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31 Days of Year Zero
31/01/2007 08:23 pmWednesday afternoon is the beginning of Izzie's weekend and also the last evening of the first month of the new year.
Been a good little serpent and resisted the temptation to go moon watching by the river (which we will be most definitely doing tomorrow and possibly on Friday)
One of Izzie's things on the January To Do list was to finish digging up the half dead lawn in the back garden. Due to the heatwave since Friday where we had 3 days in a row of over 40 celsius and a pesky evening shift on Monday, lots of precious pottering time was lost. So today was catch up.
It would have been so much easier and certainly Uncle Vernon's preferred option to get out the vat of Zero or Round up and just zap that grass with toxic potions. But Izzie is a greenie and will not let such poison darken the door even if it saves us a bit of sweat and burning up a few spare tyres
So, next step is to rake everything even and pick out the dried bits of grass from the sods as well as the new shoots.
Getting sawdust or woodchips for new paths and straw for the planted bits will be a bit trickier. For some inexplicable reason, none of these folks who do deliveries of woodchips or manure seem to sell straw too
The sizzling summer has also led to some premature ripening of countless bunches of grapes. Already told the ma and pa to come over and help themselves. And unlike the rubbish in the shops, these grapes are more purple than red, not the size of grapefruits but this is more than compensated for in that they taste more like grapes and less like water but have the finger and clothers staining properties of mulberries
Also found two stray tomatoes which must have been from the batch planted before the grand European tour. One was a bit squishy so got dug into the ground but the other was an unbelievably tasty little morsel
So, on the New Year's Resolution front, doing pretty well actually.
Brought back the To Do list from our student days - a good way of remembering all those little but easily overlooked things
The aim of spending at least one hour per day on domestic or gardening activities, kept that one pretty well except during the heatwave where we did nothing but sleep during most of the time we did not have to be at work
Increasing our payments to the Goblins by $$50 per fortnight has been postponed indefinitely. It's that time of year - the summer squeeze after Christmas. Didn't spend that big but every little bit adds up especially when house goblin payments are between 50% and 65% of take home pay, is not much left over for the rest of life.
Prices seem to have gone up at a ridiculous rate in the last few months - it was very noticeable after our 8 week absence at the end of last year.
Was very very bad and indulged in a first edition of a very special book - and used the credit card for that purpose. So, yet again more catch up. Then there was the very pretty silver USB wand that we just had to have. Gorgeous little toy. Yessss. We can see just how easy it would be to fall into the trap of not paying the balance in full every month.
But now that the Izzie has become a bit more of a domesticated serpent and no longer feels the need to be out and about every time we get an afternoon off, it's not as tricky as it used to be. But it does mean that those rolls of shadecloth and the whirlybird gadget for the roof have gotten put on the long finger.
Of course, when the ma thinks of the Izzie and New Years' resolutions, she thinks of only one thing
"So what are you going to do about your weight?" she constantly nags
Izzie most evilly replies "I'm going to get pregnant" (That puts her in her box pretty quickly)
Yesss - developing protections from the Dementor Dursleys and their human white anting is a most definite priority on our "Must do" list of 2007
But so far so good. Been a pretty good year so far. Even the heat wave was not too bad. An infinitely better year than the last one it shares the calendar with - when 31st Jan was also on a Wednesday.
(Yesss - Izzie is so cheap that she recycles old calendars - but for some inexplicable reason, not too many from 2001 left lying around)
Been a good little serpent and resisted the temptation to go moon watching by the river (which we will be most definitely doing tomorrow and possibly on Friday)
One of Izzie's things on the January To Do list was to finish digging up the half dead lawn in the back garden. Due to the heatwave since Friday where we had 3 days in a row of over 40 celsius and a pesky evening shift on Monday, lots of precious pottering time was lost. So today was catch up.
It would have been so much easier and certainly Uncle Vernon's preferred option to get out the vat of Zero or Round up and just zap that grass with toxic potions. But Izzie is a greenie and will not let such poison darken the door even if it saves us a bit of sweat and burning up a few spare tyres
So, next step is to rake everything even and pick out the dried bits of grass from the sods as well as the new shoots.
Getting sawdust or woodchips for new paths and straw for the planted bits will be a bit trickier. For some inexplicable reason, none of these folks who do deliveries of woodchips or manure seem to sell straw too
The sizzling summer has also led to some premature ripening of countless bunches of grapes. Already told the ma and pa to come over and help themselves. And unlike the rubbish in the shops, these grapes are more purple than red, not the size of grapefruits but this is more than compensated for in that they taste more like grapes and less like water but have the finger and clothers staining properties of mulberries
Also found two stray tomatoes which must have been from the batch planted before the grand European tour. One was a bit squishy so got dug into the ground but the other was an unbelievably tasty little morsel
So, on the New Year's Resolution front, doing pretty well actually.
Brought back the To Do list from our student days - a good way of remembering all those little but easily overlooked things
The aim of spending at least one hour per day on domestic or gardening activities, kept that one pretty well except during the heatwave where we did nothing but sleep during most of the time we did not have to be at work
Increasing our payments to the Goblins by $$50 per fortnight has been postponed indefinitely. It's that time of year - the summer squeeze after Christmas. Didn't spend that big but every little bit adds up especially when house goblin payments are between 50% and 65% of take home pay, is not much left over for the rest of life.
Prices seem to have gone up at a ridiculous rate in the last few months - it was very noticeable after our 8 week absence at the end of last year.
Was very very bad and indulged in a first edition of a very special book - and used the credit card for that purpose. So, yet again more catch up. Then there was the very pretty silver USB wand that we just had to have. Gorgeous little toy. Yessss. We can see just how easy it would be to fall into the trap of not paying the balance in full every month.
But now that the Izzie has become a bit more of a domesticated serpent and no longer feels the need to be out and about every time we get an afternoon off, it's not as tricky as it used to be. But it does mean that those rolls of shadecloth and the whirlybird gadget for the roof have gotten put on the long finger.
Of course, when the ma thinks of the Izzie and New Years' resolutions, she thinks of only one thing
"So what are you going to do about your weight?" she constantly nags
Izzie most evilly replies "I'm going to get pregnant" (That puts her in her box pretty quickly)
Yesss - developing protections from the Dementor Dursleys and their human white anting is a most definite priority on our "Must do" list of 2007
But so far so good. Been a pretty good year so far. Even the heat wave was not too bad. An infinitely better year than the last one it shares the calendar with - when 31st Jan was also on a Wednesday.
(Yesss - Izzie is so cheap that she recycles old calendars - but for some inexplicable reason, not too many from 2001 left lying around)
