Garden progress and furniture moving
May. 19th, 2020 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halojedhaWe took another two day weekend. I'm so glad - I really needed it. The first day was spent feeling entirely floopy and fragile. We defrosted food and avoided the housework, doing the bare minimum and trying to rest as much as possible around E.
I feel like true rest doesn't exist any more. Even if Leo takes E while I rest or nap somewhere else, I know the clock is ticking, that it's taxing Leo, that I might be needed any moment. And when we're all together (which is the second most restful thing available) half my attention is always on the needs and safety of the rambunctious proto-toddler.
I spent Sunday experiencing grief over various things resulting from the pandemic. It hit me hard for a while.
But then on Monday we decided to take a second day off work, and I felt great! I slung E in the morning and did some gardening.
I treated the containers with nemotodes four days ago, and was impatient to plant stuff out as soon as that had done its work and I wasn't consigning my plants to a sluggy death. The courgettes are already too big for their second-size-up pots, and the climbing beans had raced up their individual poles and started tangling with each other, so it was time.
I've been taking them our during the day every day I remember over the last week and bringing them in at night, and it's summer hot here with no frosts, so I was hoping they wouldn't die of cold.
I planted out 5 courgettes and 2 winter squashes. They seem to be thriving. I also planted out the first 3 climbing beans around one of the squashes. This is where I ran into trouble. The first bean I tried to transplant with pole, but the pole dangled down while I was cradling the root ball and removing the pot, and the weight bent and damaged the vine. So the second two I carefully unwound from their poles and rewound in situ. But the vines were super fragile and all three plants got bent. This morning when I went out to look all three are looking limp and unhappy.
I have two more beans in pots. Not sure how to plant them out without damaging them, or how to avoid this problem in future. I've got some more bean seedlings in seed trays, and I might skip the second-size-up pots and put them straight in the ground before they get long enough to need poles. So I need to sow some more beans. I might try sowing in situ next. Hopefully it's late enough and warm enough for that to work.
My brassica seedlings are coming along well - I've got kohlrabi and cabbage all needing potting up, and am running out of space to put them. Need to devise some more containers. I've got a good rocket crop and some chard and spinach to pot up. Both attempts to sow tatsoi have produced weak little seedlings that don't get big, and none of my lettuce or dill has germinated. But I do have some fairly spindly coriander coming along, and finally some tiny basil leaves making an appearance, second time lucky! Mm, basil.
Yesterday also contained lots of cooking. I baked cake, which turned out well - I'm enjoying getting the hang of baking which meets Leo's dietary needs. And we cooked two batch meals (kedgeree for the fridge and fish pie for the freezer, using the fresh fish from the last grocery order before it went off).
The other big achievement yesterday was a job which we've been talking about for ages, and which we only just got round to. Since we moved here in 2017, the three bedrooms have been organised as follows: - big bedroom: Leo's room with superking bed and Leo's work from home desk - middle bedroom: my room with kingsize bed - small bedroom: my office and work from home space.
We both felt good about having our own space, even though we shared a bed most nights, and the spare bedroom was very useful for guests and polyam dates.
Since E was born we've all slept in the big bedroom together. The middle bedroom (which has no space for a changing table, and a smaller bed less comfy for the three of us - four including Niamh cat - to share) has been barely used. Leo and their lover have had a few dates there, but now circumstances have changed. I'm not currently seeing anyone else. We aren't gonna have any guests staying for a while. And the current arrangement has been inconvenient in various ways:
- Leo can't work while I'm feeding E to sleep in the evening, which often takes several hours
- they can't work if they wake up early and E and I are still sleeping
- E's clothes and mine are all in the middle bedroom, so I have to go next door to dress myself or them - inconvenient if they're sleepy and I'd like to leave them in bed rather than wake them up and carry them around
- if E and I want to nap during the day while Leo works, we need to use the other bedroom, which a) doesn't have a bed rail and is therefore less safe, and b) is a New and Interesting Environment and therefore not very condusive to naps
- I feel a bit weird about living full-time in a space which isn't "mine", and never getting to use "my space".
So I've been wanting for a while to move things around and resolve these issues. And yesterday we finally did the first step! We:
- collapsed my bed and propped it against the wall
- hoovered and tidied the under-bed stuff
- rearranged the furniture to create space, tucking the bedside tables under the shelf
- removed another shelf to make space for the desk and monitor
- and moved Leo's desk, computer peripherals and chair through
Yay! Achievement! It feels really good to have done it.
Next steps:
- hoover and clean the empty spot in the bedroom
- move my and E's chests of drawers in
And then maybe...
- set up the middle room as a temporary home workshop for Leo so they don't have to commute when they need to start doing physical engineering work again
Or
- move my office into the middle room as a shared office, and set up the guest bed in the littlest room
But realistically we're unlikely to need a guest bed much until we move in September. And if we do have people stay over, they can sleep on the corner sofa or portable mattress downstairs. If we have dates, we can play during the day in the big bedroom, or go to our date's house. But that all feels a long way off right now.
I feel like true rest doesn't exist any more. Even if Leo takes E while I rest or nap somewhere else, I know the clock is ticking, that it's taxing Leo, that I might be needed any moment. And when we're all together (which is the second most restful thing available) half my attention is always on the needs and safety of the rambunctious proto-toddler.
I spent Sunday experiencing grief over various things resulting from the pandemic. It hit me hard for a while.
But then on Monday we decided to take a second day off work, and I felt great! I slung E in the morning and did some gardening.
I treated the containers with nemotodes four days ago, and was impatient to plant stuff out as soon as that had done its work and I wasn't consigning my plants to a sluggy death. The courgettes are already too big for their second-size-up pots, and the climbing beans had raced up their individual poles and started tangling with each other, so it was time.
I've been taking them our during the day every day I remember over the last week and bringing them in at night, and it's summer hot here with no frosts, so I was hoping they wouldn't die of cold.
I planted out 5 courgettes and 2 winter squashes. They seem to be thriving. I also planted out the first 3 climbing beans around one of the squashes. This is where I ran into trouble. The first bean I tried to transplant with pole, but the pole dangled down while I was cradling the root ball and removing the pot, and the weight bent and damaged the vine. So the second two I carefully unwound from their poles and rewound in situ. But the vines were super fragile and all three plants got bent. This morning when I went out to look all three are looking limp and unhappy.
I have two more beans in pots. Not sure how to plant them out without damaging them, or how to avoid this problem in future. I've got some more bean seedlings in seed trays, and I might skip the second-size-up pots and put them straight in the ground before they get long enough to need poles. So I need to sow some more beans. I might try sowing in situ next. Hopefully it's late enough and warm enough for that to work.
My brassica seedlings are coming along well - I've got kohlrabi and cabbage all needing potting up, and am running out of space to put them. Need to devise some more containers. I've got a good rocket crop and some chard and spinach to pot up. Both attempts to sow tatsoi have produced weak little seedlings that don't get big, and none of my lettuce or dill has germinated. But I do have some fairly spindly coriander coming along, and finally some tiny basil leaves making an appearance, second time lucky! Mm, basil.
Yesterday also contained lots of cooking. I baked cake, which turned out well - I'm enjoying getting the hang of baking which meets Leo's dietary needs. And we cooked two batch meals (kedgeree for the fridge and fish pie for the freezer, using the fresh fish from the last grocery order before it went off).
The other big achievement yesterday was a job which we've been talking about for ages, and which we only just got round to. Since we moved here in 2017, the three bedrooms have been organised as follows: - big bedroom: Leo's room with superking bed and Leo's work from home desk - middle bedroom: my room with kingsize bed - small bedroom: my office and work from home space.
We both felt good about having our own space, even though we shared a bed most nights, and the spare bedroom was very useful for guests and polyam dates.
Since E was born we've all slept in the big bedroom together. The middle bedroom (which has no space for a changing table, and a smaller bed less comfy for the three of us - four including Niamh cat - to share) has been barely used. Leo and their lover have had a few dates there, but now circumstances have changed. I'm not currently seeing anyone else. We aren't gonna have any guests staying for a while. And the current arrangement has been inconvenient in various ways:
- Leo can't work while I'm feeding E to sleep in the evening, which often takes several hours
- they can't work if they wake up early and E and I are still sleeping
- E's clothes and mine are all in the middle bedroom, so I have to go next door to dress myself or them - inconvenient if they're sleepy and I'd like to leave them in bed rather than wake them up and carry them around
- if E and I want to nap during the day while Leo works, we need to use the other bedroom, which a) doesn't have a bed rail and is therefore less safe, and b) is a New and Interesting Environment and therefore not very condusive to naps
- I feel a bit weird about living full-time in a space which isn't "mine", and never getting to use "my space".
So I've been wanting for a while to move things around and resolve these issues. And yesterday we finally did the first step! We:
- collapsed my bed and propped it against the wall
- hoovered and tidied the under-bed stuff
- rearranged the furniture to create space, tucking the bedside tables under the shelf
- removed another shelf to make space for the desk and monitor
- and moved Leo's desk, computer peripherals and chair through
Yay! Achievement! It feels really good to have done it.
Next steps:
- hoover and clean the empty spot in the bedroom
- move my and E's chests of drawers in
And then maybe...
- set up the middle room as a temporary home workshop for Leo so they don't have to commute when they need to start doing physical engineering work again
Or
- move my office into the middle room as a shared office, and set up the guest bed in the littlest room
But realistically we're unlikely to need a guest bed much until we move in September. And if we do have people stay over, they can sleep on the corner sofa or portable mattress downstairs. If we have dates, we can play during the day in the big bedroom, or go to our date's house. But that all feels a long way off right now.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-19 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-19 10:58 pm (UTC)Moving in September iwth winter squash plants could be... interesting.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-21 02:06 pm (UTC)I think I generally plant beans out before they need a pole. Although I have had very bad luck with snails so they need to be big enough to poke through a protective copper tape collar thingy. (I have also had very bad luck with getting the damn things to *climb* but there we go; am hoping this year's soya beans will behave better.)