Lucifer has theories

Another long weekend so chance to dust off the last list and see what is left from the last long weekend *G* There'll be another one at the end of May as I've booked myself off work from Wednesday 20 to Tuesday 26 May. Six whole days - I may even (finally) get my living room sorted!

Today is looking to be a scorcher (and so is tomorrow) with milder temps on Sunday. So my cunning plan (so far - it's only 10am) has been to nip to B&Q and get the last few plants I needed to pot up the windowboxes at the front of the house and take stuff to the local recycling bins. Alas the big recycling centre is closed and that cannot open soon enough (though apparently when it does you will have to book slots so the first few weeks, I suspect, will be chaos).

I popped down to the allotment to check on things and everything is fine but it will need watering tonight or early tomorrow. On the plus side it still looks like I'll get an amazing crop of currants, the honeyberry has LOADS of berries on this year, the proto apples are forming well on the little apple trees, my potatoes - which had got very leggy - have leafed up nicely and the blueberries look good.

I plan to focus on getting as much stuff as I can done around the flat today while it is hot and then tomorrow and Sunday can be allotment days. Though tomorrow will probably be on site from 6 to 10am and then when it gets too hot retreat home to finish sorting window boxes and houseplants! Sunday may be a whole at on site if temperatures are more acceptable for heavy digging.

( Jobs still to do )

For the moment though I am having a iced coffee and a quick look at a magazine and then I will start!

In many respects I'm having a chill weekend (bar one particular person arguing at length on our allotment Whatsapp that she MUST her whole family to the allotment and not respect the max 2 person limit we have imposed - fortunately the other 165 people on site are all - cool yeah, we get a two person restriction, we need to do what we can right now).

I did amble down there yesterday briefly talked to a few people from a respectful 10-15 feet distance for a couple of minutes and then went to my larger plot. Cleared more brambles around the shed, dug over the ground to the side of the shed, cleared more weeds from in front of the shed and peeled bindweed off the blueberries. All of that took around 4 hours by which time the sun had gone in and I was feeling chilled. Came home and had a long hot bath to recover, watched some TV and had a catch up call with ravurian.

Today I'd planned to head back to the site but I woke still feeling cold and with a smidge of a sore throat (because I suspect I had been snoring away in my sleep). So I had a lazy breakfast, watched some TV, cleaned the kitchen a bit (aftermath of cooking). The weather has been really changeable today - sunshine one minute, hail the next, so glad I didn't go to the allotments.

I did pulversise the parsnip, carrot and celeriac soup into a smooth rich and sweet/savoury soup. The chopped veg stew is gingery and hot (thanks to the all the chilli and garlic I dumped in it) even if it looks a tad anaemic and I have two chicken breasts which can be added for a protein bump for evening meals. There's currently a dish of baked apples in the oven so I can have pudding in the evenings...just because! The soups/stews will probably keep me going for breakfasts and lunches for most of next week. By Thursday I'll probably need to start thinking about what to make with the Oddbox veg which arrived on Saturday morning.

Also Tesco had bread yesterday so I've not yet had to resort to making my own. *G*.

The weather has changed to sunny again and I should get outside and tidy up the tiny front garden and pot up a few plants but I'm still a bit cold so I plan to stay in my toasty flat and do a bit more tidying and sorting. Hopefully I'll get order restored to hall/stairs, bathroom (cat litter duties) and maybe a bit of the bedroom. And there will be more TV watching. I still have S2 of Altered Carbon!

This morning's task was to obtain cat food - I buy at least a month to six weeks worth of food at a time around payday. Alas the panic buyers got there first! The shelves at Pets at Home were pretty bare - though I did manage to scrape enough together to see us through a month. I have a couple of bags of gluten free dried food in hand as I'd bought it to test for the older cat. Notice on the store door "We're limiting people to 3 bags of Catsan" (are people now buying cat litter as an alternative to bog roll I wonder)? Online delivery not an option as everything coming up out of stock - might have to keep an eye on that to see if I can get an order in before next payday!

The allotment this afternoon was gorgeous - sunny weather and warmer than yesterday. I'm gardening in three sweatshirts, but by 2pm I was down to one. Weeded the last of the fruit beds (rapberries and currants) and under the Morello cherry. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be planting up extra rapsberries (which I bought a couple of weeks ago) and a white and pink currant. Then I need to move on to clearing the bed which is overgrown with vicious old brambles. They don't fruit well so need to be replaced with something juicier! Got home around 5:30pm and had a quick catch up call with ravurian before we had our first emergency allotment soc meeting on Zoom - mostly to do with Covid business. But it was a productive meeting as these things go.

Hopefully over the next five days I'll also have time to tackle the tiny front garden - I've got some pinks and violas to put in pots, as well as potting up a dwarf lilac (which survived much neglect over the last 2 years) and a brand new purchase of a small weeping willow. I also bought two shiny new ceramic pots for them. And the climbing rose needs pruning and the cobbles need cleaning up.

I also need to pot up the plethora of houseplants I bought on Friday. Plan to chip away at that during the week - work for 1.5 hours, 10 mins break to pot up a plant etc.

Received an alert from the work emergency alert system that our offices are now offically closed until further notice. Had thought I might have to go in on Tuesday for filming but that will now be postponed until whenever. So we're locked out for the duration - I may put in for leave on Friday morning so I can have another 3 days weekend.

Venison stew again for dinner (I have 1-2 portions left if I stretch it) so also need to do some meal prepping in the next few days. I have green cabbage, courgettes, celeriac and parsnips as well as the giant amount of chard from the allotments and rocket plus three heads of fennel and tomatoes plus other bits and peices.

I'm thinking salads for accompaniments for the week will be:
a) fennel, carrot, raisin and orange salad (chop fennel, grate carrots, soak raisins in some OJ over a low heat until they plump up, add carrots and then fennel and then chill)
b) rocket and tomato salad

Then something more substanial for lunches and dinner starlady linked to these two recipes which I want to try:
a) lentil, sausage, chard and garlic soup - I have most of the ingredients for this on hand and it sounds perfect for a post-allotment supper
b) cosy cabbage and farro soup - though I don't have farro but have other grains whicc I can sub in and I can pop out and get parmesan.

I think I'll make the first one tomorrow and then the cabbage on Wednesday or Thursday.

I may just make some celeriac and parsnip mash to go along with the soups. The courgettes should keep or can be stuffed - so I can swap soups and courgettes around for lunches and dinner. Also need to decide whether to make an apple crumble - the baked apple was lovely yesterday (and there's one left in the fridge). Simply cored two apples, stuffed them with raisins, poured a couple of tablespoons of water over and popped them in the over for 20 mins. Super sweet and a nice pudding with a little bit of cream on the side.

Breakfasts at the moment are scrambled eggs with either ham or turkey slices on toast or yoghurt and berries/apples/pears.

There's one thing for sure - I'm eating a lot better this last week than I do when working and scrambling for early morning trains and grabbing breakfast and lunch on the hoof! Going to need to keep going to the allotment to work off the calories *G*

No work today (other than a quick email). Had a chill slow-ish start to the day - gym finally closed so no PT session. Depending on a variety of things may see if PT's up for training in local park if we remain socially distant!

Issues with trains this morning so noodled around at home then went to pick car up from car hire place and then out to garden centre (again a quick visit) to buy a profusion of new houseplants - because if I must be confined to home I will be confined in a green oasis - and to pick up some things for the allotment. I came away with a logan berry, boysenberry, 4 strawberry plants to add to the strawberry bed, 2 blueberry bushes, some highly scented dianthus for the front garden and 6 bags of stable manure. I may nip back on Sunday for some more manure but I'm pretty much set for the next couple of weeks to be able to plant things at the allotment. On the way back popped into Asda (shelves decimated as everywhere else) but I did get a litre of oat milk and almond milk in as back ups to the fresh stuff.

Got back home with enough time to do a bit of pruning in the front garden (planting tomorrow) then I cleaned half my kitchen. Thanks to Oddbox I have a ridiculous amount of fruit and veg some of which needs to be cooked and used sooner rather than later. I get one of their small boxes every two weeks which brings 5 different type of veg and 3 types of fruit to my door which pretty much keeps me going until the next box with a bit of supplemental salad buying.

I have a big pan of venison stew simmering away. Tomorrow will be prepping a big apple crumble and probably a large tray of roast veggies. I still have three heads of fennel, a large celeriac, onions, loads of new potatoes, parsnips, peppers, french beans, sweet potato, chinese marrow, a load of apples and pears, pomegranate, and three kiwi plus some oranges. I do need a few carrots to add to the roast veg and make a fennel and carrot salad. At this rate I will be eating super healthily over the next month! I have flour so also plan experiements in bread making.

Lovely downstairs neighbour has been temporarily laid off (he works as a manager in the hospitality sector but luckily will get a chunk of his wages paid) so he came home with a load of food from the restaurant. I've now got 12 more eggs, a hunk of home baked bread and would have had a whole load more veg if needed! And we'll be keeping an eye out for each other and the neighbours either way.

Tomorrow looks set to be sunny so gardening and allotmenting during the day for now there's a little TV watching and staying well away from Twitter!

Hello chums - its been a month and what a month.

Cat - ( diagnosis confirmed but she's seemingly OK at the momennt )

Boiler - ( now fixed )

Work - insanely busy and I am so not doing well but luckily my 3 minions are fab and i may just be learning the art of delegation and our external partners are patients and organised. And yet...I'm fudging and flailing and failing to focus or be in any way efficient or competent. On the plus side but I am off from Thursday until April 11!

Allotment/gardens - supervised manure delivery 2 weeks ago, the day before it snowed again! Small plot ready for planting raspberries and asparagus. Herb bed weeded. Last bit of small plot to dig over Easter. Larger plot - So Much To Do. Shed still standing, little apple trees and currants survive winter. Have planted up some raspberries, more currants and blueberries. Bought whole load of wood to make raised beds in January but between weather, cat and boiler not had chance to spend significant amounts of time painting/making raised beds. Weather means everything feels so far behind where it should be. Tidied most of tiny front garden on Saturday and will finished rest this weekend so at least house feels welcoming rather than neglected. Still have to tackle back garden. Repotted and bought some new house plents for living room - and have done some moderate tackling of the paper mountain. Chipping away at making the flat feel a little less like The Young Ones squat and more like a home.

I've been watching all the TV and films. In years gone by I'd hide in books but so much of my day job is dealing with words I'm all done in the evenings/weekends and cannot word any more. Viewing it is. In the midst of the cat and boiler saga I managed to plough my way through all the Iron Man's, Captain America's, Hulk's and Avengers movies in two weekends. Despite resolving to not pick up any new shows I'm loving Counterpart, finding Instinct quite watchable and it looks like Krypton might be entertaining in a disengage brain and look at the pretty kind of way.

I did see the premiere episode of The City and The City at the BFO thanks to ravurian which I believe starts showing on TV in April (only a 6 episode show). And I;ve got a couple of Flare Fest films to see (on Thursday and Saturday).

Otherwiae at the moment my life is a mundane cycle of work, PT with the lovely PPTP (who keeps me marginally sane), petting the cat and holding back the rising tide of chaos in the Casa Chaotica.

I feel like I have failed to adult effectively since some time in mid-November but then I look around at the current world situation and realise I have zero fucks left to give. 2018 feels like I'm either going to crash and burn or get my act together and pull shit together at the last minute. At the moment I have no clue which way will prevail and I don't much care.

(You can tell how long it is since I blogged - I forgot how to do cuts).

Project 100 - work-life balance is improving since the strategy and business plan launch in early November. ( More Project 100-ing here )

On the plus side we're into Xmas party season soon - already have an afternoon booked out with one of our design firms, another one for our department lunch and a late afternoon/early evening for the org wide party - so no complaints there :)

And I'm getting back to properly prepping meals after a bit of slide away from healthy eating in late October/first two weeks of November - which will keep PPTP happy.

Speaking of - he's off home on 22nd Dec for a couple of weeks - so some R and R for me - or at least little lifting but maybe more cardio over the Xmas hols. The rest of the sessions are amazing as always - boxing is now killingly tough and he's still on the mission to give me buns or steel. Heh.

Operation 365 stalled a bit during the busy work period. I've now done a first pass at the contents of the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Talking of the bathroom my hedonistic streak for acquiring toiletries remains string - despite the fact that I've not bought much other than the occasional block of henna and one mini pack of moisturiser I have an embarrassment of riches in the bathroom (pics to follow tomorrow)!

Hope to have a pass at the living room next weekend and then one more zip around before Xmas.

I have a plan of action for the Xmas break which involves starting a major attic clear up plus revisiting every drawer and shelf in the rest of the house to decide whether to keep, sell or chuck, or donate.

Luckily this coming week is only a 4 day week. I have Tuesday booked as leave and plans to FINALLY pot up all my winter pots and hanging baskets. :)

1. Monday was apparently "compliment ruric" day at the gym. Three different people all said very nice things! First ravurian "You're shrinking!", then a Polish girl who trains a lot with one of the other PTs "You look amazing and are losing weight every time I see you" and finally the sweet Eastern European power-lifter PT (who sometimes wipes the floor with PPTP in training) "You're getting amazing results! You must be so pleased and you've worked so hard for it!" Who says gym culture isn't supportive and friendly?

2. Tube strike in London today so most of our transport network was out of action. Never have I seen the train station platform around the corner from house rammed so full of people at 7am! On the plus side I got on the train and was at work for 7:40. Boss M bounces up to me this morning with a "You should change your photo on the intranet!" I wait with raised eyebrow for the punchline and he's all "No, no, you look SO much healthier! You've changed so much!" They say 12 weeks before other people notice changes - right? EGO STROKED - thank you M, :)

3. I'm so far behind on watching all the TV. I'll catch up with Orphan Black this weekend, but still have GoT, Penny Black, Banshee, Dig and Hannibal to go. Just glad half my summer shows are 10 eps long and ot 22! Am enjoying new show Killjoys immensely and even the ridiculousness of Dark Matter is entertaining after a fashion.

4. Tomorrow I plan to train with ravurian again - as we did on Wednesday - as the lovely PPTP buggred off to France mid-week with one of his other clients, a singer, who is playing some festivals and needed some massage and PT to help him survive. Though PPTP has promised me a boxing session on Sunday as he's back and working the late shift in the gym - and seems to feel a bit guilty about swaning off to have fun!

5. This weekend - especially Saturday - will be all about the garden and allotment with a shift on Sunday in the TTT garden and then, if the weather turns wet as forecast, starting to sort out my attic again.

6. I failed to reach my Fitbit targets today. I will make good over the next few days - unless I decide to nip out for a quick walk in the next hour or so.

7. I have a giant pile of ironing to do and I DNW!

Is it me or does time speed by much more quickly as you get older?

This last month has zipped by - how can it be June already? It was only a couple of weeks ago I changed jobs! ( On the job front all is well... )

Other than work my life seems to revolve around training, gardening and dejunking the casa.

Still training with the lovely PPTP three times a week - boxing on Friday nights plus full body workouts the rest of the time. He's been talking to me about supplements - particularly creatine and ZMAs - and I'm giving them a whirl. He totally wiped the floor with me at Friday night's boxing session and then I was back in the gym for a free session yesterday which was a killer legs workout. I also bought myself a Fitbit Charge on Friday - I forsee fun with monitoring. PPTP was well impressed when I told him my resting heart rate was 49-52 bpm. \o/

I've more or less whipped the back and tiny front garden into shape again. A bit of a tidy up next weekend should see me finally able to sit out there and enjoy brekkie in the back garden in the mornings. And the window boxes are starting to look good. I'm still behind on the allotment but getting there. Have time to get some quick summer crops in and in the next two weeks will be getting the autumn and winder veg in place.

Dejunking the casa had stalled until yesterday when I had a bit of a blitz. This afternoon is all about trips to the charity shop and recycling plant and - if the showers hold off - maybe a hour or two in the garden/allotment.

Then I hope to pop down to the gym this evening to get a quick treadmill run in - because I'm still messing up pacing when I run outside - something I intent to tackle next week.

Hardly a life full of thrills but I'm enjoying myself. My fitness and strength have improved massively over the last 6 months, I've dropped a couple of stone (and a lot of inches) and now, after a few moths of stasis, it looks like I may be starting to drop weight again. I'm also eating much more healthily. So virtuous cycle of activity - food - exercise FTW!

Fannishly I'm not really engaged with anything at the moment. Can't say I've got any interest in the soon to start showing new season of Teen Wolf. Of the summer shows Killjoys is eminently watchable and I really, really loved Sense8. Still have Orphan Black, Penny Dreadful, Hannibal, Game of Thrones and Banshee to catch up on. Must see if I can rig the laptop up to the attic so I can dejunk the cases whilst viewing stuff!

Because the weather in good old Blightly is bouncing around a bit (stunningly hot and humid one day chilly and grey the next) the rapid shifts in barometric pressure have triggered a few nasty migraines. UGH. But not for the last week or so!

Sunday was gardenig day - I bought all the plants and then had to try and get most of them into the garden. Fiished gardening about 10pm and still didn't get everything planted!

Monday was back in the gym (though awake since 5:30am - thanks to the sushine streaming in through my bedroom window). By 9am I wasn't sure I'd survive the session - so tired - but a fast shower bucked me up and off I went.

Strength session again
* Sumo squats with a Very Large kettlebell (20kg? 25KG - not sure)!
* One legged side step ups - all power from the leg on the step - no springing off the ground!
* Bridges with ssome weird circular thingie between the thighs which you squeeze (hellow pelvic floor)!

Apparently I've forgotten how to roll up vertebrae by vertebrae - "What are you doing! That's not rolling!" I blame PPTP - we've spen so long making sure I have great form in deadlifts etc that mentally I've managed to fuse my lower spine together and I'm now having to learn how to roll again. :) We finished off with a set of one legged bridges (ow hamstring pinging).

did 7 or so sets.

The seated rows coupled with bicep curls for 5 sets followed by some dedciated assisted stretching. Hamstring/quads and - at my request - hip flexors. Which are feelig much better thanks - in no small part - to the stretching we;ve been doing.

Had bought PPTP some tomato plants (he's xperimentig with gardening) and shot off to do some shoppng before heading back to the gym to meet ravurian for an Honest Burger lunch. YUM.

Followed by trip to recycling plant to dispose of garden waste, more planting until ody ad brain gave out at 6pm. there are still plants on my living room florr but they'll have to stay there until ether tomorro evening or Wednesday.

And nwo to bed for I am shattered!

Next Monday (5 May) is a Bank hol here in the UK and as last Weds night was a trip to Guildford to see the Union Boys in HMS Pinafore (yes, again!) I decided to make a very long weekend of it and have not worked since I left the office Tuesday night.

My plans for these 6 days of leisure (ha!) revolve around:

a) clean house (as I blitzed the place before Wales I'm down to chaos in the living room only)
b) finish clearing up and plant all back garden goodies, window boxes and pots
c) ALLOTMENT! weed (again) sow seeds, design final planting plan, buy some seedlings
d) sort out stuff for voluntary work
r) if time, venture into chaos in attic

Things are progressing nicely so far. Wednesday I took some time to loll around, catch up on TV and read a backlog of mags (Home & DIY) before Guildford. Yesterday I had a productive meeting about voluntary work in the morning, blitzed my email in box over lunch, and rolled my sleeves up and tackled the pile of papers on the living room floor.

Chaos in the living room is now corralled into three main areas:

1) a pile of pots, gardening stuff and my boxes of seeds to plant
2) a few bits and pieces in front of my fireplace/on my desk (nothing major just a case of review and junk)
3) a moderate pile of books to sort out and shelve...which will be interesting as I'm totes out of shelf space.
4) small backlog of gardening mags to read

Still progress.

I can see 90% of my living room floor (plus I repotted, top dressed ALL the house plants before heading up to Wales), the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom are still tidy and there is another small (and easily dealt with) pile of gardening stuff at the top of the stairs (mostly freshly scrubbed terracotta pots/windowboxes ready to be planted up with summer pretties tomorrow).

Today is grim and miserable but I have been out, picked-up the hire car and bought ALL the plants (of the flowering kind). But for once I tackled this sensibly 0 i.e. visited three plant outlets, priced up what I wanted with a plan for colour scheming my boxes and pots) and pretty much bought in bulk from the cheapest, Which is more organised than I usually am at this time of year which tends to be MAY! MUST BUY ALL THE PLANTS NOW and end up with three times as much as I need and none of it co-ordinating. Look at me adulting!

Tomorrow morning I plan to be up with the lark and planting the window boxes which go in front of the living room and kitchen and, if there's time tackle the boxes and pots in the front garden. The afternoon is reserved for helping a pal on her allotment. If there's time and energy the evening is for carrying on with my back garden 'til I lose the light.

Sunday and Monday are dedicated to back garden and allotment - those 3 beds I dug over a few weeks ago? now covered in weeds wild plants but at least the garlic and onions are going strong, the currants and raspberries are growing as is the small herb bed and the flowers I put it. Hopefully will be some time to do laundry and tackle the last problem areas of the living room and catch up on some blog posts too!

I think the attic may have to wait til next weekend *G*

Somewhere in there I need to squeeze in a couple of trips to the recycling plant too!