March has involved more of everything than February, which was a month of slightly grumpy waiting for (disappointing) job news. By March I'd moved on, and although I was very much in need of a break, I start to feel like the year's activities were starting to ramp up. Morning pages This isn't a homesteading activity, as such, but a habit I've started in a bid to free my cluttered mind a little. You can read more about the practice here, but essentially the idea is you sit and write three pages of anything at all, first thing in the morning, as a creative practice, a way of clearing your head, and getting yourself in order. I've tried this before, and never stuck to it, but for some reason, I managed it for the whole of March and am settling into a nice routine. As soon as I get up, I make a cuppa, refill the hot water bottle, and head out to the swing seat in the garden with a cushion (and a teatowel to wipe the rain off). Yes, in my dressing gown, with rigger boots over my slipper socks. The sky isn't always as dramatic as this, but it's good to be outside, even if it's misty, or grey. If it's windy and cold, I don't stay out for long, but it's still refreshing. I usually have the Merlin app open, to identify the birds which are very vocal at that hour. A very light drizzle doesn't deter me, but if it's actually raining, I light a candle and sit near the window in the living room, looking at essentially the same view. I write about anything and nothing - the idea isn't to produce something creative, or something anyone else will ever read. I deliberately write on loose sheets of paper, not in a notebook - I have a tendency to keep notebooks forever, and these I want to be ephemeral, the important thing being the ritual, the act of writing, rather than what's written. We'll see how long it lasts, but I'm certainly enjoying it for now, and it's working to calm my addled brain a little. Clearing the garden I've been on a bit of a mission to clear various areas of the garden in March, starting with the very overgrown ivy, which I haven't really touched since we moved in six years ago. I have no real objection to ivy, but it was creeping across the driveway, and I wanted to tackle it before the birds started nesting in it. The other side of the wall was worse. This used to be quite a well kept lawn, and the first year we moved in, I spent a lot of time lying on it on a blanket. It's the only bit of lawn we have that isn't visible from a public footpath, and while I do like chatting to walkers, sometimes I just want to be on my own. The ivy had crept all the way over it, almost two feet deep in various places. I hacked a bit by hand, then took the strimmer to it. Even after strimming, there were a lot of tendrils creeping through the ground that I had to pull out by hand. It took quite a while, but I think I've got to a point where the grass can grow back now. This was a dismal, grey day - I'm sure it'll look better in the sunshine! I'd picked up some reduced plants a couple of weeks ago, so I plonked them into that strangely shaped planter - hopefully they'll fill out nicely. The ivy was also creeping its way along the terrace outside the front door. Again, we used to often sit out here when we first moved, but it had become quite overgrown, and I wanted to reclaim it as a sitting place. I'm not sure that bench will stay, but it'll do for now. I'm fed up of moving chairs from one area of the garden to another, so one of my tasks for this year is to make sure each sitting spot has its own seating. At the front of that low wall on the terrace, things were also looking dire. The top stones are cemented, but beneath that is a dry stone wall - a bad combination, as the dry stones shift, and the cemented ones don't shift with them. In this case, the cement has cracked as the stones beneath have shifted, meaning the whole of the top row will eventually shear off. I have no intention of ripping this out and replacing it, so for now, I've bashed the stones back in as best I can, with some extra ones to pin them in place. Not ideal, but good enough to stave off a big job for another couple of years. Anyway, all this activity generated a lot of cut greenery - mostly ivy, which I didn't want to compost her, so it's been carted off to the council tip. They compost it, and I bought a few bags of the municipal compost to top up my pots. The hay field I said in February I'd bought a new scythe blade, and cut another couple of rows. I was intending to do more, but with one thing and another, I didn't, and now we're starting to get to ground nesting bird season. So I've gathered the two rows I cut in February, and the field will now be left to do its thing til July. Elsewhere in the garden The daffodils are blooming, and the rhubarb is poking its head bravely above ground. I have started attempting to shape and tame the willow dome. I've left it a bit long, and it's quite a task, but hopefully it will grow to become a lovely little space to lie or play. Spring cleaning Cleaning isn't something I'm usually that enthusiastic about, but a bit of a fit of spring cleaning came over me in March. I hired a steam cleaner, and have been attempting to finally remove the sploges of old plaster and builder detritus from the kitchen floor. It's a bit of a thankless task. This is before, and then after. They're never going to be pristine, but they are getting easier to mop. This is all in preparation to fit the skirting boards... I seem to have taken quite a few pictures of washing on the line in March - we have had some excellent drying weather, and I've taken the opportunity to wash all the bedding, including mattress covers, and to get the duvets themselves out for an air (after being blasted with the steam cleaner). We even cleared all the glass bottles from the coal shed. We do have a recycling collection here, but they don't take glass, so it tends to build up until we have a car full to take to the tip. There are always a few raised eyebrows... but it felt good to get it all out of the way. Sitting around Phew! Looking back, it seems like I did quite a lot in March! In reality, most of that gardening was done over a few very full weekend days, and there was plenty of time for sitting around, both outside when the weather was nice, and in a cafe when it wasn't. And what will April bring? Well, I'm off this first week, and it's my birthday at the end of the month, so expect some reports of adventures. We've also started a month of decluttering, which is going well so far (although it's only day 3), so there may be some considerable house progress. I want to keep on with my morning pages routine, and there will be a bit more exercise as I gear up to (maybe) do Iron May again.
Will this be the month I get back to more regular blogging? We'll see.
2 Comments
Auntie Lou
4/4/2024 06:23:11 pm
Goodness me! You have been busy! Lovely that you've been able to get outside, it's looking good 🙂😘
Reply
Chris
5/4/2024 07:12:04 pm
Really impressed by how much you have done. I am very good at writing lists of tasks down, not so good at getting anything crossed off.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|