Reflecting on my week #76

I’ve spent the weekend  mostly out and about with a visit to the hairdressers on Friday, the Ideal Home Show on Saturday and visiting the Painted Hall in Greenwich on its reopening weekend, Sunday.  The working week that preceded it was also long and busy, and I learnt that my joint pain is real.  I mean, I knew it was real because I can feel it, but talking to Helen at Actually Mummy it was reassuring to know it’s not just me.

I used my last day of leave on Friday - well the last that I’m taking, I’m rolling four days into next year as I’m hoping there’ll be more holidays.  Although I’ve done little to make the big American holiday happen for June.  I started, it got complicated and then life got busy again.  However we still want to go away in June and yesterday I hit on a new masterplan.  We’ve done walking and cycling holidays before with Inntravel and have never had a bad holiday, MOH had mooted the idea of going to Lisbon when we were talking holidays recently too.  So the masterplan is to put it together - genius hey? 

I think I’ve found a trip that appeals, it’s new for this year and is walking rather than cycling this time.  The overview talks about cheeses, one of the hotels is next to a vineyard and there’s beautiful scenery too.  We can tag on a few nights in Lisbon too, I think probably at the beginning of our trip while we’re still operating at city-speed.  It could be a very cunning plan indeed…

Friday I spent way longer than I expected to in the hairdressers.  The pink, which went in in November, has been replaced with orange (it’s not as bad as it sounds, but I can’t get a good photo yet!) and that involved more bleaching before the colour, hence the entrapment in the salon.  It wasn’t as bad as I make it sound, but nearly three hours is a long time to be sitting in a gown looking less than glam.

Last week I started on my ‘be active, eat well and exercise’ campaign and it’s gone pretty well if I’m honest.  I’ve walked to and from work everyday, even if I didn’t want to as the bus seemed to be at least 15 minutes away, and I’m way too impatient to wait.  I’ve done well avoiding bars of chocolate, though I did crack open a packet of crisps on the day I took soup to work as I was still hungry.

The exercise DVD is getting easier, which is good I think, and I’ve only missed or shortened it on a couple of days which is much better than I expected.  I’ve another week on this level, then there’s a new DVD to master - and one that I’ve not made it to before.  I’ve not tried on the outfit again (yet) but my everyday clothes are starting to feel more comfortable so I’m hoping it’s good news, but I know it’s not time yet to stop and celebrate.  We’ve a few nights out planned in the next few weeks, which will need navigating and they’ll be the celebrations.

I’ll share more about my visit to the Ideal Home Show here tomorrow, but it seemed quite quiet although I’m not sure if that’s because everyone was either marching or avoiding Central London because of the march, or just not at the show for whatever reason.  There were many of the same things as usual at the show, but with a few exciting additions, which for me were:

WILLOW WANDS

OMIA PEACEFUL FURNISHINGS

CIRCLES FROM PUJI

The Willow Wands are fantastic, I bought three of the small size for £20 and plan to use two of them in our large black pots by the conservatory, replacing the box ball.  One box has already gone and I’ve a feeling a second may not last too long.  The box caterpillar has made it to Greenwich and while we can spray them, I wonder if it’s just a matter of time and maybe it’s time for a change - but we’ll see. 

The highly decorative teak furniture on the Omia stand is imported from Bali and the detail is exquisite, and there’s much more to it than the cabinet I’ve shown, but more on that another day.  Puji also specialise in teak furniture, but have so much more too. They’re a Manchester based company who specialise in sustainable and eco-friendly reclaimed teak furniture, but again more on them another day.

There was only one house as such this year, although it was a modular house that can evolve with families and so was actually two houses.  But it’s a clear trend for the show, there’s definitely less houses than there used to be and while that’s a shame it’s understandable as I’m sure they’re not cheap to make happen.

The good news was that the garden ‘room sets’ were back and the garden section was in the main part of the hall.  I’ll be sharing photos from the four garden room sets, although I’ve less photos of the family fun space.  There was no voting for these spaces this year, but my vote would be for the Upcycled Garden and not because I had a lovely chat with Max McMurdo, the designer and recycler extraordinaire - he was lovely, and happy to chat, despite trying to snaffle his lunch at the same time.

PALLETS AND PIZZA OVENS - YES PLEASE!

There were room sets galore, the theme was a bit lame this year I thought - royalty - but there were some lovely items in the rooms and I’d be happy to have too. I’ll be sharing more of the all of the room sets, and the garden ones too here, so look out for those.

On Sunday we were off out again, but closer to home. I’d got tickets for the re-opening weekend of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College. It’s pretty much next to where I work and so it was nice to pop along and see what’s been going on in the building next door. And it is pretty amazing, we’d heard that following the restoration there was a £12 entry fee, which sounded steep. However, it’s worth it and you can use your ticket for the whole year which, even if you’re just a visitor, isn’t such a bad deal.

The ceiling takes your breath away, you might have seen photos of it already but I’m sharing another here and will share more later on in the week. It really is a gem and no photo can do it justice, so if you’re ever in Greenwich go along and see it for yourself. And give me a shout, if I’m able to I’ll pop out and say hello.

On my bedside table...

* This is a collaborative post

I’ve realised lately that bedside tables are a very personal item, and more so than you’d think a piece of furniture could be. I mean it sits there alongside your bed, hopefully looking pretty but more importantly providing functionality whether that’s for a glass of water, your book, your jewellery, your teeth (no I’m not quite there yet!) or whatever.

But it seems there’s more to it than that. What we have on our bedside tables could affect how well we sleep. Looking at mine, I think I’m doomed…

MINE

When Furniture Village got in touch about this post my first thoughts were that it was just as well they hadn’t seen my bedside table, and then that it would be good to put my money where my mouth was, and actually do some decluttering.

I’m sure you can see from the photo above, that I like to have ‘stuff’ around me. And equally you can see from the photo below that MOH doesn’t so much. I think my bedside table drives him a little bit bonkers though…

HIS

So what did I discover?

If you read my post on Monday, this is the bit that’s a little embarrassing. I’m always proud of being a good ‘packer’ which is especially useful when having a small bag and plenty of clothes for a weekend away, and give me a suitcase and I can get more in it than most people. Seriously. And it’s a good skill to have.

However, perhaps not on my bedside table. Although i couldn’t help but feel a hint of embarrassed pride at how much had accumulated with relative ease.

There was a pile of books and notebooks, most of the books I’ve still not read but still want to. There was part of a crochet project, which I’d stowed there hurriedly in a last-minute pre-Christmas tidy up. I’d hoped to finish it before Christmas but didn’t quite manage it and haven’t touched it since.

A PILE OF BOOKS

As well as the books, there was a much larger pile of magazines, and on a range of topics.

A BIGGER PILE OF MAGAZINES

I’d even branched out and started to store shoeboxes next to my bedside table. Only two have shoes in, and one contains a handbag. The other two I was keeping in case I needed them, yeap you’ve guessed it to put more stuff in.

A SHOEBOX OR FIVE

And there was quite a few dust bunnies. Now even for me, there was little point getting this far and failing to have a thorough clean, so it was this part that had MOH asking if I was well. How rude. But anyway with the cleaning done, it was time to reload.

Reloading my bedside table

I started off with the completely clutter free version. And while it was tidy, it wasn’t me.

VERSION 1: IT’S LOOKING A LITTLE BARE

It didn’t seem right to me, to not make better use of the space below the table. And so, as I still have ambition to read those books, I decided to add those back. But then the pretty box didn’t fit, so that was removed, and I realised another rethink was needed.

VERSION 2: ADDING THE UNREAD BOOKS BACK

But there was still the magazines to do something with.  On my first sort through, the pile on the right in the top row were the only ones destined for the recycling bin.  Even I knew that wasn’t going to work, and so a couple of the other piles joined that.  The craft magazines found themselves a new home in the bookcase, as did one of the other piles which I’m hoping to use in a craft project or two.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THESE, THERE ARE RATHER A LOT THOUGH…

Which meant that the final pile made it back onto my bedside table. And the patterned box, which I wasn’t sure quite what to do with found a new home on the top of the table. So along with notebooks, and stuff, I’ve a thing for boxes, so having a stack of them here makes me happy.

THE FINAL VERSION: AH, THAT’S BETTER

So while I might not have stayed with the completely clutter free version, I’ve found a version that works for me. It is still much clearer than before, you can see the floor and the shoeboxes have moved into the spare bedroom, ahead of a clear out of my shoe cupboard. MOH is impressed, and I think he’ll be taking a look at his own bedside table now, as he’s not used to mine putting his to shame!

What are the essentials for your bedside table? And are you a clutter free fan or a reformed hoarder?

* This post is sponsored by Furniture Village but not endorsed by them. Any opinions or views expressed are personal to the author.

A peek into my garden and a to do list

After the wind blew the protective fleece off the agapanthus I was tempted out into the garden to tie it back on.  And actually, when I got out there it wasn’t as bad as thought - I managed to time it between the rain and the hail, which helped!  Sunday was definitely a day with four seasons, but even so it was just a quick peek to check to see if the wind had caused any more damage. 

Thankfully the answer was not much, there were a couple of small tree branches down, one from the large tree at the back of our garden and the plastic trugs needed rounding up. It’s not clear if the branch was dipue to the wind or to squirrel damage.  That’s a real thing, sometimes they get a tasting for a type of tree and nibble of the bark weakening branches, which eventually die and then fall.  I’m hoping it is the wind, not the squirrels - I think it’s a bit early for them, so it could be ok.  When we’ve experuthis before it’s been expensive, mainly because the tree man has to come in and work on all three of the larger trees.

While I was out there it was clear there are a few jobs to do, ones we should be doing and I’m sure you’ll have similar jobs too, so far on my list there’s:

1. Pick up the leaves from the beds, there’s some by the hare but there’s also some further up the garden where one of the foxes split the black sacks.

2. Start thinning the forget-me-nots, ours are prolific and if we don’t thin some now I dread to think how many there’ll be next year.

The forget-me-nots are starting to come through - there’s a clump of them in front of the grape hyacinth, and marching over the edging into the grass. This spot clearly gets the sun, and no doubt that’s encouraged them to start their takeover bid.

See those leaves behind those lime green euphorbias? Yes they need to come up too - they’re the ones there courtesy of the foxes. It’s a dry spot so I suspect they thought about setting up home, or even a daytime snooze spot there, but thankfully thought better of it. We’re hearing the foxes screeching again in the garden at night, another thing for the list is:

3. Check/change the battery in the fox scarer.

I don’t want them settling in the garden, they make a dreadful mess and I want to be able to leave the doors open when the weather’s good confident that we won’t have unwanted visitors. I’ve a feeling that next door’s cat won’t be shy about coming in.

There’s plenty of yellow blooms appearing too, which you’ll know will please me. There’s the Kerria (above) that’s popped through from next door and is really getting established in a number of spots. It’s easy to see why it’s often called the pom-pom plant isn’t it?

Our forsythia tree is also in full bloom and we can see this blaze of yellow from the house. When it stops flowering though, then it’s time to give it a trim. I think we missed this one last year, so this one is definitely going on the list, and now I’ve got my new ladder, that will get an outing too.

4. Trim the forsythia tree when it finishes flowering.

And yes, here’s a peek into the greenhouse. Peek in is about all we can do at the moment as it’s rather full. The trugs have been rounded up and stored here to avoid recovering them from wherever the wind fancies. I didn’t get to do as much in the greenhouse last year as I hoped, but this year I’m hoping to put those plans into place, rearranging the inside to provide more growing space, moving some of the storage space to the small shed we brought back from the allotment (which should be going on the list, but I’m saving that one until it’s a bit warmer and we don’t mind spending more hours out there).

5. Fight my way into the greenhouse, sort it out and rearrange it to provide more growing space.

6. Tidy the hellebores when they’re past their best, and nurture new seedlings that I discover while doing this.

At the back of the garden the rhubarb in the pot is already doing well and looking, well, looking like rhubarb.  Though by rights, this should be a relatively light rhubarb year as the advice is to not cut the stems in the year after it’s been moved, which when they’re looking this good already, is a real shame.

7.  Collect the fallen branches for the green bin.

8. Trim the pyracantha which seems to have two antennae heading straight for the cherry tree.

9. Cut the ivy out of the cherry tree, which has taken hold again.

10. Sort out some seeds to sow!

I’m sure though there’s plenty more to add, but for now let’s keep it to ten. What’s on your gardening list right now?