More done

 It started off raining yesterday, stopped by 9 ish and the sun came out nice and bright.  I got more washing on the line, then prepped the slow cooker and veggies for dinner - husband was out at the gym.  I did a bit of housework until after lunch, then we went in the garden.  Although the sun had largely gone, the wind had dropped and it wasn't too cold, so we could work in relative comfort.  I weeded the flower bed and pruned back the perennial shrubs, putting the prunings in the bottom of the new raised bed, as Marlene suggested.  Then we started to fill the raised bed - the donated top soil (which was actually more a mixture of stones and lumps of mud) in the bottom, on top of the prunings.  We followed that with a thick layer of our own homemade compost from last year, comprising of veg peelings, prunings, eggshells, banana skins, etc - it had rotted down well into quite a nice compost, with the odd few bits of eggshell still visible.  The top layer is bags of bought multi purpose compost, it will take 6 bags altogether but we only did 2 before we had to stop.  It's surprisingly heavy and tiring work, shovelling the topsoil and compost into a trug (husband did that), then lifting the trug onto husband's homemade garden trolley - a wooden platform on wheels.  Unfortunately, it broke beneath the weight of the 3rd trug, I think husband filled it up too much 😒.  I raked all the soil level in the bed after helping husband lift the trugs and empty them into the bed each time - just the raking wore me out.  Husband would have carried on but I suggested it was time we stopped, or else we'd be unable to move come the evening!  He needs to do things slowly and take regular breaks anyway, because of his heart failure - which he doesn't unless I tell him to.  Besides which, the strong cold wind was back.

This morning we both ache like mad, so having a restful morning - besides which it's drizzling.  I'm going to do a freezer inventory, having done a fair bit of batch cooking lately there are quite a few homemade ready meals in the freezer.  I'll add to the menu plan too.  Sunny spells forecast for this afternoon, so we'll try and get the other 4 bags of compost into the raised bed.  The other raised veg beds need topping up and lightly forking over too, then they'll all be ready for planting up in due course.

Lots more Spring bulbs are beginning to flower now, Spring is definitely on the way! 🌷🪻