Monday

. . . and it's raining with a steady determination that indicates it isn't going to stop in a hurry.  I'm glad - it's what we need so desperately: gentle rain that keeps coming and which soaks in instead of running off.  I'm not so glad for the children though, or their families - a day off all together and it rains!  So very British, don't you know!

Yesterday I . . .
made a sock (very nice and very comfortable and I think I know what I'm doing now so . . .)
worked out a pattern for a baby sock - toddler/small child sock anyway
made a scrummy roast dinner with an equally scrummy fruit crumble for dessert
changed some light bulbs
filled the willow planter with soil
started using the compost bin again
started writing my Food Diary again (do I hear you say 'about flippin' time too', gentle reader?)

Things are going well with the sock knitting.  Even with 4 ply, because there aren't too many stitches on each needle, it seems to grow quickly and there's not too much plain knitting before the interesting bits come along.  I will knit the other sock today and then start on the pair I promised R I would make.  Apart from the fact that I am making something rather useful as well as something that looks good, it justifies sitting down and doing not a lot else - after all, this is holiday time for me!

In between drizzly times and adverts yesterday late afternoon, I meandered out into the garden to get the willow planter soiled up.  Several days ago in went a big bag of good quality potting compost stuff but I got no further at that point.  Yesterday, I attacked the compost bin.  My bin is one of those that you feed via a lid on top and get the resulting compost out via a 'door' at the bottom.  Ideally it's a rotational thing: by the time it's reached the bottom, it's lovely, crumbly, nutrient packed compost.  The problem was (last Autumn) that the top was full but the bottom wasn't dropping down, so there was a gap where I should be digging out the compost.  Yesterday I took a peek and over winter it has dropped - there's room at the top again and I was able to dig out lots of compost for the planter.  I then sprinkled over some water retaining gel crystals which, I hope, will help if the summer is very dry and there's still a hosepipe ban.  I then finished it off with another bag of potting compost.  And now it's getting a good soaking from the rain. 
As a result of there being no room at the top, I have been putting all my peelings, etc, in the food recycling bin, but I can now stop doing that and compost them again instead.  Yay!!!  Maybe I ought to get another bin but I really don't think a small garden like this is big enough to sustain two compost bins.  Three raised beds, a strip at the front, sundry pots and a willow planter . . . that's all.  But it's a nice feeling to be using my veg waste again.

Today I woke early.  I've been getting into bad habits over the last two or three days, going to bed late and waking late.  Six thirty is very late for me!  I still went to bed late last night (oh, OK, so normal for most people, late for me) but woke earlier too, which was nice.  I like my early mornings.  So I went into the kitchen and made the mandarin cheesecake thing I mentioned a few blogs ago.  It's now sitting in the fridge and I have my fingers crossed, metaphorically speaking.  Here's hoping it works because I do not like the idea of wasting the ingredients.

I was going to plant the seed tapes in the planter today and probably still will, as long as it doesn't rain any harder.  I won't have to water it afterwards, that's for sure!  However, I think the planting out of the wallflower is going to have to wait.

And now I'd better go and make breakfast.  Have a good Bank Holiday everyone, rain or no rain!