Why Do I?

Why do I buy stuff from auction just because its cheap ? i do sometimes wonder . I went to pick up my stuff today , a glorious huge Denby vase that never in a million years did i think i would win for the price i payed that i was chuffed with . But id also bough a couple of concrete little planters for a whole couple of quid , so the guy smiles at me at which point i should have been suspicious he then says have you got £3 in change?  can he have it ?.  I still didnt click, so i gave him the money and he toddled of and came back with a huge trolley of every kind of weird and wonderful garden ornament known to mankind . He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and said ...please will you take them , we had a clearout of stuff that hasnt sold . So i now have a van full of the strangest ornaments known to mankind , fairies, ducks, doves , tortoises even a meerkat planter..lol   Himself never said a word but when he pulled at home he said ....Please tell me what the fuck youre planning to do with them ... Ive had a brainstorm and im going to hide them in the beautifully landscaped gardens of the overpriced newbuilds over the road , he seems quite impressed with that idea! 

Quietly Mad

 Today i shall be commentating on the state of the world , so for those expecting veg and junk , turn away now .

Well , what can i say America appears to have lost the plot , battering grannies for objecting to their families and neighbours being kidnapped by stormtroopers . But thats not the whole story theres so many different stories all tied up in the threads we get fed through the news that the truth isnt been told by anybody. Meanwhile whens hes going to deport Prince Harry and the kids ?  Harry has allowed for this eventuality by buying a mansion in Portugal on the quiet , if  he came back here im sure they would try to revoke his citizenship or just post his new address on the internet while withholding his security.  Im sure that the whole problem with Meghan was the fact that she was expected to be the brown faced  token royal and she was having none of it . cutting a ribbon 3 times a week wasnt the job she wanted while licking the arse of the Royals higher up the ladder was never going to happen. 

Greta Thugberg ..oh hum , possibly the most annoying woman on the planet , who in their right mind would go annoying Israel they have become the most genocidal wasp nest on the planet ?  It merely promotes her look at me side , even if she has an ism . She has helped no one but her own publicity machine. Its disgusting what is happening in Gaza , but hey theyre buying weapons and ammunition off us , so those in control will always look the other way.  Its all about money , its always about money or daft sky gods that arent the same as the other sides sky gods .

So yes im sick of the world at the moment , though nobody cares about your views im still going to give them!! 

Knit One

 The weather is once again keeping me out of the garden ..lol  The sun is shining and the birds are singing but its rained for 2 days.  Ive tried to amuse myself inside ive cooked loads of compost repotted everything took loads of cuttings and just pottered around , ive a huge  pile of gorgeous  victorian lace to starch and travel iron staring at me , the only thing i do iron .  The mending mountain to tackle , a whole load of severed Victorian pot heads staring at me , a big bag of miscellaneous limbs and bodies etc etc  i need to send a memo to myself  not  to be horrified when i do go to pick up an auction lot and find that the blue suitcase of broken dolls turns out to be the size of  something that a murderer could store a body in , packed with filthy Victorian baby clothes as packaging .  It was a good value ,who in their right minds would want it purchase and underneath it all was a pair of 1950s Steiff doggies that will pay for everything and then some, that you couldnt even see in the crappie photo .  i also got another mixed craft lot , once again the photo was dreadful , lots of cottons and sewing bits , a big bag of vintage hankies and scarfs and belts , but once again i got a ton of knitting needles im always trying to give bundles of them away to anybody who will have them , ive even used a few as plant supports . I have a complete set of needles of my own that i rarely use just because these days i find it hard work and crochet is much easier on the hands.

Now for another little thought , the world of houseplants . Now himself hates plants in the house and even outside sometimes , he killed most of the ones i had when i first moved in with him , or they died from the cold . Now we have double glazing and heating we can afford just a little of , Im gradually replacing them all . I know what can hack the cold and because we have no windowsills im using ultra cheap LED grow lights that cost pennies to run and the dining room is turning into my little jungle , theres a lot that have come from the car boot but im also addicted to the world of Etsy plant cuttings , for some of the more dramatic and hideously expensive stuff if you search on a regular basis you can find cuttings cheaply , ive stuff that came as a couple of leaves in a jiffy bag thriving .By next year i may have vanished under them all.  

Time

Or lack of it , ive been very busy its peak gardening season and i ended up doing all sorts of daft projects in the garden , we have had grandson here for a few days hindering Mr BH to the point i ended up having a paddy with them both for them both not listening to each other and just sulking and shouting . They have both been hard work and i was relieved that grandson had toddled off to his girlfriends and its disabled fishing tomorrow for himself . It will be sigh of relief day tomorrow after ive picked a load of stuff up from the local auction , nobody was bidding on a bank holiday weekend so i can sort through stuff at my leisure tomorrow , dread to think the pictures were dreadful ..lol

We went to Carrington Steam Rally on Sunday , lovely sunshine but i never took my hood down due to the howling wind , we took a picnic to keep the cost down , Useful son and his fiance came with us , so not a bad day out at all . Now its gone all nice and showery im not having to water stuff which is heaven , but the howling gale is back today and i keep having to chase the washing down the garden . im currently sat watching all the fledglings in the garden particularly the Goldfinches eating the greenfly , there seems to be an awful lot this year , we have tiny Wrens swearing at you all the time how can something so tiny be so noisy ?  The blackbirds keep coming in the house to steal cat biscuits from the food dishes , im starting to feel very witchy talking to them all .

 So thats my boring life this week at least theres a big jumble sale Saturday in Lincoln 10am Birchwood Scout Hut ...see you there 

Monday

 Well another week another fresh start ..lol

Last week turned into a bit of a shit show , went to Ingoldmells to visit son and his fiancé, they were staying there for the week , it was every bit as stereotypical as i remembered though in an update for you all, it now has the same endless market stalls , less fake branded goods and endless stalls of tat they all seem to be full of endless dog boutiques and weed accessories the vaping hoards were all marching round with a couple of nice friendly French Bulldogs being attacked by hoards of Chihuahuas in pushchairs , very surreal . I cant say i bought anything , himself managed a big cooked breakfast and i was trying to stop crying with laughter at a young couple with a baby in a pushchair who were arguing 

"Well you shouldnt have given her such a long ffing name, then you could afford the bloody tattoo"

Himself "ive never seen so many people in buggies " he didnt see the irony as he sat in his buggy or the huge disappointment as we had to leave early  due to his batteries going  flat 

Just to finish the week , we had to shove him in an emergency ambulance Friday , our wonderful ask GP yet again , it was on for 3 minutes so we had to join the bleedin queue to ring them , i barely got his name out told them he had chest pains and she screamed at me to ring 999 and hung up .  We looked at each other and rang for the ambulance , who promptly sent out the paramedics , nice lads as always only took 10 minutes as they were in the area, they wired him up and said we dont think its his heart but we will pop him in anyway just to be sure , as i said the dreaded GPs said we had to ring you but we didnt think it was his heart this time, the paramedics looked at each other and said the name of our surgery and laughed . It would seem they spend all day going to calls from our surgery . I picked him up at tea time , it would seem he has an infection under the muscles of his chest , painful but not his heart so hes just grumpy and immobile at the moment , he cant use his crutches with one arm and hes sulking because he had to buy new batteries for his buggy .

Im trying to build up the will to do a post on the shambolic world of  Universal Credit , its bad and ongoing , i may save it till the end of this saga 

Pulled

 Well its my lucky day today ive pulled , this super keen bit of man flesh is all over my facebook 

Mike William

Kay Chamberlain Thanks for sharing... pardon me intruding, honestly I must say you are gorgeous and charming...I went through your profile and I found you so interesting and worthy of talking to. Your beauty is engaging and ravishing still your smile is captivating and enchanting. I would love to converse more better perhaps be of a better friend. Kindly add me up. God bless you truly....best wishes

Please bear in mind my profile pic is of a very large beardy garden gnome . Is he kinky for gnomes ? does he want my bank details now to save him wasting his breath for weeks ? Hes from Rockford Illinois , so is anyone out there living near him ? Hes been widowed , so someone may have seen him weeping in a cemetery?  Hes a polo player as well . gosh its a good job im not in the market for a turkey teethed toyboy  Somehow i dont think i want him to be my BFF ...lol   it baffles me how people fall for these romance conmen , its like theyre a punishment for being female of a certain age 

Sweet

 Community Pantry week , early trip to Sleaford and home by 10 with a great haul of veg and 3 bags of sweet and savoury pastries , doughnuts apple turnovers those little pizza breads different sweet flavours of croissant, the freezer is bulging . We also got a big bag of fruit and veg . Popped into Iceland and managed to get some reduced belly pork its been chinese marinaded with an ancient pack of seasoning  and once again into the freezer . Lidl was a bit strange they seemed to have altered things yet again , the meat chillers have halved in size the veg section is once again huge like it was before covid and everything else seems to be cramped into smaller areas , they did however have loads of cheap pasties so thats the fishing season took care of once again ..lol 

Another weird question , why does every bag of carrots i buy seem to be riddled with cabbage root fly ? theyre rotten in days so ive got the dehydrator on all the time AARRGGHHH

Now to the fun stuff , having found how little our pantomime dame mayor can actually do , she and the Boston MP Richard Tice have decided they are going to block all the renewable energy projects in Lincolnshire , bit daft really when one thing we have is tons of wind and solar going free if they ever find a use for mud we are all going to be rich. It does make me laugh when theyre moaning about the solar taking away good farmland , the point is that this land was only turned over to farming during world war II  its not great quality , it needs more fertilizer and water that we dont have and the solar farms are good for sheep grazing if nothing else, in fact they grass round them helps the soil structure and prevents our annual dust bowl conditions and improves the air quality. Ho Hum its going to be fun 

Bank

 So we have a Bank Holiday with weather more appropriate for this time of year..lol  Its bleedin freezing howling wind  with glorious sunshine , had to be up really early with himself today , hes gone out for the day with useful son and his newly appointed fiancée to Truckfest so he will be back tonight , tired , crippled and as mardy as his arse . I think the look on my face when he said did i want to go said it all, it would be like me dragging him to a Craft Event..lol 

So i pottered off to Methringham Car Boot , not a huge amount there , but there is an awful lot of them round and about today, couldnt be arsed to go to any others it was just to cold , managed to get one item off  this seasons list a large ceramic planter in deep red for a whole 50p , other than that i bought stuff just because it satisfies my inner hoarder . a box of vintage Bossons flower plates and a Homepride Fred flour sifter when my hands defrost properly i may get around to photographing them and posting them on a forum i belong to .

Now then on to the fun stuff , it would seem that we have a wonderful new mayor from the Reform Party along with a few councillors as well, Dame Andrea must have been attracted to the job by her well known loyalty and public service , I read with interest the job description and yes it does seem like a pointless job for a leach . We shall see , does this mean we will see more of Farage in our wonderful rural area than his constituents do in Clacton ? I wont insult those who have voted them in, they have their reasons and views , im used to being a minority voter and can live with this . I may say i told you so a few times over the next few years  and she does seem to have a way with her finger . May she provide much fuel for my sarcasm 

Meanwhile

 I think ive near gardened myself to death in the last week...lol  but theres a method in my madness , food production must be improved , still loads of stuff still to go in 'my jewel corn has generated a treat , squash is all peeking,  a way to go with my miscellaneous tomatoes that have barely grown but what the hell ,need to source some cucumber plans as mine all just upped and died the other day  , which is a bit weird .  Though i wonder why im bothering with our daft arsed government wanting  to practice shading the sun , thats going to be good for the endless solar farms isnt it? 

In the real world however we have to elect a new Mayor on Thursday, 80 thousand pounds to do exactly what ? totally baffling i cant see why we need one they serve no purpose just another imaginary job dreamed up by the government . As for the candidates a more dubious scrofulous bunch ive never seen , i will vote , Labour seem to have the biggest budget theyre all over Facebook singing the praises of their candidate, all i will say is that i wont be voting Reform ye gods im not that desperate   

Easter

 Well i cant say weve done anything exciting , merely cleaned out a couple of sheds that himself had filled with mountains of crap , real crap not even useful crap , daughter came to lend a hand on her new scooter . Himself is so proud one of them is on 2 wheels . I know i hoard stuff but why would you fill a shed with packaging and boxes?  broken chairs and weird mechanical stuff you have no idea what it is . We found a pile of stuff belonging to useful son , he left over 5 years ago !!  Himself was trying to weasel it back into another shed but he was hounded into  taking it to his sons garage . Daughter was none to pleased when i pointed out she needed to take her fish tank home , shes been left 5 years as well .

Went to a Metheringham car boot but didnt buy much , at all , a pyrex bowl that doesnt fit in the microwave , so it can go back to the boot sale and a Beatrix Potter ornament that i have no idea why i bought it ? Dont know anybody who likes them either..lol Today i went to a secret jumble at Holland Fen its really the bog end of nowhere but we saw a sign last week , it was very cheap and i came home with a plush Gruffalo, 4 books and a tiny ornament for the dolls house . I spent £2 , the Gruffalo is smiling at me from the shelf . So apart from endless garden pottering thats my very boring holiday weekend , just the way i like it 

Rainy Day Chores

 I do love a rainy day and i can put my feet up and visit my filthy shit pit of a house , sort the dry washing yurt out , put all the houseplants and seeds out in the rain , fetch them in again, realise the windows are filthy , need to clean  the filth from where all the houseplants lurk in fact vanish up my own bottom while listening to my backlog of you tube prepper videos , catching up on days of emails . Oh im also making pizza breads for the freezer with dried up sourdough french sticks and weird cheese portions from army ration packs i happen to have a carrier bag full of them from the tin factory , as you do . The sourdough breadsticks were from the community larder , i came home with a load because nobody else takes them the lovely lady also gave me a bag full of beef dried rice in  packets  because they are out of date and they cant sell them or pop them in foodbank parcels , go figure they are good for at least 2 years after the sell buy date. this is becoming a feature of life anything they cant get rid of seems to end up with me ..lol  though himself did say hes starting to look like a cabbage i ended up with a fridge full last week .

The jumbles and carboots are proving excellent at the moment , i only bought 20 books this week..lol well the Salman favourite  recipe booklets , which ive flicked through and could always ebay . Got the unicorn of my dolly family a Teeny Weeny Tiny Tears  shes currently awaiting a spa day if you want to shock yourself look on ebay at what they are fetching these days !!  Still on my unicorn list is a ginger beardy Action Man and a stripy jumpered Jacko the Monkey ...one day maybe , I picked up loads of garden stuff i needed as well and im still spending my xmas money .

Its himselfs birthday today and daughter has taken him out somewhere , i do think its more of a treat for me than anything , the silence is wonderful 

I Have A Problem

 My name is Kate and i have an addiction , yep i admit it im a feral book buyer and a hoarder , i did two jumbles and a car boot sale this week .  The first jumble i bought a whole dustbin bag of posh fabric , a couple of books a big vase for daughter more crystal knobs that once again dont fit what i wanted them for, brackets for another little job and a stack of docraft paper pads for crafting  all with change for £5 . But then we tracked down to Branston Booths one of the best jumbles in our little universe. I admit it i went a little mad you see all books were 10p  , so i could hardly walk they had so many ,  i have a mountain of crime thrillers , more cookbooks and a gorgeous 1850 wildflower book should keep me going till next Spring..lol  also got a couple of plants and a few practical bits and bobs . Himself was feeling a bit unwell so i didnt stay for the auction , which looked rather good . But to make matters worse i went to Metheringham Car boot and struck it lucky there was a gentleman flogging loads of 1930s books and among them was a stack of cookbooks and a book on the buildings destroyed in the London Blitz  which im currently reading. 

This week im only going to a secret Jumble at Billinghay Church Hall 9am ,  it usually has schizophrenic pricing  and the weirdest things, there is a cat one in Lincoln as well but im going to be good and only go to one. I promise to try and not buy any more books .

Neighbours

 So we had a bit of an incident yesterday with himself , lovely sunny day but hes been doing an awful lot of painkillers of late hes not sleeping and to say hes on full on grouch mode is an understatement . Anyway the new mcmansion over the road is sort of furnished now, we think its going to be the showhouse and theres been folks there all weekend , apart from the floodlights on all night , no problems other than vehicles being parked in dumb places . Anyway yesterday was a glorious sunny afternoon and id parked himself in his van on the grass with a trail of plastic garden chairs towards the house . im pottering around in the garden and i noticed what appeared to be someone hiding behind the front hedge , didnt think much about it , i thought it was someone waiting for their dog to have a crap , next thing theres a drone buzzing our houses over and over , which because we have a military air exclusion zone is a no no. so i went in .  Next thing i hear himself shouting , hed used a plastic chair as a walker and collared the bloke behind the hedge . Now he shouts because of his hearing , but Essex boy with the turkey teeth was right in his face . Hed asked Mr hide in the hedge if he had a drone licence and got the yeah of course i have and himself was informing him he will be reporting him to the Civil Aviation Authority because this is an area where drones are banned. hed asked Mr Turkey Teeth for his name and licence number and got told to fuck off . I thought it was going quite well as himself hadnt head butted him.  In potters himself and hes promptly on the phone to the police , giving the vehicle registration number and a description , its an answer phone so they wont do a lot . Then he dropped the bombshell that i hadnt considered , this creepy so and so was filming kids and teenagers sunbathing going over those gardens over and over again ....im just hoping he isnt the new neighbour and was just someone from the estate agents . Because later we had a visit from a neighbour asking about what was going on , who promptly said he wont have that drone very long if hes living here  

Fire

 Well thats the annual fire down on the veg patch over and done with , just the ashes to spread and a full box of chicken manure fertilizer to throw around then its full on planting time , im always later than some people getting stuff in , but its open and very windy here so it makes sense . going to pop my sweetcorn and squash in today in pots because joys of the countryside the mice eat everything you direct sow ..lol ive cauliflower and loads of broadbeans awaiting planting and the spuds are waiting patiently . Thats this weeks garden plans 

Anyway what else is going on in the world , it would seem the farmers are planning a grain movement strike ?  could be interesting or maybe not , will all the old grannies be out scooping up all the bread just in case , I shouldnt think the supermarkets will miss a chance to ram their prices up yet again and we can live without bread also i can always hope theres a shortage of Mr Kipling products , another branded product that seems to have become inedible even for himself . On the subject of brands whats going on with Heinz , did they finally realise that they had priced themselves out of most folks shopping baskets? I had got to where the only Heinz product i wasted my money on was salad cream , everything else there were equally as good own label products , now they seem to be on offer everywhere B&N has been doing the curry beans at two for £1.50 so I have a great load stocked up , the big kids love them , they also had cheap HP sauce which is himselfs favourite. 

This week we have to start the application process for Universal Credit wish us luck im really hoping its as seamless as they claim , but if not i can manage on what we have in stock and whats a few threatening letters after all these years , just have to remember to order a few more cases of cat food , then im done, the end of an era i will not have another penny from anywhere till i collect my pension in five years. Under universal credit everything goes to the male head of the household ...joy   

Bizzy

Its that time of the year , full on gardening season  and the arctic wind is howling , such is life . Himself insisted that we went to the huge carboot at Stickney yesterday morning , hes in his shorts i was in 4 layers , hat, hood gloves big boots etc etc . Ive always felt the cold , comes from years  in unheated homes and working in freezer warehouses back in the day .  Now i dont even have the luxury of going home to a hot bath a shower just isnt a substitute ..lol.  On a plus note himself is whacked off his head on painkillers , hes finding that the vibrations from his scooter is crippling him more than usual so he will likely be asleep for most of the next two days. Did i spend a fortune ? I came home with a big bag of cheap veg , bakery stuff and a trio of small planters for in the house . I always enjoy rooting through the house clearance stuff . I did however just at the very end of the boot sale find a 80s floor to ceiling plant stand for the grand total of £2 never opened , they start at around the £50 mark online for a cheap chinese import , this weighs a ton so may survive living in the bathroom of doom and yes i sneaked out this morning to the first of the local carboots and spent a whole £1.50 on a plant and a hanger .

So happy Mothers Day to you all in the UK , i got a plant i could never have justified the cost of buying from my daughter, a  Thai Constelation Monstera its tiny and nobody but me seems very impressed but ive been lusting after one for ages. i have to cook chicken dinner for my pet zombie  thats my exciting day, bless him , if he ever stops snoring ...lol

Conform

 Well this is the end of the world...well some seem to think so .  The government now has the right to root through your bank account if they think your commiting benefit fraud .  Actually it just means they will do exactly what they want and you are guilty till you can prove otherwise . Governments do what ever they like these days but how long till they do something very wrong and start killing people?  Meanwhile they are trying to defund the disabled because we are a drain on the rest of society while bringing in the Assisted Dying Bill its .  all a bit suspect. 

Those who have been involved in the trials of the bank account rooting have found that they have to prove who they are paying rent to , have to prove what every individual payment they are making is for and the people they are dealing with have no clue about being disabled , one man stated he had to justify buying extra catheters because he should be getting them from the NHS . But sadly the NHS may be brilliant but they often dont supply the most up to date supplies you need or enough to last all the time so yes we have to buy what is useful to a particular disability of various natures . Another example was a lady paying to see a private mental  counsellor from her money , why? because there is a 2 year waiting list .DOH 

Disability will never be a one size fits all , no matter what they try to legislate , so hurry up and climb into the suicide pod , you know your a burden 

Crystal Ball

 i think the weird dreams may be triggered by a change in brand of my latest vitamins , i have to take B12 and vitamin D all the time from the doctor , im not good at absorbing things through my gut due to it being somewhat battered and scarred , so for a lot of years ive being doing 30 days of various vitamins and minerals a different each month so i dont overdose , but this time the magnesium has had B6 added to its mix and the weird dreams are pretty epic . Ive either become a seer or a Sybil but who believes a prophet in there own lifetime ?  We are living in times that make Revelation and Nostradamus look pretty tame . I was off in fairy land last night and Keir Starmer had just offered all the incomers citizenship if they joined up and fought in the trenches of Europe for us . Sadly it didnt go as well as he expected and hoards of them were down at the South Coast buying lilos and peddling frantically for France. On the home front i was doing the washing up while watching tanks trundling across the meadows at the back of the house, all very trippy and who knows maybe its all a premonition? 

Shower of S!!!

 Well here we are again. another journey into the unknown starts , blew a car up Monday that we couldnt afford to lose at the moment , so ho hum here i go again trying to perform miracles with what we have . Now i had one of those weird dreams the other night , hadnt even eaten a huge block of cheese so it must be stress related .  I dreamt that because we are governed endlessly by toss pots, we decided to instead let comedians stand for election,  no party loyalty just a sense of humour . Hear me out on this one , Ukraine doesnt seem to have done to bad from the idea , hes not perfect but hes better than anything we have on offer . I didnt even like some of the comedians on offer , Ricky Gervaise and Fergel Sharkey were running the enviroment , The Home Office was under the thumb of Jo Brand , DWP had peter kaye in charge after all he was in a wheelchair in his Phoenix Nights days it was going quite well then Jimmy Carr was put in charge of the Tax Office and Frankie Boyle became the prime minister . So ho hum how wrong could it go ? 

Observations

 Well theyre dragging out the whole dont be sick because your worthless narrative by the Labour Party at the moment , who knows what diabolical ideas theyve got from some think tank . But the whole thing smells of eugenics , get rid of the disabled and sick theyre costing to much , strangle the NHS till only those who can afford treatment get it . Do they really think that you can cut down on the sick after a damaging pandemic , for which their doesnt seem to be much in the way of treatment from ?  Then theres the fact that employers just dont want disabled employees , the job market dying due to ever more AI , its all a perfect storm at the moment . Go away and die seems to be the motto of the moment and guess what they will Assist you to do it , its all very Soylent Green if your old enough to remember the movie .

On another crystal ball moment , i had a thought . Do they need to train everybody up for desk jobs to free the younger generation for conscription ?

Aint Life Fun

 Well our own personal apocalypse arrived on the mat the other day , we have had notice that we must transfer to Universal Credit , so thats five weeks of no scrounged funds from the government ..lol cant say im that phased its not unexpected and its nothing to the 9 months we had to go without in 2017 , pantry is bulging all the vehicles are legal ive got enough saved to pay the rent and the council tax so no real worries . However we also have the cutting of disability benefits on the Horizon , but we will bugger on as best we can . Life as a scrounger is damned hard work . Himself doesnt have many worries on the being fit for work front , with his ever worsening multiple conditions and the class A drugs . I couldnt care less, chewing members of the DWP is a skill ive learned over the last few years.

OH ive been told i must tell everyone that Uncle Roy is a year youger than Mommy Dearest shes 90 next month  and is still quite batty in her elder care prison , it seems he reads the blog and I got it wrong  

Well

 With all thats going on in the world , lets get on to the important stuff . Gardening. This is a bonus a whole week of sunhine and frost and a almost helpful son . Plus the council turned up to paint the outside of the house with just a letter through the door the night before .  Bless , though how painting a door that was disintergrating as fast as they were painting it was a fresh challenge for them, and ive just been watching them paint over the huge patch of ivy on the house opposite a quality job as usual . Now i just have to persuade one of my slaves to put back all the big planters theres a couple of monsters that i cant move an inch to put back . Raspberries are chopped down awaiting compost piling on them , apple trees are pruned , hazel branches cut down for my bean rows , more seeds to pop into pots today . Spring bonfire pile growing nicely , i can always blame the builders..lol   inspected the potato sets today , just starting to peep so plenty of time for them .

Now lets talk politics , theres no nice guys in the world of politics , but boy have we got some really epic nut jobs around the world at the moment , what will happen? who bleedin knows , the one certainty is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer , it gets harder and harder to eat to a budget , folks cant afford warmth , something will give eventually but you cant speculate on what , i think its a bit like Jenga theres all the big moves you get away with and then become more and more blase about,  till a tiny little thing makes everything collapse ...those are the times we are living in  

Glorious

 Got up this morning to gorgeous sunshine and hardly any of the sub zero wind , so pottered happily outside all morning . Broad beans huge propagator full sat outside on the garden bench , note to self must remember to tie them down before the next howling gale . Asparagus , leeks , celeriac and a few cabbages in the other propagator . All will sit outside till they feel like making an appearance , im in no rush for them , then the propagators will turn there hand to squash and cucumbers and jewel corn . Inside i will start a few tomatoes and peppers .

Much to my surprise sarcastic son , turned up asking for garden jobs , bear in mind hes barely left the house since before covid . I asked him what he wanted to do and he said pruning , apparently hes been watching lots of gardening videos on You Tube . Hes done wonders in the back garden near the house , but he got maybe 10ft away from the house and said he was going in now because he was starting to panic . Is this a sign that hes finally found a decent counsellor , the job center have fixed him up with one due to the total indiference from our GP .  He did say the new counsellor was nice and got that he has agrophobia with anxiety issues , she has told him to set little goals and it doesnt mean hes a failure if he cant complete them . Big difference from the last idiot he got who kept telling he was a failure at every turn and actually worsened his condition . Mental Health care in the UK is a soddin joke 

Looming

 Yes the start of the gardening season is upon us ..lol , even if its bleedin freezing out there and its a wee bit waterlogged. Sat and ordered the last of the seeds for this year  More squash , beans and beetroot , last years massive failures havent put me off , crap weather is a feature of the job and if the gloom continues it might not be much of a season this year but you will still get some decent titbits if nothing else . Lots of King Edwards waiting to go in and my usual orkney blues and pink fir apples all sat waiting and ive not bought any of them theyre all savings from last year .  i will start a few tomatoes this week just half a dozen seeds and pop a cucumber or two in , the broad beans and the leeks can go in a propagator outside theres no need to rush them . Subject to the weather i plan on chopping the big raspberry patch to the ground and drowning it in a huge garden builders bag of leaves and kitchen scraps then topping with grass cuttings in a few weeks . Ive plenty of raspberries in the freezer and in jars so a year off wont hurt .

 Not sure what is happening at the bottom of the garden due to the builders deciding to flail all my bushes off !! also caught them discusing sawing my willow tree down , i did point out its actually 3ft inside my garden . They slopped off at that point but i wont be suprised if they start building fires at the base theyve done that on other peoples bounderies , there was much muttering about scummy council house tenants . Thats State Housing to those of you abroad . Theres a lot of predjudice on that front , even the bleedin estate agent was saying they will struggle to sell the two houses facing us because we are council tenants . 

Highlights Lowlights

Another pretty boring week , looking out the window at the rain , at least it isnt snow . We have come to the end of  himselfs current hospital cycle and we have a whole month off , im awaiting appointments which may take weeks months or years , who knows . 

I was deeply impressed that i managed to get a whole 3kg of brown rice for the grand sum of £1.50  it was just in date , so ive kilner jarred it with oxygen absorbers and it will last me a year . You cant keep brown rice for much longer as it can go rancid . The dreaded crisp lady had a big box of wholefoods bags hidden amid the 100% unhealthy usual stock . On the prepping front do remember to rotate your stock , dried anything can be practically immortal , spices etc lose  there strength once unsealed but they are still usable if you add a wee bit more , the sniff test works best if it has no smell it has no taste , tinned goods last years past the date , anything with tomatoes not so long. it depends on the quality of the tin and lining , certain tinned fruit lasts longer than others . You cant tell by the brand the only way to tell is by opening one and having a look . Dried fruit is another near immortal if its looking a bit shrivelled soak it in a cup of tea and its as good as new . I'm on a mission for a wet day and will do a stock check , anything coming up to its usable lifespan goes on the worktop in a box and its added to the next couple of weeks menus. 

Chicken stew is starting to smell good , made with a couple of garlic chicken thighs and the juice and skin  from yesterdays chicken and veg , wilted celery a couple of sad carrots and a big tin of 5 bean salad that ive been trying to find a use for, it was years out of  date but when opened were perfect . So its stew and dumplings for tea ...it looks that sort of day

OOPS

 Well ive tried for weeks to avoid this but im afraid its got to be done  . Im going to comment on US politics even though its none of my business and you lot voted for this muppet . As a comparison , nobody here voted for Liz Truss we just got lumbered with her lunacy because the Tories never listen to anyone who wasnt a donor   What the hell is going on, the return of the orange one seems to be going well doesnt it?  Meanwhile Musk is runnng riot in his normal mr wonderful mode as he starts the asset stripping of every government department he can get through the doors of . Theres so much bullshit being pumped out by the usual suspects online its hard to tell what the actual truth is .  Musk is the real danger , he knows best and is only happy when destroying anything he gets his hands on . Bezos and Zuckerberg looked like a pair of hostages at the inaugerration and its made the news a giggle every morning when we get up . No matter how bad things are here in the UK this shambles makes us look good and at the moment we still have cheap eggs . For a country with so many guns is nobody a good shot?

Blip

 Well its the weird things running through my mind at 3am post , last night it was TB im old enough to remember a friends mum dying of it when we were at junior school . But these days its becoming a monster of our own creation ,once upon a time you would be sent to an isolation hospital till you were cured , these days they just hand out antibiotics and you take them if you can be bothered or when it gets noticibly worse . In a lot of cases its mutated into antibiotic resistance . They stopped vacinating teenagers back in 2005 doubtless on cost grounds and now its only given to babies from at risk groups well thats what it says on the government website , i think thats code for incomers from exotic places . im curious are all the incomers automatically tested for TB these days, i cant find an answer to that one anywhere. I dont need a crystal ball to see where this going , its transmittable by people living in close confines and just one person can spread it a very long way . Back in the 90s we had outbreaks in Hull and Scunthorpe and they were quickly testing folks and treating them . So this thought has been triggered by the large outbreak in Kansas USA . You can no longer isolate people due to their human rights so is it chuck a packet of antibiotics at folks and hope they take them? 

On and On

 Life is pretty uninteresting at the moment , the only highlight has been my wander to Sleaford to shop for the first time since before xmas , Community larder was its usual joy , tons of bread products so its doughnut bread pudding today, ive missed fresh fruit and veg so much , i know i have tons of dehydrated and frozen and a huge immortal cabbage but a pineapple was the highlight of the day . Chicken factory for a whole £10 worth of weird into the freezer, different huge bags of sweet chilli and garlic and herb, another tray of drumsticks for stew and a large chicken crown . They even had cooked chicken portions that ive shared with the cat . . All i needed was Lidl for some milk and iced tea for himself . I gather there is a couple of jumbles for next month and i admit ive left a host of tiny bids on the local auctions which would be a problem if i won them all, but if i put 10 bids on i sometimes win 1  and its no big deal as i havent cleared the backlog from the last load mainly because its stuff that needs to be washed and spend time hanging out or project things . On the project front im just trying to find the stuff i need to make cats eyeballs for drawer handles ..lol. sod the housework 

Bleedin hell the suns breaking through the pea soup fog , maybe i could find my way to the apple trees and do a bit of pruning ....wish me luck 

Blue

This endless grey or endless icy is doing my head in literally . im strugling with motivation and trivial health woes and just cant seem to give myself a big enough kick up the arse to get moving. I know the winter always gets me down so my usual coping stratergies are in place. Set myself small targets every day and try to achieve them.  Ive got every SAD light bulb in the universe on, plus grow lights for the current houseplant jungle.  So its watch dpressing TV or read, thats as far out of the fog as ive got , bring on Spring im sat tapping my foot waiting .

Why does the family think im mad its only a small bowl of potting compost in the microwave ? answers on a postcard or in the comments 

More Scandal

Well im trying not to laugh , they have now put in planning permision for loads more of these god awful  Mc mansions across the road from all the posh barn conversions on the opposite side of the village , they are all screaming online about how it will spoil their views and devalue their homes , im going to have to dig out my tiny violin for this one . im stuck here staring straight into the front windows of a couple of them ..lol  and soon they will be at the side and behind us as well !!!  it would seem because they got away with building something completely different from the original plan pre covid  it sets a precedent and every spare inch can have a few more chucked on it . ha ha ha .  Im sure the family trust of none tax paying farmers are laughing all the way to the bank .

But in the real world i think im becoming more bitter and twisted by the day with our two tier society , the weird world of adverts where not a single thing is anything that you can afford .  3 for 2 offers where you can only afford one . yellow sticker bargains  that still arent affordable . The constant moaning mouthpieces saying why is  nobody shopping.  Im good at surviving but i know plenty who arent and this year is really going to sort the wood from the chaff . Also has anyone else noted a huge rise in suicides ? that they dont seem to be mentioning along with adult death statistics ?  

New Year

The weather having taken a turn to the cold , i still havent been further than the bin since the 22nd of December last year , motivation is a problem but im getting through loads of books and ive another bag to go to charity waiting . I gather i am being forced to go out Saturday himself has spotted a table top sale he thinks i should go to , first one of the year , i would imagine it will be heaving although the weather does look a bit grim so i may get out of it 

We have had a planning notice for the land at the side of us , more millionaire properties , will we never be rid of soddin builders we will soon be surrounded by new build monstrosities . Big controversy in a small village is the latest incomer idiot who decided to launch huge display fireworks on xmas day opposite a field of horses , the whole village shook and because nobody was expecting it ,every dog and horse in the village was a bit horrified . Somebody went round and said please could you put it on the village web page if youre going to do this again and was met with a torrent of abuse which they filmed and reported , shouldnt think anything will come of it , the police and council wouldnt want to upset a wealthy incomer . Its sad they move here and try too turn this little place into a duplicate of the god awful shitholes they moved here to get away from 

Heres a little something You Tube found for me made only a few days before Xmas a look at the beautiful City of Lincoln  our nearest town 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dat7l70xdQ8&list=TLPQMDEwMTIwMjXouKXYBW1yOA&index=13