With a list of jobs as long as my arm…

Feckin’ grey weather. I can’t stand it. It’s bleak and dull and sucks the life and colour out of everything. BOO. I’m over it. I’ve had enough of jumpers, and wearing three pairs of socks. I don’t feel snuggly and warm and certainly not festive at all. I’m fed up of having to wrap up in a million layers before I step foot out of the door. I feel frumpy, pale and uninteresting. I’m craving some sunshine and warmth. I am so very, very ready for spring.

I’m not in the best of moods this evening It’s Monday evening, it’s coming up to 10pm and I think I’m going to go to bed in a bit. I’m so tired and grumpy. Thanks to my crappy shoulder and neck, I didn’t sleep well at all last night, despite the fact that I’ve been like a whirling dervish for the past four or five days.

It was Dad’s birthday at the weekend so I had a good excuse to poke around the shops, and I ended up buying myself some Stella McCartney (half price, reduced, but no less scrumptious) perfume. Sod it – I haven’t done anything like that in ages, and… well, believe it or not I am a girl, and I do enjoy it on the very, very rare occasion when I get to be a bit overindulgent. When you think about it, it’s all a bit silly. I could have spent that money on something else far more practical, or charitable. But in a way, I don’t mind investing in Stella. She has good ethics. I trust her. (The only downside was that the perfume had a stupid amount of needless packaging that went straight into the recycling bin).

Anyway. Enough about my (pretty) smelliness.

I could tell you all about the insanely boring jobs that I got up to. I could, but I won’t – lucky you! No, I’m going to tell you all about the one job that I did that I was pretty damned proud of. Actually, thinking about it, I should be ASHAMED. You’ll see why.

Inspired by the likes of Soilman’s ‘The compost heap from hell’ and Manor Stables Veg Plot’s ‘Welcome to my messy shed<' posts, I thought I would outdo everyone and attack the festering pit that is (well, was) my greenhouse. Are you ready for this? Have a look. See what 12 months of being a vacant, abused dumping ground did to my greenhouse:

I think I could take first prize in this particular contest.

But I spent a good few hours on Sunday afternoon attacking, weeding, yanking several hundred yards of ‘underground cabelling’ (evil nettles, bindweed,  and more bindweed) out, digging, raking, rubbishing, and re-organising my disorganisation, until I was left, in the dying last few minutes of sunlight, with this:

I mean, I’m nowhere near finished. I have to re-lay the floor, lay the floor properly outside the greenhouse, dig up all the underground cabelling around the perimeter of the greenhouse, clean all the pots and trays, wash down the glass, replace two missing panes, and GET THE BLOODY GREENHOUSE STAGING BUILT.

But, still – a vast improvement, non?

We also managed to finish putting the wooden borders around the big veg plot too:

Now all I  need to do is find a few tonnes of manure and soil to fill it all in with. Mum has some numbers for local stables, who are more than happy for us to cart away their poo. Good-o!

So, although I’m bored with the weather, fed up with the cold, positively sick of the damp and drearyness, I’m forcing myself to keep going. I have a list of jobs to complete as long as both my arms and legs put together. I know, that come spring and summer, I am going to be incredibly busy, both with my Smallest Smallholding, my house, and my work. Sometimes it gets all a bit overwhelming and I feel like I’m getting nowhere fast. But I have to stay focused on the job that I have chosen to do, and just get on with it. Hopefully all this chipping away will start to pay off.

So I just need to keep up the momentum and get as much done now, whilst I can, whilst nature is slumbering.

Or is it? Despite appearances, it seems spring may well be just around the corner…

Weight: 11 stones 2lbs (must have been Dad’s birthday cake… and that pizza… oops).