2023 - What I did today

Sun's out. It's raking up and mowing leaves to mulch them, again. Also planning to get the trombas and pumpkins out of the gh into a frost free place, we're due for minus temps soon.

I've been doing jobs inside of late - cleaning up the downstairs bathroom so it can be used by guests. I've upset a fair number of spiders in the process. I'm using a steam cleaner to clean up all the grout but it is hard going after years of neglect.

Outside I have just removed all the dead/dying vegetation from 2 greenhouses which will need decontaminating. The bigger one had tomato leaf mould and may be blight and the smaller one red spider mites. They will be left wide open over the next few days as frosts are being forecast then I'll clean with Jeyes fluid and finish off with the steam cleaner in the hard to reach bits.

I've taken car (possibly now called the Silver Submarine) to the garage to have its airbag system checked after Paul had replaced the airbag ECU. It passed with flying colours, so I'm driving safe and able to pass an MOT when needed, which is very reassuring. It's definitely a good day........until something unforseen breaks because of water damage.

Welcome Back, Silver Submarine! You've been missed. No more paddling at your age.

Raked up more flipping leaves!!!

Dismantled all the bamboo A-frames and teepees I'd constructed for the beans and mini pumpkins and stored the baboo in the garage. I've been putting it off for weeks, but it's only going to get colder.

Finally found time to plant my 3rd  Seven Sisters rose. Poor thing definitely didn’t get the care and attention of its 2 siblings. So it’ll probably do really well     . Still need to put the finishing touches to its little mini bed and plant some bulbs with it.

Time to rename them - the Three Sisters..........unless you have another 4 on the way.

On skiprat duties again today although this was another skip from my earlier forays.Unfortunately I couldn't get all the usable wood out of the skip as this was a massive skip and I am too old to be climbing inside skips. Still managed to get quite a bit of 4 x 2 timber which will chop up into fine logs for the woodburner.

I finished the little bed I plant the rose in yesterday. So it now has a stone/rock boarder and it’s got some bulbs planted and a wood chip mulch layer. Put another barrow load of soil on top of the daffodil bulbs. With the recent heavy rains lots of the bulbs were a little more visible than they should be.