore cucumbers; I really  was beginning to panic! 

Here is the biggest fruit from my butternut squash Vegetable Spaghetti plant given to me by a friend; it is coming on very well but I did cut back some of the leaves at the weekend as it is enormous.

At the side of the poly tunnel my boys have cleared a patch of ground where I hope my pumpkin will grow. The space is a meter square with plenty of room for spread. As the ground is not in super condition I'll put some compost there ready to plant and see what happens...

This is the plant, given to me by friends.

Across from the poly tunnel, alongside the poly house, I have three tall planters and all have beetroot in at the moment and all looking pretty much like this.

Here are the maincrop spuds flowering, funny that the second early ones which can be taken up any time from this coming weekend are not flowering at all; I'll be leaving them in a bit longer I think.

I have extra dwarf beans growing outside in the crate as well as those in the poly tunnel. They are just flowering so I do hope they'll be providing soon.

The bed at the back of the poly house is looking great! The perpetual spinach at the front, given to me by the same friend as the tomato and butternut squash (pattern developing here where donations are doing quite a lot better than my own grown!)👀 . is doing very well. Chuffed with the caulis at the back along with yet more salad leaves.  

In the bed in the far right corner of the growing area I have my three broccoli plants and two courgettes. 

Very excited indeed to see that the head of broccoli has become visible. Eeeek, I've never managed to grow it before; just hope my netting and my Grazers Eco Spray will continue to keep away the cabbage whites.🤞

The Tondo di Piacenza are showing and hope this one doesn't fall off like one did this morning! Love these stuffed!

The Goldena did not do well last year but I have a few on this plant here (there are two more courgettes in planters, too - another Goldena and a Zuchini (not from Mr Fothergill).

Finally, I have the first bloom? on my multi-headed sunflower...

and one of the dahlias I planted outside the Studio last year has come back to life so very pleased about that.

Things seem to be taking a little longer to come to fruition, fruit and veg, this year or it could just be my usual impatience!

The weather this weekend is set to be nice and warm so hopefully this will bring on a few things and harvests will improve beyond the salad leaves and dwarf beans!

Stay safe everybody, if you are staying at home over the summer as we are I hope you enjoy your own little patches of paradise and I look forward to seeing lots of trug shots of your wonderful harvests.

As always, take care,

Lou.xx

How Are You All Diddling?

Hi!

Its been just over two weeks since my last confession blog post! A lot has happened at home and in the outside world, too.

Here in Wales the schools have said they will open on June 29; my boys may not be going back until later in the proceedings or at all; we just don't know which children are going to go back in first. I think it would make more sense for the vulnerable ones to go and catch up with their teachers along with those choosing options and the ones who were expected to take their exams this year. Fortunately, neither of our boys fit into any of those categories and a lot can change from now until then as shown by the English primary schools no longer opening before the summer holidays.

Ooh, just have to say I am typing this post on my new laptop as the other one went caput at the weekend. It is lovely!!

Anyhow, where was I? 

Yes, changes in the outside world. With restrictions being lifted in England, which is all the 
P M talks about and pretty much ignores the rest of the UK, Wales has had some unwelcome visitors in various locations, there have been openings of certain places for the public to visit and some rules have been put in place for seeing family and friends. 

To be honest, we are not changing any of our habits really; I'm still happy to stay close to home generally. I remember thinking that when we get back to a sort of new normal people will have to be different, live their lives in a changed way with an altered mindset because of how we have been forced to live. However it doesn't seem to me that people are willing to "pause the system" as it is sometimes described. Seeing the queues a mile long and more  just for people to get a McDonald's takeaway does not fill me with hope that people have considered what they can or cannot really do without in the grand scheme of things.

Aaaaanyway, onto here at home and our little patch of paradise.

We've had a mixed bag of weather over the last couple of weeks - sunshine, showers, wind, hail! - which in the most part for our sowing and growing has helped bring on things which have been planted outside as well as those in the poly tunnel. I can't believe how different it looks. The first photo is me planting up the dwarf beans on May 9th and then today which is just about five weeks after that!

There are still trays and pots of things waiting to be potted on and planted inside and out.

These include more dwarf beans and peas, cabbages, PSB and peppers.

In the outside beds and tyres edibles including the courgettes, sweetcorn and broccoli are all coming along nicely, as are most of the potatoes.  

I've chosen not to make public the Heath Robinson-esque netted frame I have over the broccoli! 

We've been eating lots of salad leaves and had our first radishes this week. 

The carrots are looking healthy although Wednesday was meant to be the June day for last sowing but the weather was not too clever then, or for the rest of the week it seems, but hope to get those in by the weekend. (Not bothering with a photo as not too clear.) Recent new sowings have included radishes, khol rabi, marigolds, chives and garlic chives, parlsey plus two varieties of basil. I've planted out caulis, an established khol rabi I was given and potted on peppers.

In the poly tunnel I've been pinching out the tomatoes in the mornings, supposed to be the best time to do it, and there are flowers on the four biggest plants; I have some nettle feed soaking so when I sieve that next week I'll feed them with it, will need a mask for that! 

The peas, even though they're a dwarf variety, need supporting so held them up with some hazel sticks. The third and final kale plant has been put in as well as an aubergine; the whole of the poly tunnel is coming on really well and I just can't wait to see how it looks at the end of this month.

The onions are so close to coming up; 

needed to use one the other day, the top of which had completely fallen over. Can't wait to get the cabbage in here but need to sort our some netting to keep off the retched cabbage whites!

At the weekend we unfortunately lost the smallest of the orphan lambs we've been looking after. To be honest it was not right or well from the start, struggled to take any milk, had an issue with its back and front legs, seemed to have a couple of fits towards the end and we even think it may have been brain damaged. He spent his last hours, luckily, laying in the sun with the sound of the chooks in the back ground and drifted off to somewhere without pain we hope.

Today a lovely thing happened. I met a friend who lives about 20 minutes away from me; she was going to Tregaron to fetch a prescription so we socially distanced and had a lovely chat! She brought me some PSB and perpetual spinach - love that - which is now in the bed with the cauli,

and I swapped with a Jerusalem artichoke! 

I just HAVE to show you the fig tree now it has been in the poly tunnel a few weeks. I'm sooo chuffed it's doing this well!

So, I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings, but more importantly that you are all keeping well and safe but seeing family and friends when it is safe to do so. 

Bye for now, Lou.xx

Bank Holiday Weekend Work.

Good morning.

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I'm going to start off by saying that I absolutely love living in such a rural place but it can be challenging at times regarding the circle of life. We all need to make sure we are keeping to rules and regulations and respect everything around us.

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Hi everybody, how did you get on over the Bank Holiday? Obviously another strange one but didn't stop a lot of us getting outside I am sure. However, I started off the weekend on Saturday by catching up with Gardener's World - lovely start to the day but still a little sad not seeing Nigel. I decided to do a bit of planning for work in the garden so I knew what needed doing for the next few weeks. Love doing that, makes it very exciting knowing what it coming up, in more than one sense of the word!

Sunday was a great day outside. I planted kale in the poly tunnel and broccoli outside. 

The broccoli are the plants in the middle of the bed (radishes at the far end and courgettes closest in the photo). They will have a frame to protect them as I've never managed to grow it without getting eaten by something other than us! We're utilising this which was over the bed behind the poly house and our eldest and I made a good start but just needs the netting putting on it now.

I did some potting on outside the poly tunnel in the sunshine.

This involved cabbages Greyhound, a Black Beauty aubergine (always have trouble germinating those but keep trying) and a sunflower to hopefully have outside the tunnel if the lambs don't eat it!! Oh and what I think is the last tomato plant.

The eldest also helped me put up my bunting in the tunnel, need a little girly-ness in there.

I have now moved the Brown Turkey fig tree into the poly tunnel and it is going great guns already. 

A couple of other jobs included earthing up the first early spuds; these look to be recovering from the frost damage with plenty of new growth showing.

I've been saving woodash from the Rayburn and read somewhere that it is good for onions when they start bulbing so I'm giving it a go - can't do any harm.

Finally I cut back the oregano in the herb sink and it is now drying nicely in the conservatory and will be added to our box of herbs in the kitchen; 

this is something I really want to keep doing when I can this year. It was the last job of a really satisfying day and the best thing was we had another day to do it all again!

Yesterday morning, after a lovely brekky of scrammbled eggs, I set to deciding on the jobs for the day. These were partly helped by watching the latest YouTube video by Kev here at An English Homestead; he gave us a great tour of his garden and poly tunnel and I took a few hints and tips along the way. 

I got outside and sowed the following:

Dwarf Bean Speedy in a tray of 15 cells

Dwarf Pea Hurst Green Shaft the same

Beetroot Bolthardy, again in a tray of cells 

These have gone, along with a pot of Sweet Basil, into the poly tunnel so I can pick them at the same time as salad leaves.

The bed shown here is from where we took the old frame to use for the broccoli protection. It was going to be for parsnips but I've changed my mind. I found a number of weeds that seemed to have something like rizehomes but it wasn't the dreaded ground elder as far as I could tell. Anyhow, it is all prepared as I covered it over with cardboard, which I luckily still had, and then covered in fresh compost no dig style. I'll add some more when I get it but this bed is now going to be for cabbage or cauli, not decided which yet. 

I'd already started putting down cardboard around it so hopefully nothing nasty will get in.

My tunnel is coming along well but there are still has a few spaces as, obviously, I'm starting from nothing so don't have a full year of sowing and growing happening. 

Here is a butternut squash Spaghetti given to me by a friend. Funny, she says mine is doing better than hers!

However, I'm chuffed how things are working out but we did have a little visit from a mole the other day - I check today and all seems well, fingers crossed.

This year I am sooo late with my sweet peas but have a few called Bright and Breezy that germinated. I planted up three in a fairly big pot plus wigwam then in the top of the herb loo I've put a couple to brighten up the poly house area. The only other things I potted on yesterday were half a dozen All The Year Round cauli.

We're still feeding the youngest of the lambs who is really taking time to bulk up but I fed him a good 400ml of Lamlac this morning which is great.

After we came in from the garden I did some of my papercrafting. I've just started on my second junk journal. I think you can tell I love the vintage look and feel of things when I'm in a creative mode. I love finding anything from old sheet music and magazines, old adverts, books, paper, letters, labels, stickers, you get the idea. So... should you come across anything like this you know to give me a shout.😀

Ok, time to get on, after one more cup of tea. Not a lot on the agenda today but maybe a little bit of baking later on and deciding what will be on the menu for today and the rest of the week.

Hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday and that you are just keeping on keeping on and managing mentally. With restrictions starting to change here as well as things in the news I've been feeling rather anxious. I've had to delete my Facebook feed since the weekend as too much negativity going on that is affecting my anxiety, plus I've muted some things from Twitter for the same reasons. Here, we are just concentrating on simply staying home and staying safe so I hope you are doing what ever you need to do wherever you are.

Bye for now,

Lou.xx