Letting go

Last week when I was at the plot I pulled up 4 of the raised beds and brought them home.  These are the B&Q ones.  Even if I was keeping the plot I knew I didn't want to do raised beds any more.  The weather had been unseasonably warm so I let them dry out a bit and then yesterday moved them around to see if it would be possible to put some in my wee front garden.

The view from above!!

I think I still have at least 3 or maybe 4 salvageable beds that I could put along the fence and into the corner, making a U shape.  Plus all the containers/pots in the pic.  I could grow a lot of herbs and botanicals plus it's South facing so lovely and sunny all day!! 🌞

I put these 2 in the back garden against the decking, just to see if they looked ok.  I think they will work!  Maybe beans/sweet peas that could climb up the railings?  I could throw netting over them to stop Miss Luna jumping in them!!  The back garden doesn't get as much sun but I did observe the sun's movement throughout the Summer and this bit does get a lot of light during the day and catches the late afternoon/evening sun.

Of course I had help!!🙄🤣

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post.  They helped me finally decide I'm letting the allotment go and will create something in my own gardens instead.  I also have a Community Garden within walking distance of the house where I could rent a large raised bed if I need more space in the future.

What shall I do with my plot?

 

If you've seen my allotment video from last week, you'll know that my poor plot has been really badly neglected this year.  Obviously moving house at the point where it needed work wasn't great timing.  But I've also not been going because Luna is a nightmare on the plot, eating everything and trying to get out over the gate.  To be fair Emma used to eat everything too but at least she didn't try to escape!!!

I keep asking myself if I should just give it up as it needs a lot of hard physical work or just try to start over and rethink what/how I grow.  I could move over to growing more perennials and more botanicals (like calendula/roses/lavender/herbs) that I could use in making lotions/potions and herbal teas.

Or I could move my stuff on the plot (like the raised beds and plastic compost bins) to my back (and front) garden and turn them into allotment gardens.  They're certainly big enough but I'd still have the Luna issue!!

I have around £150 left on my Dobbies gift voucher that I need to use in the next 6 months so I could get the plants and seeds I'd need but I'd have to commit to either plot or garden.

Any thoughts, wise ones??

Plants!

 

I popped out to Dobbies today to get ericaceous compost (to replant a blueberry bush into a bigger pot) and saw they were clearing out a ton of plants.  I saw these cute dwarf Sansevierias (Snake plant) in wee ceramic pots.  Reduced from £9.99 to £1.99!!! I got one for myself and one for my DIL who loves indoor plants.  They were definitely clearing space to put out new seasonal stuff.  If anyone is looking to get inexpensive gifts ahead of 🎄there were loads of different ones to suit all tastes.  Plus fancy plant pots and containers, propagators etc all half price or less.  Maybe check out any garden centres in your area if you don't have a Dobbies.  

I got £84.93 worth of plants for £15.23!!!  2 echinacea plants, a salvia, pansies and violas (they were each 39p a tray!!) to put in my front garden.  Although technically they were all free as I'm still using the amazing gift card my colleagues gave me when I retired! 

EDITED: Jury duty!!

 

Edited cos I'm an idiot! See photo at end.  I've always been terrible at matching days with dates.  Apparently I do it with months as well!!! 🙄🙄🙄

I got a letter on Saturday telling me I've been called for jury duty, starting on Wednesday this week!!  That's not much notice!  I've had to book Luna into daycare for the extra days just in case I'm selected and I'm pretty sure doggy daycare costs aren't refunded in expenses.  And it's not a valid excuse for excusal!

You phone a recorded message the night before to see if you're still needed.  Fingers crossed then! 🤞

I'm so annoyed as I had nice plans this week with my mum and aunt that are now hanging in the balance.  But if I get selected that will be my civic duty done for the next 10 years!! 

Well done Octopus!

 

Well done Octopus! 🐙 My issue was resolved in 4 days and my account sorted out.  Plus I got a very nice apology email for their error.  Makes a big difference from Scottish Power who dragged it out for months, threatened me with court action for debt collection only to re credit my account AND refund my son the whole amount after their error in the end.

I just need to get the Smart meter thingy connected to my new meters and linked to my account now and I can 'forget' about my energy bills as they're all set up automatically 😊

Foodie Friday!

 

I got another decent Lidl box this week and was also early enough to get 2 chicken breasts for 90p!  I'm getting more useable coupons on the app now so had a 25% off for unsalted butter.  It's already a good price at £1.69 for British made butter so I was happy with the discount.  I had 3 free bakery items to claim as well but didn't realise the croissant one hadn't activated.  The wee focaccia with cheese and tomatoes and the pretzel are now in the freezer to test how well they freeze!

I made kiwi compote with the perfectly ripe kiwis 🥝 I'm not making jam this year (jars and equipment are somewhere still packed in a box) but compote freezes well and I've plenty of freezer space now.  Plus compotes use less sugar than jam!!

I also made apricot compote.  It was more fiddly as I had to skin them first.  So I now have 6 pots of compote, each one probably has about 2 to 3 servings depending on how greedy I am!

I also made strawberry top syrup!  I saw this on Pinterest and have been saving the tops all Summer in the freezer.  It's so easy.  Put in a pan with water, bring to the boil, add sugar and simmer until syrupy! Strain and bottle.

It's not going to last long in the fridge as I didn't sterilise anything  for long term storage so it's now frozen in wee tubs in the freezer!  It's absolutely delicious considering it's made from the bit you'd normally compost! 🍓

I did put all this in a video for Foodie Friday on YouTube but despite 3 attempts to upload it won't let me.  All I get is a corrupted file message 🙄 I haven't done anything different so suspect it's a ploy to get me to upgrade to the paid version of Clip Champ.  We'll see if it uploads the next one.

I'm realising now how much of a commitment having a 'popular' channel needs. Even when I'm not on the laptop I'm getting notifications/comments on my phone all day and all night.  I haven't figured out how to stop them yet!  I'd say about 90% of the comments are lovely/respectful/genuine.  The rest are people who clearly don't watch the whole thing and jump right in with questions (I'm STILL getting the how old are you/why are you not getting your State pension!!!) Some are saying I shouldn't have a dog if I'm poor (eh, where did I say I was poor??)  I've deleted a few personal ones that commented on my lack of make up (WTF?) and hair.  And banned one guy who was demanding a lot of personal details about my kids, grandchildren(???) and went on a rant about single women, the declining population and immigrants.

Someone said YouTube is like the Wild West!  Yup!!! 🤠

Help needed!!!

 

I've opened Pandora's box with this Youtube nonsense.  I actually couldn't sleep last night and woke up with a dread feeling.  Yesterday's video has had over 13K views in 24 hours.  This tells me that there's both interest in what I'm doing and a need to talk about what happens when you retire and have very little money.

In amongst the comments about how I'm doing it wrong, how I'm paying too much for xyz or that I'm secretly living on my mega savings (def not!!) there were some genuine comments from some people who are surviving on very little money while paying rent.  There were some good discussions lost in the forest of comments.

But I've lost count of how many times people asked the same things over and over especially where it's clear they didn't watch the whole video until the end.  Why am I not getting my state pension?  Why haven't I applied for pension credit? Why am I paying life/pet/house insurance?  What are you going to do if xyz breaks down?  Why aren't you using the rental income from the flat?  At least those people had looked at my other videos!

I put Luna into daycare yesterday so I could get some more unpacking and sorting out done.  Instead I spent the day and evening answering all these questions as politely as I could (an old people pleaser habit!)  I got up this morning and there were a whole load more 😭😭😭

Oh wise ones, what is your opinion on all this?  I've only been doing it for 3 weeks and it's quickly become serious.  All I wanted to do was make wee videos saying here's a Lidl box and look how I've used it to save me money!!

Me and an energy company (again!)

 

According to Octopus between 10th July and 5th August I used £2110.03 worth of electricity.  WTAF?? On a prepayment top up meter.  On the 6th August I got a Smart meter installed.  Surely there has been a glitch in the matrix when the switchover happened.  You can see on either side of that graph my normal usage.

Octopus are 'looking into it' and will get back to me.  Meanwhile while my brand new account says I'm in debt over £2000.

Me and energy companies just don't seem to have smooth transitions! 🙄