Sunday

 Good morning, everyone.  It's a bright, fine start to the day with the promise of sunshine later on and no rain - yay  - and temperatures going up to 15C.  I've opened all the bedroom windows and am hoping I can sleep with the window open this week.

Yesterday was a busier day that they have been recently.  I got three loads of washing done and dried outside on the line.  There wasn't enough daylight left for the fourth load so that's just refreshing in the machine and then it will go out.  I set to and got most of the ironing done.  There's a bit more plus today's but I'll get that done this afternoon.

Dave (son) came round to look at the paperwork that was worrying me and it turned out to be nothing.  it was one of those 'covering all eventualities' things relating to the recent pension payment plus the related P45, and none of it applied to me as it was a very simple transaction and my financial affairs are also very simple.  It looks like they may have charged me about 8% too much tax but that will sort itself out over the next year, it's not worth upsetting the apple cart for.  So that was a relief.
It is amazing how mathematical my family has turned out to be really.  I look at a page of numbers and my brain does a backward flip into panic mode.  So aren't I lucky to have Dave nearby to help and advise when necessary.

After that, I was just about to set of for the allotment when my tum went on me (post-gallbladder repercussions when I eat too much fatty stuff) so I decided to start the ironing instead and let things settle which they always do.

I got to the allotment around three.  There were others there but everyone was hard at work and disinclined to talk.  To my delight, I saw that there had been another delivery of manure and bark chippings (not together!!) so I finished digging over the front strip (much more manageable than on Monday) and then set out with wheelbarrow and spade to grab a load of smelly stuff to spread over.  Then I used some nice soil from the compost heap and spread that over too.  Next time, I will just fork that all in and that's one area ready for sowing.

What a lovely sight - soil, manure and compost!  Yuppee.
It's all a bit of a mess right now but give me a month and things will be in reasonable order again; as reasonable as allotments ever are, anyway!

Below are the fruit trees, the two apples on the left and the pear and plum on the right.  Just ignore the early spring weeds - their days are numbered!!

Then it was home for a coffee and an orange before resuming the ironing.

So - busy day!

Today, Beth and Alex are over.  Poor Beth has had a couple of 'things' recently.  Her car broke down the other day and she had to be towed back in the dark, poor love.  It's now at a local garage and should be repaired tomorrow.  It's the clutch so ouch.  And then her internet is on the blink.  It's not an outage, it's probably the router and 'they' can come on Wednesday to repair it.

The problem is that both she and Alex need internet connection to work, she for her job and Alex for his uni studies.  That being so, they are staying here overnight and through tomorrow, I will take Beth to pick up her car tomorrow when it is ready and they will be working round at mine tomorrow and Tuesday.  Alex is also staying overnight on Monday - he's lost without his internet - and he may stay Tuesday night too.  No problem; the main issue is that they have to share a room but they've done that before and it's OK with them.

It's lucky I keep that room ready and the few things on the beds are easily sorted so it really doesn't involve very much extra work, just a bit of re-arranging tomorrow when they are working. 

Well, it's time to get lunch organised.  I like to get everything prepped well in advance and today I need to as I will be picking Beth and Al up late morning too.  Being busy will stop me thinking about other stuff which is a Good Thing.  Stay safe and have a lovely day, everyone.  xx