As we pass the midpoint of March, and with five blog articles under
my belt, I have reached the halfway point in my goal of 10 posts per month.
It’s been hard going at times, as there’s been a lot happening on both the
domestic and the work front, including the planning of a couple more cruises. The latter demonstrates that play is just as
important as work, if not more so! In the meantime, I have remained occupied
with several projects leading to improvements on both the house and garden
fronts. I won’t bore you with the details now, although I will return to that great
British standby topic, of the weather.
So far this month, we’ve experienced intermittent spells of
warm weather, interspersed by a couple of cold, and I mean very cold, snaps. During
my lunchtime walk yesterday, I had to return briefly to the office to grab my
woolly hat due to the cold northerly wind.
Walking across the old Penshurst
airfield meant facing this biting wind directly, but today it was a different
scenario, with the beginning of forecast spell of warmer conditions. I’m sure
that poor mother nature doesn’t know which way to turn, but despite recent setbacks
spring is well and truly on its way. Numerous daffodils are now in bloom, and
some trees are showing signs of blossom. Typically, blackthorn is the first
tree to bloom, with its pink and white flowers adding a contrasting touch to
the yellow hues of daffodils and primroses.
This year, we are saying farewell to the kitchen garden,
which is the plot of land closest to the house. It did us proud last year, with
a bountiful crop of runner beans, plus a few sweetcorn, although I rather
naively left it too late, before harvesting the cobs. On the other side of the
garden though, the leeks I planted out early last autumn, have come into their
own, and we are slowly munching our way through them, not only in stews or
casseroles, but also as tasty late winter vegetables, in their own right.
Growing one’s own veg requires a lot of effort, as well as
time, and it is the latter that I want to have more of this summer, especially as
there are places, I wish to visit and pubs I want to drink in. The kitchen garden
then, is to be converted into an area of hard standing. I have already reached
out to an old school friend of Matthew’s, who has successfully established his
own landscape gardening business, and am waiting for him to call round in order
to price up the job.
Mrs. PBT has already staked her claim to this proposed area
and marked it as somewhere to “sit out”, whatever that means. This is despite us already having a
patio area, for that sort of thing. It’s probably just as well that she doesn’t
know of my plan for a new, but smaller greenhouse, as this flat, area of solid
ground would serve well as the ideal base for such a construction.
Our current,
and rather tumbledown greenhouse, came as part of the house, when we moved in
during 1994. Although I have made
numerous repairs to the structure, including replacing broken panes with Perspex
ones, and fitting staging inside, thanks to a combination of weather and old
age, it has now deteriorated to a point where it is beyond redemption. So, a
small, compact greenhouse sited nearer the house, seems a practical solution,
and one I am determined to press on with.
In the meantime, we’ve got a couple of cruises to look
forward to. The first, in just over a week, is a four-day cruise, to Hamburg
and back. Our son Matthew will accompany us on this short sea voyage, which
will be his first cruise, and his first experience of life afloat. He appears
to be looking forward to it, although he has not expressed much enthusiasm
verbally. I have assured him of an extended tour of central Hamburg, planned to
span from mid-morning until late afternoon, and after reviewing various blogs,
including Retired Martin’s, as well as online recommendations, I have compiled
a shortlist of potential bars and pubs near the city centre, with one looking out across the Elbe River.
Starting from the third week in May, Mrs PBT’s and I will be
embarking on a two-week cruise around the coast of the British Isles. The
itinerary includes several stops in the Highlands and Islands, with a crossing
of the Irish Sea towards the end of the voyage. Our ship will be docking at
both Dublin and Cork. I may opt to skip the former, having spent a long weekend
in the Irish capital a decade ago, mainly because the ship docks some distance
from the city centre, and requires a tender for disembarkation. Eileen isn’t over-keen on hopping off one vessel and onto another, particularly if there’s a
bit of a swell. Cork should be an enjoyable destination, as it is the
Republic’s second-largest city and renowned for its legendary stout brands such
as Murphy’s and Beamish, both of which are better than Guinness, IMO.
Upon returning from our these two spring holidays, I am
planning to head north and explore a few of the Yorkshire towns that I have not
previously had the opportunity to visit in depth, if at all. Halifax,
Huddersfield, and Hebden Bridge spring to mind, so any recommendations as to which is the better
pub town? After that, is back to domesticity, and the plan is to have
a new kitchen installed. We’ve been in the house for over 30 years, and the
current kitchen is the result of a botched DIY job by the previous, rather eccentric
owner of the property. We will try and arrange for that work to be carried
out whilst we’re sailing around Britain’s coastline.
Finally, even though there may be more domestic stuff to write
about later, the blog is undergoing a reorganization. This involves removing a
number of inactive, or rarely updated blogs, that were cluttering my blog list,
making it difficult to find active ones. While they don’t affect the blog
directly, having to scroll through numerous entries that haven’t been updated
for months or longer means it’s time to let go of some, even if they hold
sentimental value to their authors. On the plus side, I have added several new
sites to the list, more details to follow, if you haven’t spotted these changes
already.
