Preparing for summer

This week we have been busy making the car park planting look neat a tidy for the summer months. Although it is a small area the weeding took ages as I had to dig down to get the grass roots out. We decided to use bark chipping to reduce the regrowth of weeds and put nutrients back in the soil.

We also managed to get permission to cut down a sycamore from the farmer of the small holding next to us. The tree has been growing next to our dividing wall for the last eight years and was beginning to cut out our light and interfere with our satellite dish and TV aerial. The tree had grown to about 20ft. we now have quite a few logs to dry out for burning. We have not taken the root out... the farmer said that he would do that. So we will continue to copse it for fire wood until he does.

This week was 'weigh in' week for cat 2. She originally weighed 6.4kg and after 4 weeks has reduced her bulk to 6.2kg. She is hell to live with but is already beginning to look more alert and slightly more active. It is going to be a long haul to get her to 5.5kg. Her diet is nothing complicated we have just reduced her food intake by about a third for each meal.

A sunday in my household

I am sitting on my sofa reflecting on my day.

This morning I planted 15 runner bean seeds in individual pots. They are now in our south facing bathroom and I am waiting to see the first signs of germination. This should take approximately 7 days although other bloggers have seen shoots much sooner that this. I plan to have eight bamboo canes on the allotment and will put 2 seedlings to each cane, bar one, because I didn't have enough pots. It is getting quite crowded in the bathroom because I already have courgettes and chilli pepper seeds in a small propagator. They have been there for about five days but there is no sign of life yet.

This afternoon I cooked for the freezer whilst watching the 'Boat Race'. I made chilli con carne and beef stew. I made enough for four meals of each. This is a new routine for me and means that we eat good quality food during the week when we are too busy to prepare meals. We used to eat fatty, salty convenience food which was not healthy. My partner is now cooking mixed beans which we will also freeze and use instead of meat as a base for curries etc.

The 3 cats are now driving us mad because they are officially to fat, according to the vet, and are on diets. Because the clocks have changed the meager food ratios they are getting don't appear to be arriving at the right time. So protests are regularly being lodged. Time to feed them...

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I will be adding to this space on a regular basis.