My Day

[Smoggy]

I've hacked a Budleigh down to ground level and had a bonfire on the spot a good few times, it's still doing fine.

[addicted]

I used to have quite a few  spider plants in  our conservatory  and then our cocker spaniel took a great dislike to them and would totally destroy them leaving all the other house plants intact.

Carole

[Lulu]

14 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I've hacked a Budleigh down to ground level and had a bonfire on the spot a good few times, it's still doing fine.

Another potential client for my new venture 😁

[grendel]

for the first time  my plum tree in the front garden has produced fruit (other than a single plum) it was all on one part of the tree (about 1/5 of the tree and I got 8 plums which went down nicely with my tea.) - the tree- well its nearly 20 foot high now.

[Ray]

I bet they tasted better than any you could buy 👍

[LizG]

We've already made cucumber relish and tomato relish. The mint is doing exceedingly well and loads frozen to make mint sauce in the winter. Next it will be dealing with the Bramley apples from our veteran tree! The house built in the 60s was built on an orchard but all the fruit trees retained. Some have been cut down but we got the best tree imho!

[MargeandParge]

Vegetable gardening 10 months anticipation for 2 months disappointment. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[Smoggy]

As a wee bratling we had a mature apple tree that always fruited well, then we got a goat...

The goat could climb the tree better than me or my sister and had a taste for apple tree bark, when we moved the tree was long dead, the goat also ate a shed and an 8x4 sheet of polythene...

One time my old man came back from the pub Sunday lunchtime and threatened to cut the grass  shortly after he flipped the wheelbarrow around and sat in it while he had a cup of tea and rolled a fag, when he woke up the dog had drunk his tea and the goat had ate his baccy.....

If you need a plant dispatching get a goat, nothing survives.

[YnysMon]

I have a few spider plants that are descendants of a plant that my Nain (grandmother) gave me when I first went to Uni. I'm quite attached to my spider plants. 

[Ray]

I ordered some pet meds online and they arrived today. They and the box they came in are pictured below... I almost put this in the joke section 😂

 

[Smoggy]

Must of been a tight squeeze. 

[grendel]

its simple they assume that if you have pets, you have a cat, the box is for the cat to sit in.

[Bikertov]

18 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

Vegetable gardening 10 months anticipation for 2 months disappointment. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

Sounds like marriage 

[kpnut]

Halfway through the paving/landscaping job at my son’s house in Scotland.

The garden is so slopey that we’ve filled in the low bits with soil from the high bits, meaning no skip will be needed.
We’re doing the project in two halves, the ‘lower patio and path’ and then the ‘higher’ one outside the back door round the side of the house to the gate. In fact, I’ll have to buy some extra type 1 for completing the filling in before the sand goes down. 

That block shows the start of a hidden retaining wall we then built to hold the soil on the higher area from disappearing under the fence. Digging out the footings with tree roots galore was taxing!

We also remembered just in time (I’d forgotten to include it in my plan, oops), about putting in a drain for under the outside tap as up till now the water’s just run all over and finds its way out under the fence  

The first order of materials arrived today. 
Richard lives in such an awkward little spot that the delivery driver did a fantastic job of getting the pallets/bulk bag offloaded as near the gate as he could reach, with a lamppost and enormous stone ‘feature’ to avoid while doing so. He even went round the back when he’d finished to see if he could access the back garden direct from the main road, but no chance, as I thought. 

At least by keeping it all off the public parking spaces, I didn’t feel bad that we were blocking a space.

We shifted some pavers to work out just where we were going to start, having realised that the pattern doesn’t match up accurately with the dimensions on my drawn plan.

The rest of the afternoon comprised me barrowing sand and Tony doing the final levelling before the first half of laying tomorrow, then shifting over 2 tonnes of pavers, thankfully with Richard’s help when he got back from work and making a neat stack, right in the way of where we’ll need to get to for the second half of the job when we’re up here next. So they’ll all need shifting again then🫤

5pm, and an early finish as we’re ‘weary’ to put it mildly and politely. 
 

Now, I’m sure the builders among you will find our way of doing it all very perplexing, but we’re getting there. And saving the expense of a mini digger and taking a fence panel down, and having to apply for a licence for a skip on a public road etc etc. We were quoted a high enough figure that I was prompted to persuade son and husband that we can do it ourselves and Tony has laid patios before, it’s just he’s getting less agile now ie old, he is nearer 80 than 75. 
 

Onwards and upwards tomorrow. My back is holding out remarkably well so far. 
 

[SwanR]

Wow Kate. I can’t imagine trying to take on that kind of work. I do admire your energy and determination. 

[kpnut]

2 hours ago, SwanR said:

I do admire your energy and determination. 

But not how knackered and wrinkled I look for my age😂😂😂 - too many years working outside I’m afraid.

[Mouldy]

Makes my bit of fencing pale into insignificance, but digging those holes for the posts was hard going.  I had another flat packed log store delivered on Wednesday, that I assembled yesterday, giving it a good cost of Cuprinol Shed and Fence treatment.  Went out this morning to buy the timber to make the gates to finish the fencing off, so I can move on to decorating the living room.

I’m so glad I’m retired!

 

[kpnut]

I can see and feel just how much you’ve put into your garden Mouldy. There’s three of us, one of you! I’m the slave driver in our team, otherwise it’d grind to a halt soon enough through too much pontificating 😂 You only have you to motivate yourself which is always harder. And it looks great.

Can’t wait to see it all planted up and getting established. 

[YnysMon]

Coo, I admire Kate’s and Malcolm’s efforts. Trouble is, I have a feeling that similar ‘efforts’  are going to be required of Graham and I once we (I) retire next month. We’ve been putting things off. Can’t do that indefinitely. 

[kpnut]

But one good thing about doing these sorts of things once retired, Helen, is if rain stops play etc, it’s not such a big deal. Just requires a good weather eye to spot when not to start something that will be spoilt by the rain. 
And indoors it’s the same, not having the same time pressure to get a room sorted before paid work gets in the way, (Monday morning creeps round) is a joy and helps you become a real oldie who hasn’t a clue what day it is😁

You must be really counting the days now. 

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

You must be really counting the days now

I certainly am. I won’t get paid in lieu of annual leave, so am taking leave next week and the last week of September, which leaves me with 15 working days days to get through. I’m feeling quite demob happy.

We are off to see a financial advisor this morning. I used the ‘Unbiased’ website (link from the Citizens Advice Bureau) to find someone who specialises in pensions advice.  

[YnysMon]

4 hours ago, YnysMon said:

I certainly am. I won’t get paid in lieu of annual leave, so am taking leave next week and the last week of September, which leaves me with 15 working days days to get through. I’m feeling quite demob happy.

We are off to see a financial advisor this morning. I used the ‘Unbiased’ website (link from the Citizens Advice Bureau) to find someone who specialises in pensions advice.  

Go back from our financial advice appointment. The advisor has persuaded me that deferring taking my pension for a couple of years will be a good idea, as it's index linked, not something I'd considered. I'm really glad we got advice. In the meantime we'll be living off my severance payment (what my Mam used to call a 'golden handshake') and various other 'pots' that we have.

I used to think that getting financial advice was just something for rich people. How wrong I was!

[kpnut]

Frustrating day yesterday, rain stopped play while paving.
So I took the dog for a big walk in an area of Cumbernauld that is so unlike what first comes to mind about the place. 
Cumbernauld itself is a bit of a soulless concrete jungle, built as one of the ‘new towns’ to house folk being relocated from the slum clearances of Glasgow. I’m not sure the planners got it right in 1955, choosing to apply a modernist architecture with the ideals of ‘urban living’, using a higher population density than in previous new towns. 
The town is built on one side of a very steeply wooded valley.
 

But go the other side of the M80 to the ‘overspill’ area, still classed as Cumbernauld and developed more akin to the ‘neighbourhood’ philosophy of other new towns, and you find an enormous open access area called Cumbernauld community park. This side of the motorway you can walk for miles without needing to cross a road as there is an excellent network of paths, cycle ways with underpasses etc.

The park itself is vast, well over 200 acres, full of woods, heathland, nature trails, ponds, play areas and football pitches, allotments, and paths galore, partly built by folk required to do community payback service. There’s also a huge galvanised steel statue called Arria, that I think I might have posted a photo of once before. 
 

The view from the top of the park across to Cumbernauld itself shows just how wooded this area is, with fantastic views to the west towards Glasgow. The town centre is well hidden by trees, and the whole built up area reminded me a bit of a French ski resort, with roofs rising up from above the trees on the steep slopes. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a chair lift somewhere!

It’s difficult to believe that less than a 10 min drive or a 20 minute walk from the town centre gets you here. 

The neatest allotment site I’ve seen outside of the continent. Hardly a weed in sight and rows of sheds resembling beach huts!

[SueH]

On 23/08/2023 at 22:03, grendel said:

for the first time  my plum tree in the front garden has produced fruit (other than a single plum) it was all on one part of the tree (about 1/5 of the tree and I got 8 plums which went down nicely with my tea.) - the tree- well its nearly 20 foot high now.

Lucky you.  This year our Plum didn't have any fruit at all.  They apple and pears are abundant.  The dogs are having a great time scrumping.

[grendel]

Well today brings the start of a new era, greener  shopping,  today this was my mode of transport for shopping, 2 miles round trip, and it was actually quicker than using the car.

The added bonus is that I can wheel the trailer into the hallway and unload, so no carrying  shopping bags from car to house.

I don't even  notice the added weight of the trailer. It Nicely manages the cool bag and 2 other shopping bags

I did get honked at once, going round the roundabout, the car that had been 1/4 mile down the road was unhappy he had to slow down as I was exiting the roundabout (having traversed 3/4of it) but its hard to not be able to see myself atop this combination and claim it was the cyclists fault because they weren't obvious.