Naughty but nice

This morning OH and I loaded up the van with all the recycling stuff we've accumulated over the last few weeks; several bags of soil and hardcore from the shed base, many bags and bundles of green waste from the front garden, wood from an old fence panel and the glass from the old shed windows etc etc It has all gone to the tip so my tip licence is my happy pic for today.

Later I went and did the monthly shop and put it all away.

Tomorrow is the start of Juneathon so, to celebrate, we went out for late lunch so I've had no green smoothie and no salad but I did have a very nice meal and a small lemon meringue pie for pud Yum :)

Friday

Started the day off well with a green smoothie for breakfast.

I usually walk a good part of the way into town for knit and natter but today I decided to be sensible and just walk to the bus stop about three quarters of a mile. This is because I went running yesterday and I'm going again tomorrow and I'm still being careful with my sore hip. I managed to finish my 'fish and chip' baby jumper and this is my happy pic :)

On the way home I called in the garage to pick up OH's van, they have had it for nearly 2 weeks trying to find an intermittent fault, they finally located and fixed it :) I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Worn out

Been busy today. I went running this morning, I know it says walking but my speed is only walking speed my effort is definitely running!

Not fast but it includes the walking intervals and I'm happy with it, I never have been a fast type of person :)

This afternoon I went to the allotment and did the other 2 new paths. It's very heavy work as I have to move the heavy bags of bark around from the van to where I need them to be. I'm really pleased with how it's looking.

I was really hungry when I got in so I made myself a big salad, and remembered to photograph it!

Wet, wet, wet

It's been an incredibly wet 2days, there is a lot of standing water in the fields and the little stream near Fosse Park has broken its banks again, but it isn't cold so I decided to go to the allotment. I have some small fennel plants that I put out last week that I think need protection so I've set them up a bit of shelter. The plastic is raised up on bricks (you can't tell from the photo) so it isn't touching the plants.

 I then tackled one of my weedy paths. I cleared the weeds, laid down woven plastic fabric and put in bark mulch. 

I got very wet doing it!

Came home had a lovely hot shower and a large salad for lunch (forgot photo again) and then went to knit and natter at the garden centre where I bought some more bark for my remaining 2 paths.

Greenhouse day

The weather is really awful today, steady rain and a very grey sky. I got soaked walking the short distance to and from pilates. Just the right sort of day to play in the greenhouse. I weeded the beds, planted seedlings and harvested some leaves and radishes for lunch.

The bed on the right has strawberries as well as salads and leaves and it seems as if there is going to be a good crop of earlies this year.

For my lunch I had salad with home grown leaves and radishes :) The larger leaves I'll use in a green smoothie if I'm hungry later.

Flowers

An idle sort of day today. I had a session with my trainer this morning and, luckily, she remembered I was starting running again so we did boxing. I don't expect to be able to move my arms tomorrow :) 

After that I had a green smoothie for breakfast but forgot to take a photo :(

Then I went shopping and bought some paint ready for when my new shed comes on 6 June :)

I planned to play in the garden but it started to rain :(

I managed to plant up my big garden tub :)

C25K

I met a friend of my daughter's this morning to try running again. I haven't run since I hurt myself (not by running) in February. She has never run and is fairly unfit, I just can't run however hard I try. So we ran together, we did Week 1 run 1 which is 1 min run then 90 seconds fast walk repeated 8 times and we did it, we are going to do it again on Wednesday. This is my happy pic Yay!

When I got home I had a green smoothie for breakfast with ice cubes because I was very hot and needed a cold drink.

This afternoon I played out in the back garden potting up tomatoes, peppers, a hanging basket and two of my tubs.

Rain, rain go away

Well it's been an awful day today with some very heavy showers but just wet most of the day.

I popped in to see my daughter to pick up some tent pegs she bought for me. I need them to hold down the woven plastic on my allotment paths to help stop weeds growing through the bark. I've been a bit stuck cos I couldn't find any, so this is my happy pic :)

 

My salad for the day was just a salad sandwich with more salad than bread :)

Friday

I had a green smoothie for breakfast. By way of a change, the photo is of the ingredients before I made it. This is also my happy pic for today because the brassica leaves are my own grown in the greenhouse :)

Brassica leaves, spinach, a bit of celery, home made kefir, melon, apple and a touch of vanilla for sweetness.

Forecast is for very wet tomorrow so, to get my exercise in, I walked half the way into town for knit and natter and then half way home again about 3.5 miles altogether.

Garden centre

I went to the garden centre today and had a good long look round their plants, then a cup of tea and a toasted teacake for my breakfast while I decided what to buy. I bought petunias for my baskets (still not planted up, I'm very late this year), some compost for my tomatoes and chili peppers, some bark for my allotment paths and an impulse buy of a pack of box hedging. I will plant them quite widely to extend my little hedge and take cuttings so that I can fill the hedge out in a couple of years when they are big enough. I should, of course, have used the cuttings from my own hedge when I trimmed it the other day but I didn't think of it in time and, when I did, they had been in the sun too long. 

I had a side salad for my raw veg today, not very exciting but better than yesterday :)

Minor rebellion

Get the confession over with first. I simply couldn't face another salad today and I've been missing my cooked veggies so I had carrot and celeriac mash with broccoli and gravy - it was really good :D

I went to the allotment again today. I carried compost to 2 more beds and rotavated it in then I finished weeding the last bed, that just needs compost and rotavating but I was just too tired.

It is looking good and I'm very pleased with it.

Day off

I had a day off the gardening today; pilates this morning and errands this afternoon. I read my book, listened to a play on the radio and stretched my poor shoulders which are really feeling the kettlebell workout I did yesterday.

Salad for tea

My happy pic is my new solar lights for in the garden. They aren't showing up too well because it isn't very dark but hey ho.

Hot, hot, hot

The weather that is :) Did some cardio to warm up this morning before my session with my trainer, we did kettle bell exercises today and I swear one day she'll kill me :) :) 

My daughter and her partner were having a day at the seaside so I had their dog for the day. We played in the garden for a while then he went inside and found the coolest place in the whole house :D

My playing involved bagging up a pile of rubble that was left when the slab base for my shed was made and cutting back a box hedge that has been a bit neglected.

I had a salad sandwich for my lunch and a green smoothie for my tea.

More bees.

I worked on my allotment this morning, spreading compost, rotavating and planting the first lot of fennel plus some other stuff. During a break I was talking to Frank, from a neighbouring allotment when we heard a lot of noise, very loud. There was another swarm of bees over the hedge and my fruit cage. Frank cleared off but I watched them for a while, they simply weren't interested in me at all but continued to buzz round over the fruit cage. I carried on rotavating so it would be done if they came nearer and I had to leave. When I'd finished they had gone so I went to look for them. I found them settled in the brambles so I rang the beekeeper who collected the last lot. It was really interesting watching him collect them.

My happy pic is 5 piles of compost on one of my beds. This is my personal version of today's Spartan WOD, each pile is a tubtrug nearly full of damp compost and I carried each one about 26 paces.

I came home about 1.30 just too hot :)

I did well on eating raw stuff today, the second half of yesterday's green smoothie for breakfast and chicken salad for tea.

Birthday

OH, nephew and daughter went to BMF today so I had the day to myself and no evening meal to plan. I pottered about and did my housework etc this morning then went to the allotment.

I sorted out the half barrels I used for salads and carrots last year. I moved the barrels up closer to each other so I had to empty most of the soil out to move them, as I put it back I mixed in compost and then put a thick layer of multi-purpose compost on the top of that. I sowed carrots in one, hamburg parsley in another and moved some mint into a third.

Then I made a start on the overgrown corner that I mentioned the other day

From this

To this

I had a green smoothie for lunch because we are having Chinese for tea to celebrate nephew's 21st birthday.

My happy pic is the birthday cake with drizzled icing, it tasted delicious.

Bees

The bees that were swarming over the allotments yesterday finally came to rest in my hedge. A local ex-beekeeper came and caught them and put a temporary hive by the hedge to catch the remaining ones. 

      
I didn't have my van this morning and was in a bad mood so I cut down the overgrown hedge in the front garden. It took most of the morning to cut it, tidy the soil under it and weed the front hedge. I ended up with 2 great piles of twigs and branches and 2 green compost bags full of weed and small twigs. This is my happy picture because I wasn't looking forward to doing it and I'm so glad it's done.

      
After I'd done the front I had a good big chicken salad for lunch :)

Then I potted up some tomatoes and sowed some beetroot seeds. In the end a very productive day.

Odd sort of day

I did various housework sort of jobs this morning then packed up to go to the allotment. When I got there several of my neighbouring allotters were leaving. They told me we had a swarm of wasps flying round our end of the allotments and along the hedgerow. I suspect they were honeybees not wasps and we have a new allotter about 200 yards away from where I am who keeps bees and who was doing something there the other day to try to stop them swarming. Still I wasn't going to argue with a swarm of bees so I came back home.

OH's van has been playing up so he took it to the garage yesterday to be checked out. This afternoon they said there was nothing wrong with it so I walked down to the garage, just over a mile to pick it up, it wouldn't start. The garage man tried but it wouldn't start for him either Haha :) So I had to walk back home again.

Yesterday I didn't have a salad or a smoothie for tea as I suggested because I wasn't hungry and I thought it a bit odd to eat something I didn't want just to put the picture on here. Today I had a green smoothie for breakfast to make sure I got it in.

My happy picture is of my first little jumper I've started knitting for the 'fish and chip' babies in Africa.

Lots of happy things

I went to the allotment this morning and weeded one bed and started another ready for rotavating. There is only one bit of a bed still left not done. I then need to do the 'corner'. Most gardens have one, it's the ignored bit that gets rampant. Mine has honeysuckle, comfrey, sloe suckers, hemerocallis and weeds in it. Very pretty in flower but desperate for a bit of pruning.

Happy thing number 2, I have a newt in the washing up bowl that I leave for the birds to drink and bathe in. Not very big but he seemed happy to pose for pictures.

I put him a bit of oxygenating weed in after I noticed him.

Third happy thing I went to knit and natter at the garden centre and had a cheese salad sandwich there for my lunch, very nice and served with a bit of extra side salad. Green smoothie for tea tonight I think.

Finally, when I got home I found 2 bees on the window inside. They were either mating or doing something else I know not what but it was interesting to watch them. When they fly about both use their wings when they are on the window only the big one uses its wings to buzz about.

Photo of smoothie later when I've made it.