Phew!!!

Phew!!! Thank goodness that's all over.  Having an HMI inspection (OFSTED if you're south of the border) is a horrible horrible experience.  I was ok but I can't say too much as it's all confidential until it's published in a few weeks. However, let's just say returning to work tomorrow is not going to be pleasant.  Hey ho, as my gran always said 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'

 

 

 

In between the flood of paperwork loads of house stuff was also achieved.  I painted my raised beds at the front of the house a lovely shade of blue and collected my blue pots together.   A few more things are flowering since this pic was taken so it actually looks lovely.

 

I bought an electric fire.  Cost me £155, hugely cheaper that the nearly £3000 quote for the other one to be fitted!!! We inserted one chimney balloon (£25.95) to cut down on the draft and OH bought me a cover to put on the chimney pot.  Better than flowers or chocolates any day!!  My magazine rack covers the wire nicely.  And my baby turned 16, hence the cards. 

I was going to throw out this wee greenhouse as the cover was in shreds.  Then I spotted that you can buy replacement covers.  £14.95 later and it's back in action.

Wee bit long but fits perfectly elsewhere

 

 

The biggest job of all was finally emptying the family room.  This is  the one room that the removal men threw all my stuff into as they were running out of time on moving day.  It's been like this for 7 months!!  Totally unusable.

It took me, my mum and The Teenager a couple of hours to get it looking like this........

 

Bottom right hand corner is his computer desk, opposite corner is playstation etc all hidden away in an old cupboard. Chairs from my old house.  The tartan curtains were rescued from a big old house that was being renovated.  Totally free!! Very heavy, fully lined, wee bit faded ( I kinda like that) but good quality designer (if a bit dated now) ones.  They've still be hemmed properly as we just chopped off a few feet of fabric so we could put them up. Eventually this will be my dining room when I relocate my kitchen to the room next door, but for now it's a family room/teen den.

 

This was the left over stuff to be recycled, donated, sold etc.  Thank goodness we managed to do this on a dry day!!

 

 

Now that the main threat of frost is over I can get my plants sorted out.

 

I found these bean planters in the garage with my potato sacks, never used.  Think my mum gave them as I don't recall buying them.  Runner beans already planted and waiting to be transplanted.

And potatoes were planted.  These will (hopefully) produce lots of lovely Charlotte spuds, good for boiling and salads.  OH has planted good old Maris Pipers for mash so between us we've got it sorted.

Today is a Bank Holiday and so far it seems to be dry.  A day of planting and sowing in my wee garden is all that's on the cards.  I haven't bought any seeds this year so am risking planting last year's leftovers.  I took in some really old seeds to school for my kids to look at under magnifying glasses as this term's topic is Growing.  They planted some beans and sunflower seeds and thankfully they seem to be growing.  Getting the next generation into growing food is a great pleasure for me.  They are so excited to watch their wee beans growing :-)