A little help from my friends...

So as you can imagine I'm proud to have a new allotment and having been telling everyone I know about it!

Now in the past I have been warned about my 'oversharing' I would have had an allotment in January if i'd not been telling everyone that there were some avaliable, oops!! 

But now things have turned around and talking to others has helped me to get some produce for my allotment, a cucumber plant and some chilli plants as well as some pallets for my shed. 

I've also found that you can get a good deal from tesco's clubcard points. Thompson and Morgan will accept Tesco Clubcard Boost vouchers for which you can swap £5 worth of clubcard points for £15 worth of Thompson and Morgan vouchers. So we ordered some courgette plants and some tomato plants which will fruit in a variety of colours. Lets hope for a lovely summer <3 

Meet the neighbours

Nearly a month in and we still have a lot to accomplish on the allotment!
John has dug over about a quarter of the entire plot, we took out the strawberry plants and now need to replant elsewhere on site. We have started some seeds off and bought a few plants but most importantly we have been helped out by some other fellow gardeners.

Having an allotment is not just about the growing of vegetables but it is also a social activity. Swapping plants, giving advice, meeting like minded people. We met our allotment neighbours the third time we visited the site. They had previously had another allotment elsewhere and were keen allotmenteers. They offered us some advice about weeding and also told us a bit about about how the site had been used by the previous owner which helped us to locate some raspberry plants and a mound of manure which will be great for turning into the soil!

Week 1 Over

So our first week is over on the allotment and we have so far gathered up 4 buckets of broken glass, cleared only a tenth of the patch, transplanted over 40 strawberry plants to pots and ate our first 'produce' nettle pesto after only a week! 

We met our neighbours who have a lovely site alongside ours. They informed us to be wary of thieves, rats and pigeons, to not worry about using weed killer and how they hoped to see more of us down there.

With only 3 weeks til John goes to Iceland it's going to be tough getting the site ready but we can do it!!

Here are some photos of our progress so far...

Decisions Decisions...

If you've read any of my previous blog posts you may have realised I can be a tad indecisive! 

I like to try new things but don't usually commit to doing anything long term, that includes going to the gym, eating healthy, keeping on top of housework, diets.

So in January this year when I got excited about the idea of having my own allotment and then the disappointment of finding out I wasn't going to get one, I just parked that idea for another time.

Well this month I found out we finally got an allotment yay!! So now the hard work begins. Here are a few shots I took of it when we first found out...

One month in...

Dear Father,

It has been nearly two weeks since my last blog post...

I thought today I'd write a  bit about breaking old habits and starting new ones. I remember once reading somewhere that it takes 28 days to create a new habit. So I can see how it can be so easy to fall at the first hurdle. 

If like me your New Years resolution was to do more of something like go to the gym, eat better etc, and your not doing it every day, then how long will it take to form a new routine and change for the future?

I'm just glad i've never been a smoker or drinker!

Feel free to input any advice of breaking habits, I'm curious myself as to what works for other people.

Pepsi V Coke

WARNING RANT POST COMING....

So I ordered a Chinese Friday and it said spend £15 get either prawn crackers or coke, now usually the dog eats the prawn crackers so I thought, you know what? I fancy a can of coke!!

But what did I get when I picked it up?!?! PEPSI!!!! Noooooooo!!

See I could understand if the menu said COLA as Pepsi cola and coca cola well they both have cola in the name but I was so disappointing :(

The other question is why are there people (like me) who will ONLY drink one? its not just a taste choice I hate Pepsi with a passion and will only drink it in pubs when its diluted badly on the pump.

Here's something for other folk to rant about #firstworldproblems

Sugars bad um Kay!

So, the other week there was a new report on sugar basically saying that its the sugar in our diet that's making us fat/ill.

Now this is the umpteenth time that a report has come out saying that something different is the cause of all this obesity. 

This summer I chatted with someone who was of the opinion that being  a vegan is the best way to be and that humans aren't really designed to eat animal by products. 

This left me thinking about my own diet and my weight gain, I blame coca-cola, but what is the solution?

Can people live on a diet of foraged food? of home grown veg? 

I'm certainly interested in trying but can I sacrifice the coke?!?!?!

I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!

I was going to write a blog post about dogs, about news reports, about a million other things but this week I never had the time!

Time management is something I thought you could learn but I'm starting to wonder how long it takes to break those old habits?

As a child I was one of those 'ooh I'll just watch these 7 hours of tv while doing my 20 min of homework' which obviously then took 7 hours....

So I've read about how to prioritise your to do list, I've learnt the art of the GANTT, I've even been told by my husband on so many occasions the 80/20 rule.
But what does it all mean if you can't focus yourself enough to do these little tasks!?!??!

This is the opportunity for discussion from you guys!

Slug Gate

Have you ever tried growing veg?

I enjoy it, it's quite satisfying to see the plants grow and being able to eat whatever you planted. 

Potatoes are the most rewarded as they are hidden deep below the soil, no idea how they are doing whether you will get any, how big they will be?
I've tried a few times to grow before. 

Mainly in pots in our small yard behind are hour, one year went quite well, we got all sorts of veg from a tiny raised bed made out of an old..errr bed! These pictures are from my most successful year in 2009. My worst year, well we don't like to talk about slug gate in my house! 


It was a particularly wet summer this year and not the warmest. My veg was struggling to say the least. I couldn't seem to keep on top of the weeds and was loosing daily battles with slugs. 

My mum had planted cabbages and courgettes and over night the entire batch had disappeared!! 

(It honest looking like someone had been in the garden and dug them up as there was nothing left!!!)

I tried everything to save my veg, egg shells, beer traps, slug pellets, copper rings, sacrificial basil but sadly nothing was going to save my crops. I lost it! I couldn't bare to suffer another summer like this so I just quit!!

Long time ago now slug gate but it still make me shudder at the thought of removing the dead corpses from the battle field :/

Well I've finally got over it and now we are looking at getting an allotment! :)
Turns out its between £30 & £70 and I'm hoping we might be able to grown enough to become a bit more self sufficient.
WATCH THIS SPACE!!

Too Hasty :/

Ok maybe cancelling Sky was a bit too hasty I enjoy laying on the sofa on lazy days and watching people spray tan their 3 year olds, while they scream in pain as some beautician waxes their tiny eyebrows...
...Ok I don't like that show!!
But it's a bit like watching a car crash... you can't always look away, even when you know you should!

So can I still watch some sky but not keep paying £44 a month for it???
 (plus broadband and phone, just so you understand It's dear, but not that dear for the basics :p)

Well I spotted a little box called Now Tv and looks like that could be the solution, I wonder who makes this little box??? oh it's sky again! Hmm but it is only £5 a month for the TV rather than £20 hmmm and if I change my broadband to EE, I can get orange Wednesdays...
...and with the money I save I could join the gym!

See 2014 is getting better by the day!

The Sky is falling...

...or maybe Chicken Little was exaggerating?

2014 started almost a week ago now and so far this year has been Pants to be brutally honest.

I've spent most of what is left of my time off work falling out with the family and trying to justify my own self worth. 

The last few days have been particularly hard. We have long wanted to move out of this town, to start afresh somewhere new, with prospects and if I'm going to be blunt about things better weather, more interesting lifestyle, but that's all so far away.
That damn light at the end of the tunnel feels an eternity away and things need to change NOW!!!

So last night I made the toughest decision ever....I'm cancelling SKY!
....I know don't be too hasty, have you thought this through....

Yes I have! and I need to do this, too much of my life has been wasted sat in front of a TV!!
Did you know that the average American will spend 9 years watching TV?
That means for the rest of us peoples who watch more than average which I'm sure I do we are losing valuable time that could be spent doing something, anything more useful!!

Welcome to me

Hello my name is Chuck!

I'm at 31yr old married woman from a small town called Barnsley, South Yorkshire. I live with my husband Mac and dog Rogue.

Not fascinated yet...?

...well I decided I needed to do this blog because its time to make some changes!!

In 2003 I thought my life was sorted I finished University, I was going to be a psychologist, I got married and then reality happened. How? What do I do to achieve it? and that's where everything got messy. 

It's over 10 years now since those tough decisions, I've made some bad choices and took a long time to feel my life had meaning...

...BUT I'm here! it's 2014 and I'm going to make a change!!

I thought about Blogging so here goes this is what you can expect.

1) Lots of crap about where I have come from 

         (I've 10 years worth of material!)

2) How I'm going to change my life this year.

3) The day to day musings of life.

Now I best go get living!!!