Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, my esteemed husband and i figured it would be far more financially beneficial - as well as lifestyle/health beneficial - to have an allotment. This isn't as easy as it sounds. It has to be said, we didn't have to wait for our allotment, we could plot share for the last few months of last year (the chap we were sharing it with, had already paid the whole years rent, for the whole plot, so we got our patch rent free), and so the entire plot became ours immediately the new (spring) year started. Everyone is very friendly, and I suppose we will have an abundance of vegetables that are tastier than your average supermarkets produce, BUT it costs to rent the allotment, it costs to purchase the seeds and the fertilizer and seed trays to grow them in, it costs to set up strawberry nets and bean fences, tools cost money, the fruit bushes cost money (and we won't even get a yield from these this year).
Of course we are also reliant on the benevolence of the weather, to not give us a downpour like last year's, which makes the crop poor and the wisdom of other allotmenteers and advice from purchased or borrowed books to ensure that we get something like a halfway decent harvest in the first couple of years as learn for ourselves.
What I'm saying - sitting here, drinking a cup of tea, staring out at the gale force winds and blustery rain for the third day in a row, when I have seeds and plants that need planting - is that allotments are not for the faint hearted and aren't necessarily cost effective for the first year or two, that maybe, just maybe, the local supermarket, or market stall, are cheaper....
Wednesday 12 March 2008
Friday 29 February 2008
Busy Busy Busy/Paid to Survey
Did I do a post yesterday? Was yesterday the earthquake?
I dunno. I was busy making a mini-scrap card/booklet/keepsake thingy for my Mum, for mothers day.
I didn't lost weight at fat club, and I only sold one card, oh well, as my ol' Mum pointed out, if i keep taking the cards to the meetings, everyone will get used to them being there and shall start looking at them and when they need to get a card at the last minute on a tuesday night, they'll remember to come and get them from me at Fat Club. I'm not convinced but I'll give it a shot. I just don't know whats wrong with my cards. They're pretty, they look proffessional, they're well made, well laid out and they're only £1.50 each. *Shrug*
Ages ago, I also signed up to a load of "get paid to survey" sites, and so everyday, there are a multitude of emails in my inbox, inviting me to complete surveys. Some pay hard cash, some put me in a prize draw (for hard cash), some I collect points and can get rewards/gifts, in exchange for the points. Thing is, if a dozen e-mails come through my e-mail, I invariably don't qualify for more than three of the surveys. So not only is it a pain in the butt having my e-mail account clogged up with the surveys, I'll have retired before I even make a fiver!
But if your interested in getting paid to participate in surveys, try this website, they have a long list of PTS sites: http://www.cashforsurveys.co.uk/UK.htm
I dunno. I was busy making a mini-scrap card/booklet/keepsake thingy for my Mum, for mothers day.
I didn't lost weight at fat club, and I only sold one card, oh well, as my ol' Mum pointed out, if i keep taking the cards to the meetings, everyone will get used to them being there and shall start looking at them and when they need to get a card at the last minute on a tuesday night, they'll remember to come and get them from me at Fat Club. I'm not convinced but I'll give it a shot. I just don't know whats wrong with my cards. They're pretty, they look proffessional, they're well made, well laid out and they're only £1.50 each. *Shrug*
Ages ago, I also signed up to a load of "get paid to survey" sites, and so everyday, there are a multitude of emails in my inbox, inviting me to complete surveys. Some pay hard cash, some put me in a prize draw (for hard cash), some I collect points and can get rewards/gifts, in exchange for the points. Thing is, if a dozen e-mails come through my e-mail, I invariably don't qualify for more than three of the surveys. So not only is it a pain in the butt having my e-mail account clogged up with the surveys, I'll have retired before I even make a fiver!
But if your interested in getting paid to participate in surveys, try this website, they have a long list of PTS sites: http://www.cashforsurveys.co.uk/UK.htm
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Earthquake
oh wow! It was the middle of the night, just before 1 and I woke from a deep sleep, confused. I didn't know what had awoken me. I got out of bed, to go and check on the kids. There was a deep rumbling (sound). It got louder and then faded away. It sounded like a lorry going down the road, but no lorry I've ever heard; at the same time I started to shake - I suppose so did the house - as if someone had taken me by the shoulders and was shaking me firmly. A few things fell of the shelf. When the rumbling had faded and I had stopped shakings (a matter of moments), I looked out of the window, but the street was quiet and peaceful, no cars, or lorries or people. Hubby and I checked all about the house but couldn't find anything to explain the phenomenon, but both knowing that we hadn't imagined it. I expected to wake to the news of a huge bomb explosion or earthquake this morning, and I was right. I just didn't expect it to be so close to home!
"The biggest earthquake in the UK for nearly 25 years has shaken homes across large parts of England.....The British Geological Survey (BGS) said the earthquake was of the magnitude of 5.3 and the epicentre was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. "
Fat Club and Textperts
It's all very well starting a blog, but it's not so easy a) coming up with entry titles b) creating 'content'. I mean, if this were a personal, private diary, I could gabble away and it's ok, the diary is for me, and I'd know all the spare details that don't go in the diary entry and it would all make sense. BUT, since a blog is a public thing, then I need to at least make it interesting and readable...don't I? I mean, isn't a blog, sort of like an electronic novel?
Anyway, it's fatclub tonight. I'm not going to have lost weight this week, in fact I'm sure I'll have put some on, because I was very bad last week. My baby's first birthday, so there was lots of juicy chocolate cake to eat, and my Dad left a bottle of wine for us, and then there was the Thornton's chocolate covered Toffee, just screaming to be eaten. Oh well, I'll confess my sins tonight and start afresh in the morning. Meantime, the group leader has said I can set up a little table and sell my handmade cards, so I've got to get there a bit earlier than usual and fingers crossed I make a bit of cash. It's Mother's Day on Sunday, so hopefully everyone will come rushing over to my table to buy my Mother's Day cards.
I looked in the paper yesterday, to see if there might be a job I could fit around the kids and school and hubbies work. I found a 'leaflet drop' ad, which I've sent an e-mail off requesting more info - lets see if something comes of it. I could do leaflet dropping whilst my eldest is at nursery school, with baby in her pram. It would be a nice spot of healthy exercise too (Ignore all thoughts of frost, rain, snow, thunderstorms etc.).
I also found an interesting site: http://www.texperts.com/ I didn't realise such services existed! I did the quiz to see if I could become a textpert, but whilst I've got excellant grammar, I was pretty much rubbish at all of the other subjects.
Anyway, it's fatclub tonight. I'm not going to have lost weight this week, in fact I'm sure I'll have put some on, because I was very bad last week. My baby's first birthday, so there was lots of juicy chocolate cake to eat, and my Dad left a bottle of wine for us, and then there was the Thornton's chocolate covered Toffee, just screaming to be eaten. Oh well, I'll confess my sins tonight and start afresh in the morning. Meantime, the group leader has said I can set up a little table and sell my handmade cards, so I've got to get there a bit earlier than usual and fingers crossed I make a bit of cash. It's Mother's Day on Sunday, so hopefully everyone will come rushing over to my table to buy my Mother's Day cards.
I looked in the paper yesterday, to see if there might be a job I could fit around the kids and school and hubbies work. I found a 'leaflet drop' ad, which I've sent an e-mail off requesting more info - lets see if something comes of it. I could do leaflet dropping whilst my eldest is at nursery school, with baby in her pram. It would be a nice spot of healthy exercise too (Ignore all thoughts of frost, rain, snow, thunderstorms etc.).
I also found an interesting site: http://www.texperts.com/ I didn't realise such services existed! I did the quiz to see if I could become a textpert, but whilst I've got excellant grammar, I was pretty much rubbish at all of the other subjects.
Monday 25 February 2008
Blog Title and Intro
I wanted a nice catchy title, to create a little blog about daily life and my eccentric plans for making a bob or two. I kept coming up with stuff like 'The Wild Housewife' .....basically whatever I came up with sounded either downright rubbish or like a dodgy porn film title!
Anyway, eventually - having just snapped at the kids - I remembered a joke that got e-mailed to me the other day, something like: I just want you to know I've entered the 'snapdragon part of my life - part of me has snapped and the rest of me is draggin'. Very funny, except I'm turning into a dragon, more than I'm draggin'. So yeah, anyway, that's why the title is what it is!
In a nutshell, I'm a housewife. Happily Married, Two kids - depends on the time of day as to whether I consider them wonderful ;) but like so many families, we only have one income. We worked out - when discovering I was pregnant with our first little darling, that it would be cheaper for me to stay at home and look after the kids full-time, than it would be for me to go out to work and have a stranger bring up our kids. NOT that I have a problem with Childminders, I just have a fixed image that the childminder will teach the kids that some behaviours are acceptable, and maybe I don't find those behaviours acceptable.
So anyway, here we are, with a mortgage and children and a bank account full of moths, and I'm sure we're not the only family in this state, so maybe my blogging away about my madcap make it rich schemes will either help or amuse anyone wandering past my blog page. Maybe I can just eventually print my whole blog out and send it to a publisher and get rich that way. In the meantime, does anyone know next weeks winning lottery numbers....?
Anyway, eventually - having just snapped at the kids - I remembered a joke that got e-mailed to me the other day, something like: I just want you to know I've entered the 'snapdragon part of my life - part of me has snapped and the rest of me is draggin'. Very funny, except I'm turning into a dragon, more than I'm draggin'. So yeah, anyway, that's why the title is what it is!
In a nutshell, I'm a housewife. Happily Married, Two kids - depends on the time of day as to whether I consider them wonderful ;) but like so many families, we only have one income. We worked out - when discovering I was pregnant with our first little darling, that it would be cheaper for me to stay at home and look after the kids full-time, than it would be for me to go out to work and have a stranger bring up our kids. NOT that I have a problem with Childminders, I just have a fixed image that the childminder will teach the kids that some behaviours are acceptable, and maybe I don't find those behaviours acceptable.
So anyway, here we are, with a mortgage and children and a bank account full of moths, and I'm sure we're not the only family in this state, so maybe my blogging away about my madcap make it rich schemes will either help or amuse anyone wandering past my blog page. Maybe I can just eventually print my whole blog out and send it to a publisher and get rich that way. In the meantime, does anyone know next weeks winning lottery numbers....?
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