Don't forget to stop sometimes

Calm waters at Gurnard earlier this week - very tranquil

I have a few days 'home alone' while N visits family on the mainland.  To stop myself from mooching about and wasting time while he was away (as if I would) I drew up a very comprehensive list of things to do while I had the sole run of the house and garden.  Ahem, I think I may have been somewhat over-ambitious.  I haven't stopped the whole time, I've been so keen to get things done.  I have again been reminded that this isn't a race, not a competition to get as much done as I can, and that it's OK - indeed, it's usually a pretty good idea - to stop from time to time.   A cup of tea (and homemade cake, of course!), a bit of knitting, even, dare I say, the odd bit of TV.  

I've started on those odd little snaggings that were left over from the renovation last year, those silly little tasks that often only take a few minutes to do, like cleaning off the ceiling roses and light switches and sockets - no matter how carefully I painted around the fittings, the paint inevitably ended up on them.  They have all now been cleaned off, and the paint touched up in one or two places.  Just a little job, but now it's done.  

I'm continuing my daily fight with the weeds, working on the principle that 'a little and often' is the best way to tackle them.  I don't really mind weeding, it's a good opportunity to see how the plants are doing.  And I often have company as I work; a male blackbird often comes within a couple of feet, seemingly unfazed by my proximity.  He's so close I could touch him.  It's a very calming moment.

  

Lawn workout

This azalea has been glorious - such a splash of vivid pink

I spend all winter looking forward to the long days of summer, forgetting just how long those days can be.  It's light just after 5 o'clock, and still light long past 9 o'clock at night, that 16 hours of daylight and at the moment I seem to be up and on the go for almost all of the time!  It's a question of pacing myself in these long days, not trying to do everything in one day.  That's the idea, anyway.  

Today I made the most of a lovely day to tackle the back lawn again.  It's more moss and weeds than grass, but I know that with a bit of time and effort (actually, quite a bit of time and effort) I could get it into better shape - and indeed it's quite a good workout for me, too ;)  Armed with my trusty sprung-tine rake, I have scarified the lawn to within an inch of it's life and now have two garden sacks full of dead moss and thatch to dispose of.  Raking the lawn in this way raises all those long grass stalks that have been flattened over time, and mowing straightaway cuts them all off short.  There are still big patches of creeping weeds and I shall just have to persevere with those, digging them up by hand.  I suppose it seems a lot of effort but just half an hour a day will get the job done eventually.  We've spent very little on the garden (not including the veg plot, and even that hasn't cost us much), making the most of what was already here.  Watching the Chelsea Flower Show programmes last week reminded us how much we enjoy plant-and-flower gardening - as always, there were so many wonderful ideas to store away for the next garden.

Quite a bit going on at the moment, and I don't always seem to find the time to record the comings and goings.  My mind is full of ideas and plans and at times life seems anything but simple, so just being able to walk around the garden, pull some lettuce leaves for a sandwich, see the first little green tomatoes forming, and the peas start to scramble up the netting is all I need to appreciate everything we have here.  

A year here

I watched the sun rise this morning (05.15 ish).  It's always a sight that stops me in my tracks and makes me just pause for a few moments.  The forecast was for a bright and sunny day, indeed the Bank Holiday weekend promised good weather.  By 9.00 it was drizzling, and it continued to do so, on and off, well into the afternoon.  Doh!!  I know we Brits whinge about the weather, but really, why get us all excited with the promise of sun when it was going to rain?   The water-butts are really quite full now, which is good, of course, and the ground has been well-soaked with all the previous rain - I think the weeds have certainly made the most of that, there's a new crop after every shower!

It hardly seems possible we've been in this new house now for a year.  All that renovation work, the upheaval and chaos, the mess and the dust and the endless trips to the tip to dispose of the rubbish.  The wallpaper-stripping, floors up, the sanding, washing down, filling in, painting - did I mention the dust?  Everywhere.  I look back and it seems oddly surreal that we did all of that.  The anniversary has got us thinking, pondering our next step, and indeed our next move.  Because this is not our 'forever' house.  It is where we are at the moment, and we will make the most of being here, but there will be another move.  Not quite sure when or where - that is something we will continue to mull over.  

In the meantime, we potter along here, quite happily.  I turned my attention to the conservatory last weekend, as it was the one room we didn't get around to doing anything with last year.  There's not much we can really do with it, but a thorough clean, a couple of superficial cracks filled in and a coat of cheerful yellow paint, and it looks so much brighter and part of the house.  The little sofa-bed we have in there could really do with recovering and I might keep an eye open for some suitable thrift shop curtaining that would do for that particular project.

Despite my best efforts to finish one project before starting the next (really, what was I thinking?!!), I seem to have several odds and ends on the go - the workroom is getting messy again.  My head is full of ideas and plans but my time-management skills appear to be somewhat lacking; I'm not sure how it's Friday again, which is a little disconcerting!  This weekend I promise myself to finish one knitting project, one recycling project, and one clothing alteration (these are all currently on the go).  I also need to pot on some annuals that are waiting in the greenhouse.  

I keep meaning to update this little blog, it would benefit from a fresh look and perhaps a new header, but I am sadly lacking in the required technical know-how.  I shall have to read up on it, do a bit of research online, and see what I can manage.  I don't always check in to the blog daily (probably too busy reading sewing blogs, oops!) and I really ought to.  I think that needs to go on the list, too.

Something lurking in the soil

We get a great deal of pleasure from growing some of our own vegetables; the taste is superior, and we know exactly how everything has been grown.  Our veggies are looked after to the best of our ability to produce a healthy crop but we have learned that you can't factor in the unknown.

This was our onion bed:

All looks fine, but on closer inspection:

For comparison, on the left is an unaffected onion (lots of healthy root growth) and on the right is one with rot 

The salvaged crop on the drying racks (aka spare greenhouse staging)

We have a problem.  We seem to have onion white rot lurking in the soil.  A quick investigation online and we realise the extent of the problem.  There is no cure and infected plants need to be destroyed.  It's nothing to do with poor husbandry, apparently the spores of this particular fungus can survive in the soil for many years.  We dug the whole bed up and salvaged what we could, about half the bulbs.  In the grand scheme of things it's just a small blip, an annoyance really, more than anything, but it did make us think that we have been fortunate not to have had a crop affected in this way before, and even more so that our livelihoods are not dependent on crop success.  Thankfully this particular rot only affects onions so we can use the bed for other veggies - indeed, it has already been dug over ready to provide a new home for some courgettes and squashes.   We have disinfected the tools that were used and are keeping our fingers crossed that the spores have not contaminated the garlic bed next to the onions; obviously also being part of the allium family, the rot is partial to garlic, too.  Now we would be a bit more upset if that happened :(.

The first spud crop!

On a brighter note, the spinach has been a huge success.  I cropped it yet again (I think that's 4 pickings in total) and blanched and froze portions.  Those plants have now come up to allow the second-sowing seeding a bit more room to grow on.  And we emptied the first of our bags of spuds, too - small new potatoes that were just delicious with last night's dinner.  So, we take the good with the not quite so good, learning as we go, and being grateful for the opportunity to grow a little of what we eat.

Cycling up the hill

This was Wednesday . . . 

. . . and this was yesterday . . .

To say that it rained would be an understatement; it simply poured for several hours non-stop.  Yes, it watered the garden (again) and filled the water butts up (again) but it also threatened to wash-out something we had been really looking forward to.

Ryde was hosting the first leg of the cycling Tour Series (some good action photos on the official site) and along with a few thousand other locals we braved some dodgy weather conditions to watch and cheer.  And we weren't disappointed - it was great.  There were team time trials in the afternoon, each team of 5 (ten teams in all) aiming to post the fastest time around 2 laps of the circuit, and then the main race in the evening.  The start-finish line was on the Esplanade, and the course involved a bit of a climb up one of the main shopping streets in town (I try to avoid walking up this particular street if possible ;o ).  Watching pro-cycle road racing on TV doesn't really prepare you for the live spectacle; it is quite thrilling to see the riders racing flat-out uphill on each and every circuit.  I tried to get some action photos but to be honest, they were whizzing past me so fast, the pictures were a bit of a blur.

In the end I gave up and simply enjoyed the occasion.  As well as the 9 professional teams, there was a guest team made up of local riders, who received huge cheers of encouragement whenever they flew past.

Rounding the corner from the Esplanade, the pier in the background

The lead pack on their way up the hill

Thankfully the rain just about held off for the race to finish in the dry.  The event was incredibly well supported by locals - it's not often we host something like this - and the atmosphere was fantastic.  Pounding music, great commentary, enthusiastic spectators and incredible athletes.  It would be great if the tour returns next year; apart from the kudos of hosting, several parts of the course were re-surfaced in preparation for the race.  Good to see the back of a few potholes.

A new mantra

Forgive me if I witter on again about the walk on Sunday but I am still elated that I completed it - and it's a tick off the Bucket List.  For several days beforehand I had something of a confidence crisis and was convinced that I would have to drop out en route, and it wasn't until I had actually started walking that I felt the pressure i had put on myself begin to  ease.  As I passed each checkpoint my confidence increased, I was feeling pretty good and the task seemed more doable.  Walking for 8 1/2 hours non-stop gives you plenty of time for reflection and I did quite a bit of that.

I was amazed, and still am, that I didn't have one blister as a result of my 26+ mile jaunt; paying very careful attention to my footwear really paid off.  The walking socks I bought last week were so comfortable and cushioned my feet wonderfully, and I wore trainers rather than walking boots as they were wider and allowed my feet to swell without pinching which would have resulted in rubbing and then the dreaded blisters, so I was pretty chuffed that my preparation paid off so well.  Apart from sore hip joints, I don't seemed to have fared too badly.  I found the secret is to keep moving; if I sit down for too long, things tend to seize up ;) 

Anyway, it's all back to business this week, and I seem to be energised by my success.  Lists are being compiled and steadily worked through; things are getting done.  I recently came across a phrase on a blog I read (and I wish I could remember or had made a note of which blog it was so I could acknowledge it) which really resonated with me.   "Doing it gets it done".   Simple, obvious and so very true.  Why try to complicate matters?  If I want something done, I need to get on and do it; it won't get done if I only think about it or just talk about it, I need to action it.  So that is what I am trying to do now, and it seems to be working.  

It's bright and light by 5.30 in the mornings now, and we're up and about soon after, making the most of these wonderful long days.  By 9.30 we're looking for our mid-morning cuppa, lol!  Lots of work in the garden, and I'm making a start on some of the odd jobs in the house that were put to one side in the renovations last year.  It's quite a long list but breaking it down into small tasks makes it much more manageable, and I keep reminding myself that 'doing it gets it done'.  And so it does.

Putting my best foot forward

 

I went for a walk on Sunday.  A very long walk.  To be specific, 26.5 miles from one end of the Island to the other, through some of the best countryside you will see.  I was not alone; there were several thousand of us, all putting our best foot forward to raise money for our local hospice through the annual trek across the Island.  

I have never tackled the whole walk before, although it is always something I have wanted to do.  We have done the 'Flat Walk' on three occasions, joining with grandchildren and grandparents on an 8-mile, less arduous route (although still a test when you are 5 or 82!), and last year N and I did the first half of the main walk.  My son managed the full walk 10 years ago, and a couple of years ago, N's daughter did it.  It was time for me to step up to the mark, too.

I started walking at 7.30am at Bembridge Airport and finished at Alum Bay just before 4pm.  With the exception of a couple of short 'comfort stops', I walked non-stop; I knew if I sat down at any time, I probably wouldn't get going again.  Many times I was reminded just what a beautiful place it is we live in, although towards the end I was concentrating so much on just putting one foot in front of the other that the scenery was almost overlooked.  I had planned to take lots of photos along the way, but soon realised that it just wasn't practical to keep stopping to get a picture, not with so many other walkers - and quite a number of dogs, too - to consider.  I did make a point of getting my progress card filled in at each of the check-points, though.  

Unfortunately N wasn't able to walk with me.  It became clear, on some practice walks we did earlier this month, that the damage he did to his knee at the end of last year meant he simply couldn't undertake a walk of anything like that length.  So I walked on my own and he provided invaluable support via the mobile.  And I must say that there was huge support from all the marshalls and check-point volunteers along the way, which was great and much appreciated.

Tennyson's monument

The coloured sands of Alum Bay, and a glimpse of the finish

The blue and white archway, the official finish line - a very welcome sight indeed

The final leg from Freshwater Bay up and over Tennyson Down was tough.  It's along steady climb to the monument on top of the Down but the walk is still far from over.  Right out to the far westerly tip of the Island before doubling back down to Alum Bay; I had to dig deep.  But at last there is a glimpse of the finish line, and a final push to the end.

I crossed the line and had a 25th anniversary medal hung around my neck.  I found myself quite emotional for a few seconds, but elated.  I had Walked the Wight.  And not one blister!

You don't know what you can do unless you try.

And now the counting starts ....

. . . but first, some shopping trials ...

Some days, I potter along very productively, getting things done and feeling that I have achieved.  I had high hopes that today was going to be one of those days.  Hmm, perhaps I was being too optimistic ;)  We had planned a shopping trip for a number of items, and all was fine at the first shop - exactly what we wanted, no problem.  Onto the next stop, where I discovered the item I was after wasn't made in the length I required; you didn't get a choice of lengths in the smaller or the biggest sizes.  The item in question is a pair of jeans and I was really pleased to find some that actually have a pretty good fit on me so I went ahead and bought them anyway, using a giftcard I'd been given for my birthday, and I'll just have to take the hems up myself.  OK, we press on.  The haberdashers didn't have any magnetic bag catches, they sold out yesterday *sigh*.  I'll have to go back in next week.  Next shop, and after a lot of deliberation and consultation with the assistant (who was very helpful), I bought what I wanted, some walking socks to replace my very old ones which now have holes in them.  Next up, another birthday gift card (I was spoiled this year) to be spent on some toiletries/cosmetics.  I hadn't got more than 4 steps inside the shop before I was accosted by the assistant who bombarded me with questions as to what I wanted.  Now, if I have to go shopping, and it's not my favourite pastime, I like to do it on my terms.  If I want help, I will ask for it.  Needless to say, I did not buy what I intended to, indeed I walked out without buying anything.

Back home, and I spent some time outside trying to finish off a gardening task that has been hanging around for a while.  It should have been straightforward  but, as so often happens, it was being anything but, and it's still not completed.  It did seem to be one of those days.

I decided, late this afternoon, that I ought to try on the walking socks I bought.  First pair fit beautifully and are really comfy.  Second pair are about 2 inches too long in the foot.  They are a completely different size, maybe mens 9-11, not ladies 4-7.  I am not happy.  Not at all.  Back in the car, back into town, back to the shop.  Grrr!  The assistant agreed that the socks were not the size stated and found me an alternative.  I now have a second pair of socks of the style I wanted, in a size that fits.  Hurrah!  

Today was also election day.  I dutifully toddled off bright and early to cast my vote - votes for women were very hard fought for (and, indeed, died for), so I feel it is important to use mine.  My daughter is being a polling clerk in her local constituency today, and at the 1997 election, I was a counter of ballot papers after the polling stations had closed.  It was a fascinating opportunity, but I was surprised just how nerve-wracking it was.  I think it made me aware, possibly for the first time, that elections are a serious business, regardless of personal politics. I remember feeling a real sense of duty, and when there are party agents prowling around the counting tables, demanding you recount the papers because they think you got it wrong, it can actually be a bit scary. (I didn't count incorrectly, and they knew I hadn't, but they just wanted to unnerve me.)  We will probably stay up for some of the results, and I will be thinking of all the people working through the night to get the results in.  And I shall sympathise with any constituency that faces a re-count!

Bluebells, and a tail-less visitor

The sun shone yesterday (at least until late afternoon, when it rained again) but we took full advantage of a break in the weather and went for a walk.

The bluebells are just beginning to fade a little but a woodland carpeted with blue is still a lovely Spring sight.  

 Our walk took us to the top of a steep hill and to this memorial, built by a local land-owning family to commemorate the death in WW1 of one of their sons.  I've driven past it so many times but this was the first time I've climbed the hill to see it.  The views across the Island from the top are pretty far-reaching, but my camera sadly doesn't do justice to big landscapes.  I could see for a very long way, though.

Today has been so windy, all day.  It was also rubbish collection day, so we've had wheelie-bins and assorted rubbish flying around.  The guttering came adrift from the shed roof, necessitating an emergency repair, and at one point I had concerns for the conservatory roof - some very ominous whistling noises could be heard.  There were 'white horses' on the Solent and I'm rather glad I wasn't on the ferry.  More of the same tomorrow, apparently.

We've had a little visitor in the garden for the past week or so, this baby blackbird seems to have taken up residence with us.  He's very recognisable as he has no tail feathers at all, and consequently looks a bit stumpy.  He hides under the water butts and once somehow managed to get himself trapped inside the small meshed raised bed - N had to come to his rescue and show him the way out.  Hopefully those feathers will grow soon; he looks a little forlorn without them.

Brrr - it's Bank holiday weekend

Bank holiday weekend, so it goes without saying the weather is cold, wet and windy.  Actually, it's really cold, or certainly feels it, we even joked (I think) about putting the heating back on.  We didn't - phew! - just dug out an extra layer or two instead.  The rain has, of course, been great for the garden and replenished the water-butts again, so I shouldn't complain too loudly.

Unpacking the shopping bag (home-made) after walking into town and back (saving petrol), fruit in home-made produce bags (so no plastic bags) and yes, it was cold enough for gloves (handmade) in May!

It's been a weekend for pottering about the house and keeping an eye on progress in the garden.  I have some knitting on the go, a small sewing project cut out and pinned, and a quilting project being calculated on the back of a used envelope (where else?)  I've also spent some time altering a pair of walking trousers, and by the time I had finished it might have been easier to make a new pair from scratch.  The waistband came off, two pockets removed, another pocket replaced, side seams taken in and waistband lowered and replaced.  All in all, a lot of unpicking and fiddling about but the end result is a pair of trousers that fit better and doesn't look two sizes too big.  And it hasn't cost me a bean.

And now it's May

May.  One third of the way through the year - good grief!  

I had a lovely walk yesterday, clocking up about 8 1/2 miles in just under 2 1/2 hours; the pace was a bit fast and as it was all along pavements and tarmac surfaces, my feet did complain a little by the end.  I think I should slow down a bit next time.  A good walk, nevertheless, there's so much greenery about now and everything just looks fresh and new.  

At the end of each month I've got into the habit of looking back over the month and looking forward to the next, and it's been quite an interesting exercise.  Unlike the first three months, April didn't really have a focus or particular project, and that may be why it has seemed a bitty sort of month.  It was a time to take stock, I guess, and see where we were heading next.  Lots of odd bits were sorted out and we finished off most of the garden projects we had planned and the veg planting is well under way. We had a lovely holiday in Spain which we made the most of.  There have been some things that have required our attention and made us stop and consider, and that has been quite thought-provoking.

So if April was a stock-taking month, then May is time to move forward again, and to that end I have a list again.  One project remains in the garden and that will be done this month.  I have a long-outstanding task (which has been cropping up on lists now for several months to no avail) which I will do this month.  I have some sewing projects that have reached the top of my craft list and I intend to at least start those this month, too.  And there is a personal challenge I have set myself this month.  Quite a few other bits and pieces besides, but I shall be more than happy to achieve these specific items.  And along the way, stuff appears that wasn't expected or planned for, and that needs to be factored in, sometimes at the expense of something else.  That's how it goes.  That's life.  It's all about the balance.