Haimyll-daemee

After what seems like forever without taking more than just the odd day off, I am now/finally off for a whole three weeks. I am taking a staycation, or as we say in Scotland Haimyll-daemee.

The weekend was a bit more relaxed than usual. Frankly I am amazed at just how much I generally squeeze into a weekend, between walking the hound, IT geek for the house, paperwork, housework, garden work, and family time. Knowing that I was off this week, I did not attack the list of things to do with the usual gusto, so there are still a few things left over that I would normally have tried to do at the weekend.

Things did get knocked slightly astray by the dreich and undecided weather. I normally use google weather, but lately it seems to be marking up pretty much every day as having a chance of rain. I live in Scotland. It is hardly a forecast to say that there is a chance of rain. To be honest though the rain was pelting it down yesterday, but mostly it has been cloudly with just a little rain. My flymo lawnmower packed in yesterday. After years of abuse the motor now requires considerable gentle coaxing. So we headed off to get a new one, and dropped in at a fruit picking farm on the way back. This was one that I had not been been to before, and it was really excellent. Coffee and cake, and some nice organic-ey type food in the farm shop. Had a look at their free-range chickens, who were pecking about a couple of rows of blackcurrents, and a few more rows of healthy looking damson trees. I do love my fruit trees and bushes, and love to see them wherever they are.

Today I was attacking the garden with considerable gusto. There are so many shrubs and trees, that the brown bin of garden waste is filled up in no time. So I was hacking away at trimming hedges, and overgrown bits, and testing my new lawnmower. The problem with the last mower was that it was not powerful enough, the motor must have been around 1,000 watts, so I went for something much more powerful. Although the new lawnmower seems to weigh twice as much, and it a complete pig to lug around the garden, it just needs to look at the grass and it has it trimmed down to the requiste length. It does not like banks or edgey bits, but it just breezes over the main areas. I might get a more lightweight mower for the banks and edges, but the new one is most impressive.

After a day in the garden the brown bin is now virtually full. I have another day before they come to uplift it, so I should have it well filled by then.

Currently in the garden we are harvesting courgettes, a great thug of a plant, a few strawberries left, plenty of loganberries but they are a bit too bitter to use, rhubarb if anyone wants it, and the usual herbs. This will be a bumper year for the apple harvest, but not quite ready yet.

We have tried to come up with a decent mix of things to do over the next few weeks, some outings, some house stuff. Like work, I suppose the problem is not that you are bored with something, just that you have been doing it for too long, and it is time to do something else. Hence coming up with a mix of things.

I like having the chance to just sit and read a book, or a paper, and not feel that the clock is ticking away, and after all, that is what a real holiday is.