Between raindrops

I managed an hour outside on Friday, I used our homemade leaf mulch on this bed, and then I popped in some string to help the broad beans grow straight. I do have a few beans which did not come up, I don't have anymore so it's Ok. The two rows of onions in the middle are growing, I popped the net back down, just a case of watching them grow. As I've never grown broad beans before, I'm hoping Sue in Sussex will give me encouraging comments I am doing it right, she kindly commented before. 

The perfect treat after all that work, our cake is moist and perfect, you can taste the citrus in the fruits, it has cherries in but no nuts, as I would not be able to eat it. As we sat and ate it at mid day, we had to turn the lights on, we had a thunder storm and loads of heavy rain.

George will be 4 next month, and we have been struggling what to get him, daughter has a house full of toys, most of which Molly and Will use, George loves his play kitchen and all the wooden foods, he also loves dressing up, his box is full of outfits Will had. He does love reading and doing early learning with mummy, who encourages him to use his voice. So I went online to get him a book, none were what we wanted, so I sat down and made him one, the first few pages are about him and his family, then I have learning pages. With the numbers and colours, I have at the back of the book made a second set, which I will remove from the book, cut out and laminate, he loves a matching game. The images I have used came from searching free images, there is a whole world of things if you look. 

I have started another pair of socks, these are different, I am using 3ply, much thinner and therefore more stitches, that's OK, they are for me and I have plenty of time, the top, heel and toes are in contrasting colour, I'm hoping I can wear these with my boots, my other home made socks are too thick. I did not have a 3ply pattern so I have altered my usual design, mainly more stitches. 

I saw this on BBC news site, I hope this happens, I don't know about you, but I miss Wilko's, every time I go to town I shopped in the store.

The weather forecast has been for very wet days, and with loads more wet days ahead, locally a few roads have been difficult to pass, even when we get huge downpours and flooded, areas are nothing in comparison shown around the country, you would have to be very unlucky to have your home flooded here. Wednesday afternoon, the sun shone, and again for most of Thursday, it was a surprise, we still had a few sharp rain storms, Friday another sunny start, showers most of the afternoon and very heavy rain through the night again.

For the first time, we had space in the garage to put our wooden bench and 2 garden chairs, they should stay nice and dry, they are on my side of the garage, tucked in and out the way, I won't need most of my garden stuff until next spring. I also moved some of our herb pots up in front of the greenhouse, they will block the path, but again I won't need to get there. We are almost ready for the landscaper, we don't have a date and are hoping all this rain is not going to slow him getting to us. 

Hubby and I were chatting regarding the compost and leaf mulch we make, I purchased my hotbin composter because we did not want another waste bin and to have to pay the council to empty it. We worked out the cost of the hotbin, a shredder and two black bins, which I use for leaf mulch, would equate to 3 years payment to the council, including the cost of purchasing the councils bin and minus the price I got when I sold my wormery. By next spring we will break even on the cost, both the leaf mulch and the compost we get are great quality, no woody bits, I've not purchased any type of mulch for the general garden, I did get 1 bag of bark for the new flower bed. My working area behind the garage is clean and tidy, I can get to everything, we did discuss having a 3rd black bin, but I don't think we have enough of our own leaves. Other than recently removing stuff for the garden refit, we don't often need to go to our council tip, everything is working well, which it has to do in a small garden.