Moving day

I've been on vacation/holiday/off work over a week now. So far I've written only dozen or so work emails, answered only three phone calls (work affairs) and spoke online with my dearest co-worker (who's still at work next week). I've had my earphones on while I was weeding lupins from my parents' field (invasive plants) - there was this important info which I knew would be important to me (and so it was, it turned out my office is safe for now, but our head office has to move to smaller premises). And I promised to entertain my Norweigian colleague who is about to come here for a few weeks. Because I speak both English and Swedish (Norwegians don't all speak Swedish but nynorsk is close enough so we can understand each other).

All but five pickling cucumbers have died and I have no idea why. It''s good that I planted about 30 cucumbers on my plot at my parents' field😁 and they are doing fine.

I just don't get it.

D moved to the city today. Me and sys were helping to fill the moving van, her friend had borrowed a huge mercedes  sprinter and it was more than half  empty when d's all belongings were inside.

I'm gonna miss my little baby, she's been living in a town for a year now, and now she's even further away. But she'll be all right, her friends are there and her school. There is also easier to get a job, and life would be a bit cheaper there. She's happy.

I'm still gonna miss her.

First one finished

First concrete thing finished:

 I just love the colour theme of that yarn! And it's very airplane suitable, the whole jumper weights 300g.

Summer vacation here I come!

Last day of work today. It was supposed to be yesterday, but we had some compulsory training, and a briefing later on. I had to write a report and make my travel expenses claim, I won't be back until end of July.

It's been so hot I can't even dream of doing any substantial gardening. I did however plant one more row to my veggie plot, pickling cukes, chard and kale. Just went to see them and they seemed to be ok. I dug a hole and watered it before planting, and I made a moat around each plant to hold water.

Now I have only corn, pumpkins and zucchinies and beans to plant to plot. Then I should pot some new plants from strawberries, they have a lot of runners now. And I have one more frame to fill with something, I think radishes and spinach. Then I have all tomatoes to re-place to the greenhouse, but that requires cooler day.

I have potatoes growing in my carrot rows and horse radish in potatoe frame. I haven't any horse radish anywhere near that frame! I also found two parsnip plants ready to flower right in the middle of my field, but my sown parsnips are having trouble to germinate. I've been waiting for a month now, I know they are slow, but...

I picked first batch of radishes to eat, I mean the proper fat red radishes, not only the poor trimmed seedlings. I rinsed greens and I'm going to make pesto with them. I have garlic greens I can use, too. I don't use parmesan in pesto, nor basil - I don't like basil and we usually don't have parmesan at home, it's a bit expensive.

AND I'm nearly finished my jumper I begun knitting at Easter. I love the colour, or colours, it gradually changes from white to pale blue, to electric blue, to dark navy to grey... D saw the yarn and said it's just my colour. I only have to put it together, one sleeve is already on.

I'm knackered

 Last real working day before summer holiday. Drove something like 500km (with rental, not my own car), and for some reason it was really consuming. Maybe it was the heat, even if the car had nice air con. Maybe it was because I talked like five hours straight? Maybe it was I was among people, not in Teams like it is nowadays. Woke at six, took 'Suma for a walk, went to pick the rental and I was back at five o'clock. Then I fed kids, took another turn in neighbour's garden - I found four more big giant hogweeds that needed to be destroyed, they were on different corner so I didn't see them in the spring. Now they are dealt. For now.

I had to water all rows and pots in veggie plot. My allotment at my parents' (oh no, it's at my sister's now!) has so much better soil. I watered with number two yesterday, and the soil was still wet there. Here at my plot soil is bone dry, it's actually cracking 12 hours after watering! It's very dense clay, so very poor soil for growing any edible plants, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't try year after year.

Maybe my stubborness is the reason I'm so knackered...

But at the allotment I've got 12 pumpkins/courgettes, few dozens of pickling cucumber plants, two rows of beans and some chard. I'm still pondering if I should sow some yellow beets. And next week it's time to sow some spinach and other greens that will bolt if sown too early.

Destroying neighbours plants

 With his blessing.

Our neighbour is an old man, way over his 90's. Ten years ago we agreen I would be responsible to destroy giant hogweed from his garden. It was a huge benefit for me - I don't have to worry about that spreading in to our land, and I got free access of his currants and rhubarb. Ever since Ive been diligenty, every summer, tried to get rid of his hogweeds. And I've been succesfull. Ten years ago his garden had a nook with about 200 more more giant hogweed plants, it was a jungle. And now, this summer, I found maybe 6-7 bigger plants and only handful of seedlings. Seedlings will be there "forever", you have to be very careful for the next ten years, at least. But all in all, I have won the battle and I will win this war.

But on the other side of the road is his field. It was full of lupins. They are also not wanted plants, they displace native plant species and their pollen is toxic to bumblebee larvae. Last summer I decided to tackle that battlefield and cut all lupins. I'm sure I have to fight ten more years, there is so much seeds in the soil. I've been succesfully cutting lupins from my own yard, there's only two plaves with lupins.

Some people think it's pointless to try to get rid of these plants, you can't win. They are wrong.

And in the end I've got endless supply of currants and rhubarb!

Frugal finds and summer, finally

 I've been lucky lately. As Old Man and my mother ate building a log house (a small bungalow), they are on constant hunt for bargains. I'm my fathers child, and I know I have inherited a lot from him. Because my lil sister bought their old house (her childhood home) and had to move in with her family, Old Man and mother are in a bit of a rush.

It's like dominos: Sister's partner's sister (I just love to say that) needed a cheap place to stay while she's intern at the local hospital. She can't live with her parents, because they scaled down since all kids moved out. No they don't have an extra room anymore. As an intern she will not be paid, so she really cannot afford to rent from free market. So here's the catch: my sister and her family have been living in my grandma's apartment since beginning of the pandemic - grandma is living in assisted living/nursing home just across railroad and two blocks. She's mostly blind, has bad hearing problems and alzheimers, so she couldn't cope living at home - not even with intensive help, so my sister who needed a place here in our hometown moved in. They have been paying utilities and a small condo payment (it includes all maintenance etc). If they've been paid rent, grandma's nursing home payments would have sky-rocketed. So it's been really good for them all.

So, that nurse intern is moving in to grandma's apartment, so my sister and her family moved to her/our childhod home, and my parents... Well, they have not moved out yet, but mother said there's a place for a tent next to their new bungalow😁

But I digress. So, Old Man and mother really need to get their bungalow ready. Old Man being Old Man don't want help - building a log house is his dream so he IS building it. ok, let him build his dream, after all he's been through it's reasonable. And he wants to build it his way - that is not spending too much. Much of it is achieved just by using everything sparingly, not wasting anything. Now they are doing inside the bungalow, and everything is expensive. My mother is not one to follow the latest trends, she knows what she likes and keeps it that way. In 50 years I've learnt to know what she likes...

One day I was taking recycling stuff to recycling point, when I noticed small carboard boxes on the ground just next to recycled glass container. Someone had decided to dump half a dozen packs of wall tiles! Tiles were unused, intact if a bit dusty. Of course I had to take them with me - oh come on, I just can't leave something like that. I wasn't sure if my mother would like them or love them, but she loved them! Now they have six square meters of nice 80's tiles my mother likes. And my father - he's happy he didn't have to pay anything 😆

At the moment I don't buy anything to my own home - I have mostly all we need. But if I happen to find unused buckets by the recycling point, of course I will take them with me... It is amazing what people throw away!

So it's food I'm buying. Last few weeks I've bought about 10 bags of toast for 0,10€ each. Today I found yellow stickered eggs 1€ per carton of ten eggs - I bought only six, because I wanted to leave some to others, too. I found mince reduced, I bought, ehem, 12 packs of 1kg...  I do have three freezers.

A packet of spare ribs reduced - not cheap, but affordable. We are having midsummer in two weeks, and hb likes grilled ribs.

Yes, it's soon a midsummer, and finally this week we have summer. It's been really cold, we had actual snow no more than a week ago! So no fun. I couldn't plant anything on veggie plot, but luckily I managed to set up the greenhouse (polytunnel) few weeks ago so I could sow something in to containers and small pots. Last weekend I planted rest of potatoes, and sowed a row or two of beets... and harvested radishes by thinning them. it took all small seedlings and rinsed them clean, I got two handfuls of tiny plants to use in sandwiches or salads.

I have peas, beans, courgettes and pumpkins growing in pots. I also have some tomatoe plants and okra plants and some mini chard and spenach seedlings. And pickling cucumbers.

Last weekend we had (hopefully) last frost night until August so now I could plant all those seedling in my plot... If I had time.

But I'm so proud of me, finding those tiles 😎