Category: Family

I have been on the lookout for a new fountain pen.  My current pen is a little too valuable for everyday use in the office so I wanted something else.

It was announced on the news this week that Ruddock’s of Lincoln is to close.  A small family stationary business its been finding it difficult to cope recently with the cheaper on line stores.  I bought my last fountain pen from them so as I needed another one I wanted to give the small family company some final business.

I bought myself a basic steel nib Waterman which will be fine for use everyday.

Its sad to see so many small shops closing, but they have taxes to pay as well as rates and its difficult to compete against a large warehouse especially when the company puts its profits through other countries to make a technical lose and not pay any profit in the country they are based.

With spring now about to start we have bought the seeds for our first crops of the year, hopefully we will get some dry days soon so we can start planting.

It seems to have been quite a while since we had a weekend to ourselves with nothing to do.

After the last couple of hectic months we spent this weekend catching up on the shopping, house chores etc.  The car and bikes got washed, and we spent some time in the kitchen, cooking and baking.

It was a chance to recharge our batteries ready for the week ahead.

 

It was a quiet weekend in the Brown household this weekend.  No visitors for a change so we had a fairly restful time.

I had a few hundred images to edit, or at least to sort out my picks and selects from the three models I have been shooting with in the studio of the last few weeks.

We also had to use up the last of the marrows out of the veg plot.  We decided to make a marrow pickle, its a bit like a piccalilli so spicy with ginger, turmeric and chilly, as well as the usual, salt, sugar and vinegar.  

We also made up another batch of marmale.

The cupboard of preserves is starting to look a little depleted in the marmalade department.  Last year was the second year of making marmalade, and that time we made double the amount to the previous year.

This year we will be making the same amount as it has just lasted the year, including being able to give a few jars away to friends and family.

I was hoping to get into the garden this weekend, and finish digging over the veg plot and pruning the trees in the front.

It was wet and miserable so we stayed in.  In the planning for the summer veg its potatoes that we need to get sorted next. Obviously its too cold to planting them yet, but we can lay them out in the garden utility room to get them to start chitting

So last month we dug over one of the four beds and planted out the onion sets.

Last week I dug out some of the gardening books and in full ‘Monty Don’ mode starting a bit of planning.

It was easy work as it was all theory, checking out websites and making lists of veg we wanted to try and grow this year, but we will have to do some work this month and at least dig over the last three vegetable beds.  I also need to make a final decision on the potatoes and whether to plant ‘First Early’ or ‘Second Early’ or like last year go for straight main crop.

I really want to get on top of the garden this year.  A couple of months ago we cleared and pruned hard the east border along side the east wing extension of the bungalow.  Which was a good job or the house would never have gotten re-rendered and painted in the week before Christmas.

We need to continue down to the garage and then we can target the west corner.  At the moment this is like a jungle, bushes over 3 meters tall tower over that area, and its going to get seriously cut back as this is the area we are intending housing the bee hives which will get built sometime.

 

In order to get a bit more organised I checked out the garden handbooks to see what next jobs we need to be ready for.  We did well last year for potatoes, marrows, onions and garlic.  We even grew some elephant garlic which was a great success.

We have already planted the onions so will start planning the next step.  It was extremely satisfying last year to be eating quiche and salad, knowing that the eggs, potatoes and salad all came from our own garden.
Heres to a great gardening 2017.

With 2016 nearly over I am starting to think about projects and of course purchases for the future.

The big things for 2017 will be a new motorcycle for Caroline, hers is now coming up to 18 years old and can no longer be relied upon.

For me I will be getting a new (or secondhand) Leica M.  I currently have the M8 and want to upgrade to full frame and better high ISO performance.  I would also like live view for when using challenging lens.  As I have previously posted it will either me the new M when Leica announce it or a second hand Type 240.

For the home it will be more of the same and continue with the improvements.  Last year we had new fences, new gates and the house re-rendered where needed and painted.

The new year will see a new shower, getting a new ensuite bathroom planned if not installed and some major redecoration in the kitchen and new flooring.

Well its been a nice holiday, but today is the last day, so it will be a quiet day with some long dog walks.  Tomorrow we are back at work.