2016 in 2016: An October update

It's been a while since I last did an update on how my year long clear out is going, June in fact. Back then I was relatively pleased with myself for getting rid of 238 items in the three months from March. But I knew there was still a long way to go.

When I looked at my spreadsheet to write this post - and yes, you knew there'd be a spreadsheet didn't you? - well I was almost disappointed, even though the number of things we've got rid of is just about larger than those left to go. It still feels like there's a long way to go, and not much year left.

So the running total for the items I've got rid of is now 1024, which means there's just 992 things to go...  

Yes quite a lot isn't it. I've consoled myself by looking at this pretty pile of junk which was in the "junk" search results over on Unsplash. 

NOT ALL JUNK IS THIS PRETTY, SADLY

In reality, our junk has been a lot less pretty.

So what's gone?

Since my last update in June, we've got rid of:

• Food languishing at the back of the freezer.  Yes, we weren't going to eat it and some of it had been in there for a good while, so there was little point keeping it was there? And now that it's all gone, the plan is to not leave things in there for so long.
• Tea. Yes tea, over the years we've amassed quite a selection of herbal teas. Some from trips away and some we've bought and taken out of the packet to take on holiday. Yes, I am that kind of person that *might* take tea abroad with me, just in case. Of course we don't drink as much as we take and then it never goes back in the box, because we can't remember which is which. And tea bags stored in a plastic bag, doesn't sound the best storage much later on, does it. So that went too.
• Jam Jars. I have a cupboard above the fridge freezer where I hoard jam jars. And all sorts of jars really. I do make chutney and they do come in useful. But even if I made chutney every month I don't think I'd use all the jars I had. So I had a sort through and was more selective about the ones I kept. I've still to make chutney this year too. But that's another story.
• Papers, brochures and magazines. I think these have been breeding. There were loads of them and I'm sure there's still more papers to sort out (and I don't mean newspapers) but just the papers that somehow you amass. And then they breed. Those sorts. There's less now though.
• Clothes. I've had another wardrobe clear out. And the summer clothes I got out and didn't wear, well those have gone to the charity shop. It saved me putting them back into the top of the wardrobe. I'm feeling virtuous here too as all my summer clothes that I did wear, are all washed and back in their storage boxes. And even some of the winter clothes that I got out went straight to the charity bag.
• Earth. Yes earth. Over the summer we got rid of over 75 trugs of earth, and while unusual to include I'm counting them as it was something we no longer needed and makes me feel better about having an eight yard skip delivered. The skip was over half full of earth, and the other reason I'm including it here as it was all hand-lovingly carried through the house trug by trug. And was hard work!
• A shed and greenhouse clearout. Underneath all the soil in the skip, was the junk from the shed and the greenhouse that we had either forgotten we had, didn't know what it was for and even why we'd kept it in the first place. I'm sure we'll be doing that again because these types of places thrive on things like that, don't they?

992 items to go

Yes that's still quite a big number, and I'm not sure where that's going to come from.  We've still some clearing out to do in the study, so that could be a big contributor and I probably *should* go through my craft supplies to see what I've deemed potentially useful in the past.

We've still got a lot of old paint cans, some with paint in, some less so, that we want to get rid of. The trouble is how. I know it'll mean a trip to the tip at some point but I'm dreading that. I've read of a old paint collection service and I need to check to see if that operates in our area. We have pots of paint - though not sure how paint-like they'll be - from when we moved in back in 2002. And it makes sense to get rid of them rather than them taking up room in our shed.

And ironically some of the things I'd targeted early on, we still have. We still have the old yellow Dyson that I'm trying desperately to get rid of, but MOH wants to keep to clear up DIY-mess. He promises it'll go at some point, but I'm not sure when that is and I'm fed up of moving it around. 

Will we make it?

In reality I'm not sure. It's still a big number, and I'm not sure where it'll come from. But I'm not ready to give up yet. There's still two and a half months to go. Eek!  

I'll let you know how I get on.  In the meantime if you know how to safely dispose of old paint tins, which doesn't involve going to the tip, please let me know!

A poppy trivet - with a heart - from Charles Viancin

You'll know I'm a fan of silicone kitchenware. I've already tried - and regularly use - the daisy lids and the cute vegetable bottle stoppers, and today I'm sharing a poppy trivet.

Once again it's from Charles Viancin and I like its bold poppy design. The texture on the leaves and the centre of the flower is great. I think it looks great against my dark quartz worktop. And, who doesn't like a poppy?

It differs from the daisy lids in that it's much more flexible. Infact I'd say it's screw-up-able, look:

It works as a trivet - as you'd expect - for hot pans and dishes just out of the oven.

And it also works well as a pot holder. Remember my Munchkin Pumpkins from Sunday? Well they didn't last long. Until Sunday evening's tea to be precise. And very tasty they were too. They also provided a colourful reminder that this trivet is also useful for grabbing things out of the oven. 

It's harder - but not impossible - to take out a bread or cake tin using it, but trays like this are a breeze to get hold of. And as it's on the worktop, it means I don't have to rummage in the drawer below the oven while the oven timer happily beeps away!

The other thing I like about this trivet is that for a month around Remembrance Day in November, Charles Viancin donates 10% of all sales from the Poppy range to the Royal British Legion. I like that a lot.

This is a collaborative post but all views and opinions are my own.

A year in Greenwich Park: September

I got thinking the other day, Greenwich Park is now such a big part of my working week that it'll be interesting to watch it close up over the coming months. And so, my thinking led me to think sharing how the park changes with you would be a good thing too. 

I'm hoping to capture how people use the park changes, as well as the more obvious changes in the trees and gardens. You'll remember last month I shared how I took a diversion through the Flower garden and I'm counting that as the start of this series as that coincided with my daily commute to Greenwich.

Each day I've been walking the same route, and it's often as busy as this:

Seriously though, the view above is now one of my favourite in the park. Before I'd really only thought of the park as a whole, and with the exception of the Flower Garden which is gated, not individual parts. I do see people on my way through the park and we'll come onto those in a moment, but first conkers.

Yes, on 1 September I found my first conker. That was quite a shock to the system as the weather was still very much warm, and the warmest two days were still to come. It's been fun to see children with their parents scour for the biggest ones, with only a few of the bigger kids encouraging the conkers out of the trees with sticks.

The park is still quiet in the mornings, but I've noticed that it's now quieter in the afternoons too. Where once there were impromptu picnics and gatherings as I walked home, the park is less busy. There's groups of schoolkids messing about, as you do, after school. But it's in the mornings that I notice people more. 

People walking their dogs. Like the old man with the Jack Russell and the man with the greyhounds, who hang back and then gracefully bound past me. The greyhounds that is, not their owner. It's got to the point where I judge if I'm running ahead or behind schedule on where I meet people along the way. Most often it's behind schedule, but occasionally I see the panic in their faces because they must be doing exactly the same thing!

The light has been great this month, it's that time of year when the sun is low and it's been great to capture how the sun shines through the trees. It's actually been quite captivating. And magical.

THE TREE WHERE I TURN RIGHT

I've watched the sweet chestnuts turn from green to brown, but that photo is technically next month so you'll have to wait for that. The grass in front of the tree where I turn right, is usually a good indicator of how my day will go. I mean the day after the Autumn equinox, it was a lovely day and I risked sandals. Walking over the grass I soon realised this was a foolish decision and I arrived at work with wet feet. Lesson learnt and now it's trainers every day.

Ironically there's less cyclists in the park this September. Perhaps most were taking advantage of the lighter London traffic and can't quite fit a cycle commute into their "back to school" September routine, who knows.  And I say ironically as September was supposed to be the month that I'd start cycling in - or rolling down the hill one way at least.  It hasn't happened partly because I'm still enjoying my walks, even the uphill ones on the way home, and I'm not ready to give those up just yet. Maybe October will be the month, maybe...

There is one tree that I think is pretty special, and that's this one.

If I were to follow a tree here, it'd be this one. It's a fantastic shape and as you can see its leaves are starting to turn. It'll be interesting to see how it changes, along with the rest of the park over the coming year. And if you're wondering I haven't checked in on my first tree for quite a while, maybe I should.

While there's been less cyclists, there's definitely more people using the park to keep fit with runners jogging past every which way. My favourite fitness thing though has to be the girl that jogs backwards. It makes me smile inside every time I see her, it just looks so peculiar. A bit like these greeny-grey pinecones. I've got my eye on these, though they'd better hurry up if they want to be in contention for the bleached treatment.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of October brings for the park and sharing that with you.  Do you have a place - park or otherwise - that you visit regularly and note how it changes?