Spoke too soon

 So much for feeling better.....I'm not well again, and nor is poor Betty, so I'm definitely having a few days off.  Back soon, I hope.

Better and busy

 Thank you for your good wishes, I'm more or less ok now.  Every so often I have what I call a sort of diabetic thing.....well, that's what I put it down to, in the absence of anything more definite.  I just feel very unwell for a couple of days - like a limp wet rag, absolutely no energy nor desire to do anything other than lie on the bed reading or dozing.  All my limbs ache as if I've run a marathon or been run over by a steamroller or beaten up by a gang of football hooligans.  I just have to give in to my body and go lie on the bed and do literally nothing for as long as it takes to start to feel human again, usually 1, 2 or 3 days.   This time, it could also be a combination of a long run of disturbed sleep and all the garden work we were doing at the caravan.  Whatever, I feel a lot better now, although not yet 100%.

Just as well I'm back to normal(ish), as it's a busy week.  Today I've got the slow cooker full of a steak and kidney casserole with lots of veggies in it, it'll be portioned up and frozen, I anticipate it'll make 4 or 5 meals for the two of us.  I've also picked and prepped a load of our homegrown cooking apples - I can't remember what variety they are, they're not Bramleys, that's all I know.  Most I've just sliced, put into a big bowl of lemony hot water and cooked very briefly in the microwave, then dried off in a clean tea towel and frozen in bags.  The rest I shall make a couple of crumbles with.  We're having cold roast pork, apple sauce, poached eggs and sweet potato oven cooked fries for dinner, the rest of the pork (from yesterday's roast, cooked by husband, which I didn't really feel like eating much of) I'll shred for a stir fry for tomorrow.  I'll also chop up all the veggies for the stir fry.  Some of the leftover veggies from yesterday have gone in the casserole today, the rest will be used in the stir fry tomorrow.

I have my diabetic eye screening tomorrow morning, the drops they put in my eyes to dilate the pupils affect my eyesight a lot, my eyes are extremely blurry for several hours.  Hence why I'm prepping the pork and veggies for tomorrow's stir fry today - I'd chop my fingers off if I did it tomorrow!

I also intend making a big pan of smoked haddock chowder to portion up and freeze during the week, and the slow cooker will be on again later in the week full of lamb stew.   Sometime or the other, when I get time, I'll do a panful of bolognese too.  So that'll mean we have numerous ready meals in the freezer, mostly to take with us to the caravan, with some to have here on our return home.

Thursday morning I shall be doing some baking, for husband's relatives who are coming here for lunch on Friday, I'll probably make a lemon drizzle cake and some blueberry muffins, using our own homegrown blueberries.  We've been invited by some neighbours to afternoon tea on Thursday, looking forward to that, there'll be a few other neighbours there too.

It was foggy when I got up, couldn't see over the fields, very muggy and humid too, the fog is still here at 10 am, it's being very slow to clear so I've had to put washing in the tumble dryer.  Apparently, it's going to be up to 30 degrees tomorrow and Wednesday, for once I'm glad we're not at the caravan - it would be far too hot there.

Back soon

 Taking a break for a few days, I'm not very well.  Back soon.

Busy week at home

 Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about our caravan garden, it's been a lot of hard work but well worth it, we're so happy with the way it looks now.

I ache like mad today, my shoulders, arms and back are all killing me, as a result of all the garden work, digging, lugging heavy pots around and general bending down and carrying stuff.  No gain without pain!  Today I have washing to do (first load already done), the big upright freezer to empty and defrost then refill, shopping to go and do.  And that'll be it for me today.  Husband's going off to the big hospital in Taunton this morning for an ultrasound scan, he'll be doing a bit of tidying up in the garden later.

A month or so ago the Landlord sent an electrician round to do a full check of all the electrical systems in the house.....he was the one who switched on the immersion heater, which we never use, and left it switched on and we didn't notice it for a whole week (as we never use it!).  Well, the same electrician rang yesterday to arrange to come again, he's got to spend a whole day here doing all the necessary remedial works his checks brought to light.  Last time we left him alone in the house doing his checks and went out for the day.....this time, husband wants to be here (to keep an eye on him!  Although he has been reprimanded by the boss of the firm, after I complained, so hopefully he won't do anything silly this time).  I don't particularly want to be in the house whilst the man is doing all the work, it'll be noisy and disruptive and Betty will be on high alert on guard duty all the time.  So husband will take me and Betty to the caravan the day before, then come back here and stay here alone overnight (the bloke will be arriving early the next morning).  Once the work's done, he'll come back to the van.

Now that Autumn is upon us, I want to do some batch cooking this week - casseroles and soups to portion up and freeze.  Our cooking apples are all ready to pick now (we've had some stewed with cream already, lovely), so I shall be making a few crumbles, pies and cakes too.  

Oh, here are some of the Christmas cards I did whilst at the van:-

They're all just the initial drawings, they're not finished by any means.  I'll be adding more detail to the drawings, then borders and sentiments on the cards.

Busy this week, I've got my diabetic eye screening and yet another phone consultation for my ongoing bladder problem.  Then on Friday we have husband's younger brother and SiL, and his sister whose husband died recently, all coming to see us.  We haven't seen them since January of last year, when they all came to my Mum's funeral, so it'll be lovely to meet up with them and have hugs, they're coming for lunch on their way to a holiday home for a break.

Van garden pictures

 Back home now, having spent the morning tidying up and cleaning the van, changing the beds, packing and leaving the van all fresh and ready for the next time.  Husband tidied up outside and mowed around the van - each van owner is expected to keep the grass immediately surrounding their own van mowed, unless you make a separate arrangement with the site owner.  He also watered all the pots and plants in the ground.  It's such a friendly little community there, we all water each other's plants when our neighbours aren't at their vans, how nice is that.  

So, the garden pictures.....firstly, here's the monster hedge in various stages of being chopped down:-

As it was when we first saw it

The plastic ivy trellis, and the raised bed husband built

And finished, with the lovely stone pots we found buried beneath the monster hedge.  The large middle one contains a hebe, with French lavenders either side, and ferns on the outside edges.

And here's the garden as it was on the 2 June, when we first bought the van:-

Knee high weeds and tons of pots full of dead plants.

And now, neat and tidy with artificial turf and pots of roses, flowering shrubs and ornamental grasses:-

Sorry, the sun had gone in when I took the photos this morning.  The freshly dug border at the front fence edge is full of Spring bulbs I planted yesterday, there are about 10 or so pots also full of bulbs at the far end of the garden.  The front corner has a miniature climbing rose planted there, to be trained along the fence.  There's a purple clematis planted in the rear corner, to cover the upright piece of trellis.

When we go back the next time, I'm going to rub down and repaint the wood rail along the top of the metal fence, and husband will be tackling this:-

The messy bank area behind the caravan.  There's a paved patio (just visible on the left of the photo, it was completely covered with rubbish and overgrown shrubs when we first bought the van, we didn't even realise the slabs were there!  Once the area is cleared of rubbish and the bank soil dug over, we'll plant it up with shade loving plants - it's very dry there and is dappled shade because of the trees.  Husband will have a tool store (there's one there already, it's hidden at the moment) on the slabs, he'll fence off the far side so next door's 2 little yappy dogs can't keep coming round, and I might have a little rotary washing line there.

As the summer is nearly over, we decided in the end not to take over our nice rattan table and chairs set from home.....we'll take them next year, and swap them over with the wooden ones.

Yesterday we took Betty for a walk round Cheddar Reservoir, which is 10 minutes drive away from the Park.  It wasn't busy at all, hardly anyone there - there were far more ducks and wildfowl than humans!  Along with numerous ducks, Canada geese and some grebes, we saw several egrets, and a white heron - never seen a white one before, only the normal grey heron.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it, as it was too far away for my phone cam to pick it up.  I did get one of an egret though:-

You can just about see it in the middle of the photo!  And here's a wider view of the Reservoir:-

And the garden is finished...

 The monster hedge is gone and the front of the caravan is totally transformed, with a new raised bed built by husband, and the lovely stone pots found buried under the hedge now filled with plants.  It looks absolutely gorgeous, pics to follow when we get home and I upload them from my phone cam.

The van front was all discoloured and marked from the horrible hedge, so we've covered it up with expanding trellis covered with plastic ivy - looks so much better than it sounds, thankfully!  After we'd found bits of the monster jasmine actually growing inside the caravan, we didn't want any more real plants anywhere near the van, hence the plastic ivy, which actually looks very nice.  The ground in front of the van is full of thick roots from the hedge, it would be too much hard work for husband to dig it all out.  So husband cut it all as low to the ground as he could with his electric hedge trimmer, then we used a root killer product - not keen on the use of harsh chemicals, but needs must.  Husband built a wooden raised bed box which we put in place, lined with thick weed membrane, then filled the box with first sand then chipped bark.  The lovely stone pots have been stood on the top.

As usual, husband has done all the hard work, following my ideas and design, I just helped him out when he needed an extra hand, and then planted up the pots and helped to position them.  We've also put up a spare piece of trellis at the end of the garden fence, and planted a purple clematis to go up it.  Husband's loosened up a strip of hard ground along the front edge of the fence and I've planted the last of the Spring bulbs there.  And that's the garden all finished - hooray!  

We're going home tomorrow afternoon, having been here for our longest period yet - 11 days I think.  We've both got a number of appointments next week, necessitating us being at home all week.  We'll be back here again in a week or 10 days, when we'll be tackling the untidy overgrown bank behind the caravan, our last remaining job.  We've had a really lovely time here, some more work completed but lots of rest and relaxation.

Husband had a phone call this morning about his prostate operation, which he's been awaiting for a very long time, about 2 years or so.  He's been asked if he wants to have the op, which will involve an overnight stay, in a different hospital to the one he'd chosen......our local large hospital in Taunton have a massive backlog and if he holds out for that hospital, he'll be waiting for probably another year.  The other hospital, Yeovil, is further away from here, but not excessively so - he was originally offered Reading or Newport, Wales, both 100s of miles away!  He's still looking at a wait of around 4 weeks, but that's ok, at least there's finally an end in sight for him.  Now I just hope that I'll soon get an appointment for physio for my hip - I had an initial phone consultation in January, having waited several months for that, only to then be told that all physio appointments were suspended so the staff could be seconded to the Covid vaccination programme.  Which is fair enough, all hands to the pump etc, but in the meantime my hip is increasingly painful, to the point where it's becoming a real problem and I'm now in need of a walking stick.  Hey ho, we all have problems of some sort.

Another grey day

 It's very dull and cloudy here again today, quite chilly and there's spots of rain in the air, I hope it cheers up soon as I've got lots more plants to pot up and some remaining Spring bulbs to plant along the fence line.  Husband has just gone home again, to collect a few things.  Yes he is a treasure (and a keeper - well, I've kept him for 40 years so far 😂), but he's not infallible - he still does the odd idiotic thing.  Yesterday, he needed to do a job here at the van requiring his drill.....only he'd taken it home, along with a few other tools, when we nipped home at the weekend.  The thing is, he hasn't only got the one drill, he's got several, at least 3 or 4 (who knows why?!?!), so it would be sensible to leave one here at the caravan, you'd think 😒.  Oh well, I get a couple of hours of peace here with the dog.  And thank goodness we live close enough to pop home now and then.

We've all (that is, the few residents here at the Park at the moment) been commenting on how quiet it's been, especially over Bank Holiday, and how few owners have been coming here the past few weeks.  No idea why they've not been coming, everybody has different circumstances.....there are several vans here that haven't been occupied at all so far this year, and even a few that have remained unoccupied since before Covid started.  Just seems daft to me - people pay out enough to buy the caravans in the first place, along with a one-off payment for the plot, and then a yearly site fee - which everyone has to pay regardless of whether they use their van or not.  So to then not come and stay just seems a total waste of money.  Still, each to their own, I'm sure they have their reasons.  At least it stays quiet here!  We intend to be here as much as possible, we're definitely getting our money's worth.  I'm already feeling quite sad about not being able to come for 4 months during winter....I'll be dragged out kicking and screaming on the 31 October, and will be first through the gates to come back again on 1 March next year 😁

Another two owners turned up yesterday, they're siblings each with their own van, they always come together, so more bodies around.  Having said that though, another owner went home yesterday, so it's not really much livelier here!  The one that went home is nicknamed 'Chatty Man' - he could talk the hind legs off a donkey, he's always walking around looking for some poor unfortunate soul to stand still long enough to get his ears bent.....I avoid him as much as possible 😂.  I wouldn't mind, but he has a (well deserved) reputation for moaning all the time, so he's not really my favourite person to talk (listen) to.  We hardly ever see his wife, she stays inside their caravan most of the time.....probably enjoying the peace and quiet whilst her talkative husband is out boring the pants off everybody he can find.

We had a little drive out yesterday, went to Cheddar first.  Haven't been there for a few years, it wasn't particularly busy apart from a few tourists, I was surprised at how tacky it's become.  It's always been geared towards tourists, naturally, but now there's a few really naff shops opened up, some boarded up ones (including the big hotel in the centre) and generally looks run down.  Such a pity, as it really is a pretty place.  Shan't bother going there again.  We stopped off in Axbridge on the way back, it's only just up the road from the Park.  It's a small mediaeval town with several ancient half timbered buildings which are fascinating to look at - they're all leaning and on the slant, with big heavy old crooked timber doors and windows which look like they're about to fall out - how they've survived all these 100s of years I don't know.  Shows how well they were built I guess, especially without all the specialised equipment builders use nowadays.  Betty found no end of really interesting smells, she's such a bloodhound, got her nose quivering on the ground all the time.

Well, it's not getting any warmer or showing any signs of the sun coming out yet, so I guess I'll just have to put a jumper on and brave the garden....can't have husband coming back and thinking I've sat on my backside indoors all the time 😉😂