If you go down to the woods today

As promised a few days ago, here are the photos of my newly denuded garden.

Note the lovely new fence on the left hand side and the area covered with black lining - this will be my fruit and veggie patch!



The wider view showing the newly exposed fence on the right hand side, the garden wall holding back the lawn at the front and the carefully pruned tree at the back, the doing of which liberated another million square metres of garden.


My dad did has done the vast majority of this work and he's been back since these photos were taken to clear even more. Now you can walk around the conifer (avoiding the deposits - that shady area was used as a pussy potty by the cats next door) and even consider what to do with the area between the conifer and the back fence (previously a no-go area).

You know, over the years, I've had dad-cab, dad-repairs and dad-decorating services. Now I've got dad-gardening services. I am one lucky daughter.

Achy Breaky Feet!

I did my first training walk today, 3.11 miles in 61 minutes. So I walked at about 3 miles per hour which is pretty good considering I haven't done any regular exercise for months (if not years). I'm going to continue doing the same distance in the same time and work on feeling less achy at the end. After a couple of weeks I'll start work on improving my speed. My ultimate aim is a steady walking speed of 6 miles an hour - whether this will be possible remains to be seen. Still I've started!

In other news, my dad has attacked my back garden again since Saturday and discovered another million square feet that were hidden by tall weeds - at this rate my garden will be big enough to build another house on! There will be photos soon but I've had washing on the line so you'll have to wait.

Another one bites the dust

The men have been.

The men have been and gone.

The men have been and gone and left a beautiful speckled stair carpet fitted in place.

Soft and pretty - a bit like me!

Marking time

I know I said the other day that I don't blog about my students but I've been undergoing a minor version of hell the last couple of day (one of the outer circles, so not toooo bad, I guess).

In the afternoon I teach exam classes, a different class Monday to Thursday but all doing the same exam. This week they took a mock exam. The questions are multiple answer and the answer sheets are columns of circles with A, B, C or D printed in them. The candidate has to fill in the circle they believe is the correct answer.

There are two hundred questions in this exam. I have, on average, 13 students per class. Each answer sheet takes about 15 minutes to mark. You do the maths!

No I don't get paid any extra for doing this as industry policy is that marking homework, preparing lessons and marking exams is allowed for in the hourly rate paid. My eyes are scratchy and my back aches AND I've got another twelve to do tomorrow night.

We repeat it all again in two weeks time but I'm hoping to have a better marking system worked out by then (involving a stencil or mask with the correct answers cut out so I can just count them up).

In the meantime, does anyone know a good masseur?

Nellie the elephant...

I woke up at 4am this morning feeling as if I'd been trampled by elephants. My legs felt as if I'd gone on that walk I'd planned and it had turned into a hike up a mountain (the way these things do).

Then I couldn't get back to sleep properly - very unusual for me nowadays and when my alarm finally went off I couldn't find the energy to get out of bed!

Feeling better now - only 12 exam papers to mark!

Not walking but gardening...

My new book, Walking for fitness, arrived today. Today was also supposed to be the first training walk day. That didn't happen. Instead my mum came around and put me through an hour of intensive gardening. By time we'd finished it was 8pm and I hadn't eaten. I couldn't face going out for an hour's walk THEN coming home and eating, so no walking today.

Wednesday - it WILL happen Wednesday (and I'll have finished reading the book by then).

Call me....

The other thing I did yesterday was change my phone provider. I will be keeping the same number. I phoned my old provider to get a PAC code and was warned to use up all my credit and make sure my contacts were transferred, fair enough.

I went to the new provider, paid the money and waited while the assistant spoke to their customer services and arranged the transfer. At this point I only had 28 pence on my phone (having used up most of my credit as warned).

Only once everything had been done and the new sim card was handed to me did the assistant inform me it would take FIVE DAYS to transfer my service across!

Do not expect any mobile contact from me before next Thursday as I have no credit, however you can still contact me.

The devil's been busy

I have had a great day. I met up with my friend R at 10:30 this morning and we shopped (almost) until we dropped. I bought a new shirt, yet another white one but I do believe you can't have too many white shirts, a pair of purple shoes (love purple) and some earrings. After a quick trip to Asda for lunch stuff we came back to mine where R made hummus (hot and spicy, yea) and we chatted while it digested (very Italian).

Then she handed me the necessary cable clips so that I could fix my telephone wire in place, untwisted said wire and kept me calm while I sorted out my futon - not funny. Then I put up some pictures in my study, hung out the rest of my washing and sorted out some odds and ends.

Throughout this we chatted about everything and nothing, getting to know each other better until finally at 7:45 I allowed her to go home - I actually drove her home and I think she's getting used to my driving because she didn't flinch once!

Life is good!

Hanging on the telephone

Hey people it's Friday!

Friday is the day I finish work at 12:20 (not that I leave the building at that time - it usually takes me about 15 minutes to sort myself out before I can go home with a clear conscience). So, what did I do this afternoon? Well, I sorted out the carpet for my stairs and arranged to have that fitted (one more thing ticked off the list), bought some brackets for the cheap hanging baskets I got in the week, got some pretty coloured board pens (I NEED more than red, blue and black), treated myself to some face cream (I will not go quietly into that dark night) and arranged to change my mobile phone provider. I've been with Virgin for years and I haven't had any problems except the big one of not getting any reception in Ramsgate. It's alright at home where I'm practically under a phone mast but I do have my landline at home. The place where I do need it (downtown Ramsgate) gets no reception worth speaking about. I will be keeping the same number so don't you worry your little heads about losing contact with me.

Tomorrow I'm going out window shopping and pottering with my friend R who has rather daftly volunteered to help me in the garden - she won't be able to walk by time I've finished with her (hehehehehehe)!

Moving and a-grooving

Mmmm, I seemed to have missed a couple of days - so much for my self-imposed target of a blogpost a day. Trouble is I haven't had very much to write about and very little inspiration.

You may have noticed that I don't blog about work or my students, not because they are uninteresting but because I don't feel comfortable writing about people who have no idea that this blog exists. And whilst I'm sure my employer would have no problems with my blogging the day-to-day stuff of my working life, in all honesty, it isn't that interesting. Of course, with the World Cup of Football thingy going on at the moment, it has been hard to keep students focussed on the reason they are here but we haven't had any problems, not even when supporters of two teams are in the same class. What it has meant is that the streets are pretty clear at various times of the afternoon and evening which has made for a quieter drive home.

In other news, I have found a website MapMyWalk which has allowed me to plan some walking routes of varying lengths as part of my training for the Playtex Moonwalk. The book I ordered off Amazon prompted a flurry of emails culminating in one saying it was out of print and that they wouldn't be able to supply it. I went back online tonight to try and get a second-hand copy and, blow me down if they weren't offering the same book for sale again. So I've ordered it again, supposedly to arrive within a couple of weeks - we'll see. This weekend I'm going to 'splash out' on a new pair of trainers especially for the walking which I intend to start doing next week. My aim is to walk three times a week, gradually increasing both the rate at which I walk and the distance. If I get it right, I should be able to walk 26.2 miles in approximately eight hours. If you know anyone who had done something like this please let me know as I'd like to get some insider information.

Finally, I haven't been able to do much in the garden as the wind has been horrendous. However, my dad came round on Monday with his loppers and sorted out the tree at the back of the garden. If you look back here, it's the one next to the shed (green in the first and third pictures but red in the middle picture). With his judicial pruning, my dad has given me an extra ten square feet of garden and allowed the enormous yukka plants to be seen (at least I think they're yukkas). The other thing you may have noticed is the deterioration of the conifer. When I first moved in it was compact and nicely shaped but it is gradually falling open - not a good thing for a conifer. I have two choices, tie it up internally to try and stop any further opening or take it out totally. I loved it when I moved in, thinking it gave me some privacy from the houses that were built too close to the boundary behind but now I'm beginning to think it's more trouble than it's worth. I'm not sure it's a native species and I don't know how much wildlife it supports. Whatever I decide, nothing will be done before the autumn, when nesting birds and insects will have, hopefully, departed. I've done some basic research on the internet and they all say "Don't prune it" pruning will lead to bare brown patches and this is supported by my brother's experience with his conifer. Oh well, one to ponder.

Old MacDonald had a farm

Today, for those of you outside the UK or who don't listen to The Archers, was Open Farm Sunday and, as my brother S works on a farm, I participated. Now before you get all excited, that did not mean milking any cows, shearing any sheep, herding any pigs or gathering any eggs. What it actually meant for me, was wandering around a farm with various members of my family, looking at the above mentioned animals (and a few cows, calves and alpaca) and taking loads of photos. Here are a couple, straight from the camera mind, not photoshopped or anything (my excuse for the quality).

A puddle of pigs (taken from above, hence the feeling of vertigo)


Before the haircut...


... and after


and, of course no farm is complete without a cow, so let me introduce Chelsea...


a somewhat spoilt matriarch.

Buzz,buzz,busy bee, buzy bee

It is a scorching hot day here and, at 5:25pm, as quiet as the grave out there. I don't know if there's something going on - someone mentioned something about a football tournament but...

I was up at 7:30 this morning (very unusual for me) with a list of things to do as long as my arm and, believe it or not, I've done most of them. I have finally cleared the nasty sticky carpet tape from my upstairs landing. I have finally put up the blind in my bedroom from which I have hung all my earrings (realising I've lost one or two along the way). I've finally sorted out the various hard drives attached to my laptop and shredded a load of unwanted files and I've finally bought some plants for the stone trough in my back garden. In between all this I've done three loads of washing (now drying on the line), delivered a birthday card to my brother, cleared a few more stinging nettles from the back garden and started transferring my mum's old talking book tapes to her hard drive so that she can listen to them again without fear of the tape breaking.

All in all a good day - now I need a rest!

Changes...

Yesterday I promised you before and after pictures of my garden. Well here they are...

When I bought the house (September 2009)



After my dad attacked the garden (October 2009)



The current situation (June 2010)

Roses of Picardy

I was back in the garden this evening - my mum came round and between us we cleared half the left hand border and discovered a couple of rose bushes that had been buried under weeds, a bicycle seat, black bags, stinging nettles and brambles.

I'll continue tomorrow evening in the hope of getting to the end of the border. The main grass area is mostly covered in black material or wood to try and kill off the grass and weeds, but this needs to be re-done to make sure nothing escapes!!!

Tomorrow I'll post before and after photos.

I'm walking to New Orleans (more or less)

I have very little to write about tonight. Nothing interesting or special has happened today, nor has anything bad.

I have, however, made a decision. I am going to do a Moonwalk. Now before visions of Michael Jackson take up permanent residence in your heads, I am talking about the Playtex Moonwalk - a power walked marathon. The most recent one took place in London at the end of May and I thought that eleven and a half months would be ample time for me to train for the next.

26.2 miles - walking - overnight

I have bought a book, now I need to plan some walking routes and buy some good trainers.

You will be kept apprised.

Football's coming home

It seems we have a World Cup of Football Championship arriving soon. Why?

Anyway, I'm reminded of the last one. I was in Argentina and everyone I worked with was obsessed by football as were the majority of the students. The school even got the tv sorted out so we could watch the really, really important games (those involving England and Argentina, separately and together). We had a sweepstake and I drew Brazil - I remember the dilemma, just who should I support? In the end it didn't matter and my interest in football ended as soon as my teams were eliminated.

I suspect I won't be anywhere near as interested in this World Cup - having alternative forms of entertainment and topics of conversation available - in fact, I've already told my morning class that there will be no football in the classroom (especially important as I have six French students and three Italians).

In completely different news, my hayfever has started up again leaving me with sore eyes and an uncontrollable urge to sneeze. And I've cleared out my bramble patch - no blackberries this year.

Sweet nothings

I found out something very interesting today (well, interesting to me that is). If you go to Tesco's at around 3pm on Sunday, the discount section is full of cheap food. If you have the nerve to grab said food and then come back at about 3:30, a nice Tesco's employee will give you a further discount. Up to 75% off! Word to the wise, though, the regulars play rough.

Oh, and whoever you are in Italy, I hope you enjoy reading this. Leave me a comment and let me know.

Stand and Deliver

Ah Saturday, what a wonderful day, and it has been soooo exciting for me.

Today I:

• ate breakfast sitting on the back step


• went to my parents for coffee (and brought back my garden chairs)


• finished my washing and hung it out


• cooked a risotto (and ate it)


• finished a book I was reading


• put up some pictures


• assembled my new vacuum cleaner


• dusted the guest room and my study (don't that sound posh)


• vacuumed those rooms

then I spent a couple of hours surfing the net before realising it was time to get some more food.

As you can see, a very exciting day but on the positive side I've had iTunes running, playing all my 'pop' music and I have a wonderfully weird collection of songs - at the moment I'm listening to Adam and The Ants - and what great memories that brings back.

Nothing but flowers

More gardening today.

After a morning of trying to teach students who wanted to be out in the sunshine (as would I), I had a quick meeting about next week's work (will be interesting) and then home.

I got home to find my darling father had managed to paint my skirting boards and handrail on the stairs (although they will need another coat) even though I hadn't left him a brush to paint with. I managed to stuff some food down my throat before my mum arrived to organise me and my garden (once she gets a bee in her bonnet, there's no stopping her). So now I have two pots planted up with the things we bought on Wednesday, an area of back garden covered by black 'lining' (to kill off the grass etc. so I can grow veggies) and a well swept 'patio' that you can walk on without turning your ankle. I'm loathe to call it a real patio as it's just the area behind the house which has been crazy-paved.

There is still a ton of weeding to be done - especially at the front of the house - but now that the bluebells are done, I have run out of excuses for avoiding it. Fifteen minutes every evening, that's my plan, to get the front weeded and then filled with fuscia bushes (I'll buy small and let them grow).

In an English country garden

Phase two of the big garden project kicked in today. And when I say kicked in I mean.. well I did a lot of thinking.

My aunt S has given me three large stone planters, one with a shrub still in it. It took a lot of huffing and puffing, dragging and lifting to get them from her garden to mine but it was definitely worth it.

Things are finally coming together in the house as well. My mum and I have finished cleaning the stairs and landings (I have three landings), my dad has (half) volunteered to paint the skirting boards in the hallways and on the stairs and I've chosen the carpet for the stairs. Once the painting is finished I'll arrange for the carpet to be delivered and fitted and that will be everything for this year inside the house. At some point in the future I will have to paint the living room and front entrance floor - matt black yacht paint - but that'll be quite a big job, probably best saved for the winter.

In the garden, I need to cut back the grass on the side where, eventually, I intend to grow vegetables and fruit and then cover that in black 'lining' to kill off the grass and weeds. I intend to pave over a small area of this and turn the rest into a slightly raised plot. The main lawn needs cutting again and I have to tackle the weeds and long grass at the back as well as prune the tree (yes, I know it's the wrong time of year but hey...). I still have all sorts of rubbish lurking in the undergrowth but the shape of the garden is emerging. There's a border in the back garden to be weeded, a blackberry bush to be sorted out and an area of unknown significance (my own Area 54) to be approached. On top of all that, my front garden is a little riotous. I had the most gorgeous display of daffodils, followed by bluebells. Now they've all died down I'm left with grass and sprouting rose bushes. I think that's going to take a weekend but, hopefully, the good weather is here now so I'm going to get on with it.

Oh, and I still need to pot on the plants I bought yesterday!

Ringing on the telephone

I was sitting here, peacefully minding my own business, listening to the radio when my phone rang.

Being a sociable type of person, I answered it. What did I get in response to my "Hello"

... silence.

That's when I knew it was a cold caller. Now I have nothing against cold callers per se, it's a job and someone has to do it, but I do object to being made to wait (even for one second) when someone has chosen to call me out of the blue.

Someone recently explained the mechanics of it - the caller has dialled several numbers and has to cancel all the rest when the first one answers. That cancellation obviously takes a little time - and this is what annoys me. If someone chooses to call me (and, yes, I understand that the actual caller doesn't have any choice about the methods used or who to call) I want to be the only person they are trying to call at that time.

Now I have to find the place where I can register not to receive such calls.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Today has been a plant day. My kitchen has a fairly deep window sill as can be seen from this photo with the original sink still in place:



and it gets a lot of sunshine, so what better place for a herb garden? Now I know that the glass reduces light transmission by up to 50% (I was teaching some Lithuanian engineers recently) but I still reckon that's enough to provide a warm, draught-free environment for my plants.

I went out with my mum this afternoon and bought oregano, thyme and coriander. I already have two types of basil and I'll probably get a rosemary. I also bought potting compost, two troughs and trays and some lovely smelly plants to put just outside the back door. On a darker note, I've also bought weedkiller for the plants growing up through the patio and for a 'tree' that has seeded all over my lawn. Both sprays have been liberally deployed - I ain't that eco-friendly.

I will update with a picture of my lovely troughs when fully planted - at the moment they are boring brown but I may spray paint them!

Summertime and the livin' is easy

This week I'm only working mornings - my last breather before the summer starts and all hell is let loose (just kidding).

Whereas most of my family are looking forward to the summer - a lot of them are retired or work in education - and the long lazy days, I'm gearing up for the busiest time of the year. This is the time when I'm most likely to be teaching 30 hours a week with lesson preparation, homework checking etc. on top of that. I do get very stressed but I've tried to pre-empt that by doing some preparation ahead of time.

So as this week is the last easy street for a while, what do you think I did? Work with my mum to scrape the remains of carpet off the stairs and then wash them down in preparation for a new carpet to be fitted. Before that can happen, however, the skirting boards have to be painted - ARGHhhhhh! - I hate getting down on my hands and knees (it's actually extremely painful for me to kneel as the tops of my shin bones stick out a long way when the legs are bend) so I'm going to ask my dad if he could do it - if not, it's me and some extremely thick cushions!

On another note, you may have noticed a music player under my photo. I intend to change the tunes every now and then depending on my mood and the posts. You have to click on play to get it to work. Give it a try and let me know what you think of the music.