I suppose I should be grateful...

We found out today that there will be no pay rises or even any bonuses for me this year. Bummer! I do understand the economic conditions we're in but it feels like my excellent year's appraisal and over achievement against my objectives was for nothing this year. It's not even as if I can carry them forward until next year! How am I going to afford to import German designer board games now?

Anyway, in unrelated news our fat ball has gone missing!

This was the ball that hung by the shed and got ignored by the birds. Then got squashed by the builders and left untouched. Hung on the new pergola and ignored again. Finally taken down by me, poked around a bit and suddenly the birds are all over it! Well at least they were. This morning it was gone!! So either a) the aliens have got it, b) there's a really strong pigeon hanging around or c) a fox/cat has taken it although how they got it over the fence I don't know!

The Weather

Oh how I wish the weather would sort itself out! Rain or sun, I don't mind either, its the constant flip flopping between the 2 every 5 minutes that's really getting on my wick!

I finally managed to get an hour outside this evening to plant up some, well, plants and now I'm typing this with "Gardener's Hands".

You may have noticed a slight change on my blog these past few days (ignoring the fact that I haven't blogged for nearly 6 months) as I decided that a new splurge of blogging deserved a new theme. Hopefully I'm gonna keep it up this time (fnarr) and keep upto date with what's going on...my life is very busy at the moment!

Bugger

My plants finally arrived yesterday and are now all safely planted in the ground. Although one of my strawberry plants has died already and my tomatoes look none too healthy! Also I was quite disappointed with the girth of my leeks (and thats not a phrase you hear often enough if you ask me). I was expecting something a little more substantial that the chive like plants that arrived. No matter I'm sure(?) it'll all be fine and they'll turn into something fantastic!

Got a free evening today as K is away at a work do and then going straight to orchestra. I suppose I can fill my time with a bit of God of War which started off stunningly with a battle against the hydra but has gone a little humdrum without the big set pieces. Although to be fair my judgement may be clouded by the fact the game pissed me off a little when after I'd reloaded for the umpteenth time it offered to switch to easy mode so I could progress!

In other video game news K and I are addicted to Puzzle Quest on the DS...it's like crack cocaine! K has taken to playing it in bed and before she goes to work in the morning...most unlike her! It's a shame we only have one copy! Download the demo (at link above) and you'll see!

Although I am supposed to be playing Hotel Dusk at the mo!

1 down, 8 to go

Had a good start to the holiday yesterday, mainly spent it basking in the sun...



I did do some useful stuff though like finishing off tidying the garden and putting together my raised bed...just got to wait for my plants to arrive now. Also does anyone know what this plant is? I think they might be tulips as they keep coming back year after year but they do seem a little small to me?

Easter Weekend

Spent a lot of time in the garden over the weekend and to be honest it still looks like a mess! I need to get everything sorted so that when my mini plants arrive I can put them straight into my new raised bed. Luckily we're off next week so there should be ample opportunity to get it sorted.



I decided to replant my mint pot and when we came to unpot it this is what came out!! No soil just roots! Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal posts about the dangers of mint...heed her words!

Also managed to finish Canis Canem Edit. Enjoyable overall but I think I may be too good for some games! This was fairly easy and a nice big cross indicated whatever it was I had to do next! This is OK if its tricky but when my objective was to find a way into the Girl's Dorm for example, a big yellow cross on the map showing me the secret ladder to the roof is a bit of a giveaway!

We also did a couple of caches around the lovely Southwold...the lighthouse is shown below!

Yawn.....

For some reason I'm up and blogging...its 7.20 am on Saturday morning and I should still be in bed. But sometimes when your body is saying "Hmm, warm & cosy, please don't move" but your mind is awash with thoughts and plans for the day then you just have to get up.

Now that I am up I can't really think of what I should be doing with my time...it's a little too early to start the Big Day of Gardening and I'm kinda hoping that my raised bed kit arrives today. Visited the Suffolk garden show yesterday and suprisingly came back with garden ornaments, a jigsaw and expensive olive oil but no plants. Am going to revisit the garden centre later with a big list.

I feel a little out of kilter as well because its Easter weekend and only Saturday but my Friday went a lot like a normal Saturday goes so I'm sat here thinking its Sunday, its all very confusing. We've actually got a pretty much free weekend actually (my parents WERE coming and we WERE going to Yarmouth but both have fallen through), so we're probably going to end up spending a bundle!

And I'm quite peckish but with K off swimming in a little while (if she ever gets up) and the promise of meeting up for breakfast in town a little later I should probably manage until then.

She's up!

We did have a very pleasant visitation from the Palmers (the Nottingham Palmers, not to be confused with the Stokesby Palmers , who don't actually exists yet until Colleen remarries in October to a man called Chris Plamer, ach, my head hurts) to kick off the weekend (they stopped by on Thursday night prior to traveling home from their holiday). Not seen them in ages and it was great to catch up with classic Palmer mayhem (Emma being attacked by one of her 6 year olds and Chris dealing with mad employment tribunals, always good value!) Chris also fuelled my desire for an iMac (check out their multiple Apple vs Mac ads featuring Mitchell & Webb!)...a world of cool and simplicity await me...although not until Leopard is finally released and I can still boot into XP should the need arise!

Phew!

Another long day doing manly things (sawing and hammering) and the gate is nearly finished, just got creasoting and attaching a latch to do. The whole grisly process can be seen in picture detail over on Flickr.



This means I can do the nice planting jobs over the Easter holiday, we bought some new tubs and cloches and far too many seeds! Hopefully we'll get a bountiful supply of veg and some nice flowers too!



Spent part of yesterday making soup for our 'dinner party' at Yarmouth to celebrate Colleen's and Beck's birthdays. We made the starter and then we had Colleen's salmon and Beck's banoffee pie for dessert. A tip though, its best not to get 3 people with not previous banoffee experience trying to make banoffee pie while the the experience ed one is rooting under the stairs looking for stuff...it just doesn't work!

Also watched the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who...one word, brilliant!

Garden Update

So far the worms have not managed to escape, although they have been trying. I'm just waiting for them to eat some of the peelings I put in the damn thing...perhaps they have performance anxiety? I'm sure it'll sort itself out.

I have also (in the fashion of a dictator) made a unilateral decision to 'acquire' some additional land. Basically I'm putting my gate up a little bit along the alleyway that only provides access to my garden. With regards to the gate I have cut the wood (by hand) and put up the fence post. I just need to join the wood together and fasten to the post and then paint it! I've got some pictures but I'll wait until I've got the full story before I post them.

I have the plan for what the garden is going to look like in my head and I can't wait for it to all come together. I ordered my raised bed kit and my plants (Strawberry, Leeks, Peppers, Chilli, Tomato & Red onions), so I just need to get my seeds now (carrot, beetroot, raddish, chard) and some biggish pots with some cloches to protect the tender plants. I also need to sort out the existing pots and retire some (perhaps freecycle could help me out there)

The Great Escape

As I may have mentioned previously I'm getting a wormery in an effort to give something back to the environment. Well anyway it arrived on Thursday and fortunately wasn't stolen from my front garden where the delivery people had left it. Now I have an iron railing style fence and anyone could have seen it and just taken it! Perhaps the 'Live Worms' warning on the outer packaging put them off? Anyway, set it up yesterday, carefully following the instructions, gently putting in the worms, leaving the lid off and getting them to burrow before adding some food and the moisture mat. All well and good so far...



This morning it appears my worms have revolted and are trying to do a Steve McQueen! I've taken to checking up on them a bit more regularly and am having to be like a gigantic 'Hand of God' and putting them back in amongst the cabbage leaves. I didn't think worms were that picky? Apparently they can congregate in the lid just prior to when it rains so to prevent them drowning in the soil. I've popped some plastic over the top so that it doesn't get waterlogged...I must remember to check on them later.

Friday Fun

Thanks to a post from Alex I now know that the interestingly titled 'Demetrius and the Gladiators' was on the telly as my mother was giving birth to me. Looks quite epic to be honest!

You may have noticed that its Friday daytime and I'm blogging...that's right I have Friday off...AGAIN! What with work dull-o-rama and masses to do next week I thought I'd take advantage and have another day's leave. Hopefully work will get interesting again soon as I can't afford to keep taking days off!

The sun yesterday fooled me into thinking that I might do some garden work today but since its cold and raining I have put that off. I did however manage to put together my wormery and hopefully my worms are now feasting on an apple core left over from lunch! I'm actually quite excited about making dinner and all the veg peelings it'll produce!

Finished reading the Alias graphic novel that Richard lent me and muct say I really enjoyed it. It's not at all to do with Sydney Bristow and spys and rather the title of a comic based ini teh Marvel universe. really well done and it casued me o stay up a little too late on a number of nights this week wanting to find out what happens next. It looks like some of teh characters will be continuing in a comic called 'The Pulse' so that's been added to my wish list!

My cookery course finished this week but I didn't go in the end. Not really keen on scallops and couldn't find any to take so had the night off instead (and watched Kath & Kim!) I'm trying to choose my next course at the moment. Not sure if I'm that keen on mediterranean cooking, but there's a Japanese course that looks quite good. Failing that it's Digital Photography with the OU.

Brrrr!

I don’t know whether I’m manic depressive (probably not) or just really affected by the weather but my mood has been up and down these past few days. An unexpected warm spell has meant it’s been sunny and warm and I’ve been formulating lots of plans to sort out the garden.

But now it’s dark and cold and snowy and my gardening plans have been thrown into to disarray and I feel quite down. I guess it’s not just the weather but it seems to be reflecting my mood at the moment. Unfortunately I know have a wormery and live worms on their way and I’ll be forced to go outside and sort it out otherwise all my worms will die!

The bad weather (coupled with some Saturday laziness) means we haven’t geocached this week. We need to make sure we do it again otherwise the 2 we have done will end up costing £35 each (the price of the receiver split in 2). Especially as we have a travel bug that needs to be on its way…



Had a good time at my cookery course last week, we made Normandy Apple Tart and I must say it was the best pastry I’ve ever made! I tried to replicate it with some savoury pastry for a quiche at the weekend but that was less than stellar. Fortunately K’s mum and sister seemed to like it. We had a visitation partly for Mother’s Day but partly because K was playing in a concert. It was the annual Cool Classics for Kids concert with IOS and was quite good in the end. I’m always surprised at how few piece of music I recognise in the programme but then recognise when I hear them!

We also went to a 30th birthday party in Nottingham on Friday which was pretty good. I discovered that the Games Workshop Head Office has its own pub! And it was decked out like a medieval tavern (shields on the wall, low beams, long tables and benches, the works). But next door to that was the gaming hall that had loads of tables set up for war gaming and a fantastic castle theme. Super!

Some things don't change...

...like me spending too much money! Had to do an emergency transfusion from savings to current this week and we've still got 2 weeks to go before I get paid again...gulp! And yet the urge to spend is undiminished...

The good weather and the spare time have made me think about what i want to achieve this year. On the work side of things I want to try and get my promotion and then take it a bit easy. At home I'm determined not to neglect the garden this year. Last year there was so much going on that when I did have any free time I was too exhausted to do anything. And because I never do anything by halves I'm gonna need an injection of cash to get it all sorted...time to raid the joint savings methinks!

Things that need doing...

* Replace gate. This is actually quite urgent as our next door neighbour thought we wouldn't mind him popping into the garden to creasote the fence! Don't know whether to be grateful or affronted! The problem is the new fence has posts in different places and I don't really know anything about gates. Added to that is the fact that gates seem so bloody expensive that I might be forced to try and improvise or salvage the old gate. I'll still need to get some sort of post to fix it to though.

* Paint the panel that was creasoted and the panel that wasn't (yes that's right, the neighbour only creasoted one of the fence panels...don't ask!). This will probably hav eot wait until the garden gate is fixed but the good news is that I already have a pot of garden paint!

* Empty out all the containers that have dead things in them! We have lots of small containers which is good for variety but not good for healthy plants as they dry out and die if you turn your back for even a minute!

* Work out if we could manage if I set up a raised bed (1m sq) on the patio. I want to try and grow veg this year and this seems to be the best way to go about it. I can split a larger bed into small sections and the whole thing shouldn't dry out quickly. There are kits that look pretty easy to set up.

* Buy a wormery. This is the most expensive item but it would assuage my guilt every time I dump a load of green kitchen waste in the normal bin. It would also produce fertiliser and compost. Do I have the space though?

* Assuming all of the above, plan out a vegetable growing season and what exactly I'm gonna grow over the year. I bought a helpful book for this.

I'm off again tomorrow so hopefully I can start to think about this properly.