The reason they are tidy is because of my 10 years of straightening books in Libraries! And also being in the hall they are walked past all the time and I would soon be fed up with seeing an untidy collection.
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What with one thing and another I've not mentioned what we've been doing since last Saturday. So this post is four days diaries.
On Sunday I went to the car boot sale - of course - although C said he seen everything over the last few weeks and it was bound to be the same old, same old, so he stayed at home.
I bought 2 herbs for £1 each. One was a Red Veined Sorrel which looks interesting and has filled the space in my new herb garden and the other a Cat Mint. I found a cushion for £1 to replace one our youngest begged off us " I love cuddly feather cushions and we haven't got one at home!" A bundle of 40 sheets of new peel offs - pictures, words and borders for card making, spent £6 on those, which was a lot but the woman wouldn't accept any less. That was the first craft stuff I've found this year, and I found this book which I hadn't read for £2.
The weather was lovely on Sunday afternoon and we sat out for a while, everywhere was quiet, not a lot of passing traffic because it was the last day of half term holidays and no one on the campsite.
The only thing missing was the sound of the sea lapping gently on a sandy beach * sigh *.
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Monday we trekked to Ipswich town centre via Sainsburys ( cheap bacon and a few other bits), Aldi (specially for flour - a lot cheaper than elsewhere and a few other bits) and home via Morrisons ( red diesel from the petrol station and yes you guessed......a few other bits from the supermarket). Poundland, Wilkinsons, The Grape Tree and Superdrug were the main reasons for going into our 'capital'.
In town I treated myself to a copy of Home Farmer magazine which, unless you have it on subscription, is only available at W.H Smiths in our area. I hadn't seen a copy for a while and it had a packet of free Inca Berry seeds from the James Wong Homegrown Revolution range on the front. Inside was an offer of 24 Strawberry plants free except for postage and 2 Cucamelon plants also free just pay P & P. Several articles about Elderflowers and salad crops. Nothing in it to tempt me to subscribe again. C looked at an article about building a workbench for a potting shed which had so many huge pieces of wood in that it would have taken a crane to shift it!
We picked nearly 4lb of Strawberries in the afternoon after I had spent ages putting all the shopping away and dividing all the bacon packs before freezing and vowing not to go to Ipswich again until September!
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On Tuesday C was working at our neighbours in the morning and sorting out everything needed for the shed building in the afternoon. I did the weekly bread bake and lots of other catching up housework jobs. For dinner we had a couple of the bacon steaks from out of the cheap bacon packs, home grown new potatoes and homegrown salad. Cost of meal per person about 40p - bargain.
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On Wednesday morning the weather turned wet and chilly. I had a doctors appointment a.m. and also went to the Co-op to spend my divi. vouchers on some decent sausages from Lane Farm . I usually look out for yellow sticker reduced meat in the Co-op but haven't spotted anything for months, although using Divi vouchers makes me feel they are free.
C was in the workshop making up the door for my new shed.
We picked another 4lb Strawberries once the drizzle stopped and decided to put a some of the best out for sale. 3 small punnets went out at £1 punnet ( approx 250g) and were gone not long after I was back indoors. I'm still selling the Alstroemeria flowers at £1 bunch and also some Aloe Vera plants that our son brought here before he moved house. He took a Aloe Vera baby off the plant I had here about 2 years ago and then potted up lots of babies from that plant. It's a handy plant to have in the house as it can be used to sooth minor burns, plus it seems almost impossible to kill which is useful as I am normally hopeless at keeping indoor plants alive.
I've planted the last two cucumber plants into the polytunnel. These were the ones bought a couple of weeks ago from the carboot to replace the two home sown that keeled over. Our other 6 plants are looking good we've had 4 cucs off them so far, but I'm still taking off several of the teeny babies so the plant keeps growing. They've been fed once with a commercial feed and several times with the home made Comfrey 'tea'.
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| A good use for baler twine and all the broom handles rescued from amongst a whole heap of pallets brought home from a local factory. |
The early tomato plants are also doing well and we will have a few ready to eat in a week or so. The forecast for tomorrow is good and I hope to start gooseberry picking - 3 weeks earlier than last year.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
