How are you today?

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I hear you can take anything into Homebase and say 'I want paint that colour!' and they'll do it for you.

Luckily I don't have to do my kitchen - the Housing Trust installed a whole new kitchen last year, and painted it all as well. Two weeks of total nightmare while my house was invaded by crowds of Polish and Bangladeshi plumbers, carpenters and god knows what else, but so worth it in the end. I heart my kitchen.

Well, I've had a nice surprise today - the daughter's bf turned up to sort out my garden for me, which is completely awesome of him. He's a landscaper/tree surgeon, in a couple of hours he's got rid of the enormous elders in the back and front, power-strimmed the 15ft high nettles and tidied up my ash tree so it looks lovely again. I'd no idea he was coming to do it, what a weight off my mind. I've been dreading having to tackle those nettles. I'll get him a nice bottle of Glenfiddich, I think, as a thank you.

[sound world]

Well,ditto here.We have a mate in the village who does lots of the Parish gardening work and he came today to do our annual hedge attack. Being in the woods we are always at the mercy of rampant nature,and what with me being a reluctant gardener and partner being the kind of person who thinks everything should be left to grow as big and wild as it can,desperate measures are occasionally called for. (Our neighbours and passers-by start tut-tutting about now too). Our hedges had grown colossal in the last year but because there are so many birds nesting in them we always leave them until there is no more cheeping. Plus my hedge trimmers have packed up,and I am currently in the midst of my annual Special Schools Festival (matinée today,four hours rehearsal beforehand,another 3 hours tonight,more on Wednesday),so getting our mate in was the answer,and lo and behold when I got home just now our hedges are three foot smaller all round. There is still plenty of other work for him to do-masses of old man's beard,ivy etc etc.
But we leave the nettles.Nettles get a really bad press,but they are incredible fosterers of wildlife. Lots of butterflies,for instance.So keep a few,Beth.

Decorating-I did loads last year,the most exciting being doing our stairwell which meant hiring a platform.I used this special paint (using natural pigments) which had to go on all at once-one coat-rather than in bits,plus I hired the platform for one day only,so I worked flat out for about ten hours,most of which was wrestling with the platform to rebuild/rearrange it for the next section.

How I would love a new kitchen....ours was built by the previous occupant who was one of life's DIY bodgers-so you can only open one cupboard door if the next door one is closed,etc-that kind of thing,and all made on the cheap.Slowly I'm saving up time and money...

[RobB]

Really my hedge needs reducing to head height as its currently about 10ft and i have to use a ladder to cut the top.
But with nesting birds i'm going to have to wait until the autumn before I tackle it.

Its been a good year for ragwort and the garden is full of it,amazing really as last year there wasn't one single plant.....erm weed.
Although ragwort does have a bad name for being highly toxic and poisoness (especially to grazing animals etc), i really like seeing cinnabar moths and catapillars in the garden,who do keep the weeds from taking the garden over completely.

Here's a photo i took on Saturday afternoon.

[sound world]

Interestingly grazing animals know to avoid ragwort-unless it's cut.I remember several times during my horse-drawn Theatre days having to spend hours picking up bits of cut ragwort before we could graze the horses in such a field,where the farmer/whoever had 'helpfully' cut the field in advance of our arrival.
I must get some pics of some of our butterflies-we have these very rare tiger moth ones at the moment.Trouble is they hardly ever settle...

[blue]

But we leave the nettles.Nettles get a really bad press,but they are incredible fosterers of wildlife. Lots of butterflies,for instance.So keep a few,Beth.

Oh, that's interesting - I had no idea. I can't actually put anything down to kill the nettles because of all the cats in the street (I'm just one of several residents that has 3 or more), so it's a question now of mowing them once a week to keep them down. I can let a little patch grow though, if it's going to bring butterflies in.

Speaking of which, is anyone else getting lots of stunningly beautiful moths around at night, recently? I've had the windows open constantly over the past week because of the heat, and such a variety of gorgeous moths have been coming in - amazing patterns, I've never seen them before. Normally I just get plain brown moths in the house. I'm trying to persuade my youngest cat not to hunt them, she has an absolute mania for them.

How I would love a new kitchen....ours was built by the previous occupant who was one of life's DIY bodgers-so you can only open one cupboard door if the next door one is closed,etc-that kind of thing,and all made on the cheap.Slowly I'm saving up time and money...

Ha, that sounds like my old one. I'd had it since I moved into this house in 1986! Drawer fronts stuck on with blu-tak etc. Getting the new one from the Housing Trust was brilliant (though when the embargo on putting our rents up finishes in another two years, we'll be paying through the nose for all the work that's been done, no doubt), they even let you decide how it was all going to be laid out. I'd asked for my food cupboards to be put on a different wall, and because they are legally obliged to put a work surface under cupboards I ended up with a nice little breakfast bar too.

[blue]

My neighbour is having cavity wall insulation done. You would not BELIEVE the noise.

Ah well, I'm off to work in a bit. Hopefully it'll all be done and over with by the time I get home.

[RobB]

My neighbour is having cavity wall insulation done. You would not BELIEVE the noise.

We're having ours done next week. They do issue a warning that all breakable objects on shelves etc fitted to the inside of the extenal walls should be removed. As well as noise there's quite a bit of vibration.

[blue]

Day off, yay!

It's gorgeous out there - sunshine and blue skies but breezy and a bit chilly. The kind of summer day I can handle.

I've got all my housework done, so I'm going to take myself off up town, go to the library, do a bit of window shopping, see how much food I can buy with the fiver I've got left till I get paid in a week's time.

I have a feeling I shall be eating lots of homemade soup this week. And toast. I should just rename the week before I get paid 'soup-and-toast-week'.

[sound world]

Keep checking those 20ps,Beth.

As for me, I am considerably freer for the Summer now that the Special Schools Music Fest is over (I still have various bits of admin to complete,but the final concerts went off-fantastically-on Monday/Wednesday.200 kids with learning difficulties ending the night on Wednesday singing 'Hot Hot Hot' is going to be one of the memories of my life).
I wouldn't mind getting a weekly salary.I started work on this years' Festival in November,and got my first paycheck last week.
And I have 38 more piano lessons to teach before the end of term (yep,counting down... ). Next year I am inundated with prospective pupils,which is good in one way...and fills me with horror in another way.This w/e I have to write reports for all of the current ones,urgh.
My partner has been heavily involved in mega grant application for her charity this week,me with my Festival,so my son,my cat and my dog are starting to look hungry,mean and dangerous.. ...so I too am just off down to the shops with my bike trailer to get some food before something gruesome occurs.

[blue]

Next year I am inundated with prospective pupils,which is good in one way...and fills me with horror in another way.

Word has obviously got around that you let them smoke weed and watch porn during lessons .... um, I mean that you're an EXCELLENT teacher.

[sound world]

Word has obviously got around that you let them smoke weed and watch porn during lessons ....

Nah,that's what I do while they're struggling through their pieces.

[RobB]

.... um, I mean that you're an EXCELLENT teacher.

He most certainly is?
Eric Morecambe was Dave's most successful pupil..

[blue]

I've recently discovered the marvel that is charity shops. Oh my god. The stuff you can get in them! I began hunting in them for clothes a few months back because my financial situation is so dire, I really cannot justify paying £20 for a new skirt for work, or whatever. I've basically kitted myself out with a whole new wardrobe, all in new or nearly new condition, for next to nothing.

So today I took a walk over to the warehouse that stores furniture donated to the local hospice shop. I used to work at the hospice, it's a lovely place. I was looking for a sofa to replace my ancient one I've just got rid of, and got a fabulous big two-seater for £25!! This thing must have cost hundreds when it was new, and it's in perfect nick. Good lord. I am so going back there when I get paid next month. There's loads of great stuff, practically being given away because the warehouse is so full. Amazing. They had a GIGANTIC 3-piece leather suite for £140.

I was thinking on the way back, it's quite an environmentally friendly thing to do as well, innit? This culture we have in the West of just dumping things and buying all brand new stuff is so incredibly wasteful.

[sound world]

Glad to hear you've discovered the joys of second-hand,Beth.
I bought myself a NEW hat the other day; other than shoes,underwear and occasional indulgences like the trilby, I have bought all my clothes from charity shops for the last,oh,thirty years? Plus any amount of other stuff.My son is pretty addicted now too,and he's only 13. Last week he needed a suit for a theatre show,amazingly we found one in his still quite small size in Oxfam for a fiver.He looks smashing in it.
Best bargain for me recently-a beautiful white LINEN suit,perfect fit,£8.99. Brand new. Must have cost £100 at least.

Amazingly,some people still think such things are somehow tainted.My brother-in-law,for example,who has never had to struggle for anything,refuses to countenance anything 2nd-hand.I once bought him and my sis a unique and beautiful (perfect) china dinner set for Christmas from a charity shop,which they used for a few weeks until my sister let slip that I'd got it from Oxfam or wherever,whereupon he insisted the whole lot went out-no,not to the 2nd-hand shop,but to the skip.

I was reading a very interesting article about Freeganism the other day (getting free food from supermarket skips).I used to do that back in the 80s. It seems, if anything,that supermarkets are even worse now,and throw masses of (in-date) food away simply because they've over-ordered and they can't sell it.It's a scandal just beginning to break-there are shocking statistics about how much food we throw away each year nationally. I'll dig it out and post some sections.

[blue]

Glad to hear you've discovered the joys of second-hand,Beth.

Me too! Seriously, with the quality of the stuff I've gotten recently, I just can't see me ever going back to paying stupid money for new. One of the tops I got last month is from a posh shop in Paris - it looked new, as if it had maybe been worn once. I got it for £2.75! I only wish I'd discovered all this years ago, I could have saved myself a fortune.

My son is pretty addicted now too,and he's only 13. Last week he needed a suit for a theatre show,amazingly we found one in his still quite small size in Oxfam for a fiver.He looks smashing in it.

When I was in the Scope shop a few weeks ago, someone had donated the most stunning Christening dress - heavy cream silk damask, beautifully handmade. It was on for a fiver.

I was so tempted to get it and put it away in my wardrobe for when my daughter eventually has a child, but I was on my lunchbreak and hummed and hawed about it, and when I went back after work it had gone. I was gutted. Won't make that mistake again!

Amazingly,some people still think such things are somehow tainted.

See, I thought the same - I kind of assumed that it was all probably rubbish, but I can't believe the excellent quality of a lot of things that people donate. It's astonishing. I wish I'd realised sooner.

I would say I've been driven into the charity shops by financial necessity, which I guess is probably the case for a lot of people now who wouldn't normally even consider looking in them. I'm so glad though, because it's been a boon for me, and has opened my eyes to a whole world I didn't know about before.

What I noticed today looking around the warehouse as well is that a great deal of the furniture there is old and really well-made and solid and characterful, it makes the flat-pack stuff we fill our homes with these days seem so tepid and boring. Ikea can take a running jump from now on!

My brother-in-law,for example,who has never had to struggle for anything,refuses to countenance anything 2nd-hand.I once bought him and my sis a unique and beautiful (perfect) china dinner set for Christmas from a charity shop,which they used for a few weeks until my sister let slip that I'd got it from Oxfam or wherever,whereupon he insisted the whole lot went out-no,not to the 2nd-hand shop,but to the skip.

Ugh, that's terrible. He could at least have donated it back, so some more discerning person could appreciate and love it. Such wastefulness.

I was reading a very interesting article about Freeganism the other day (getting free food from supermarket skips).I used to do that back in the 80s. It seems, if anything,that supermarkets are even worse now,and throw masses of (in-date) food away simply because they've over-ordered and they can't sell it.It's a scandal just beginning to break-there are shocking statistics about how much food we throw away each year nationally. I'll dig it out and post some sections.

Oh that's been going on for donkey's years, it really took off in the 90s when people began to organise around it. It's shocking how much waste you get in supermarkets. I know from working in food retail in the past - for instance, if a chiller or freezer breaks down, all the stuff in it has to be written off and dumped and it can be hundreds of quids worth. When my daugher was DM in our local Iceland store a few years ago, she wrote off £6000 of food one time when the freezers broke down. Legally it's supposed to be binned, but she was ringing everyone she knew to come and help themselves. Quite right, too.