Lock-down Day 317

I woke up sometime around three, I thought I heard Smeagol? I looked outside ... nothing. Back to sleep. Finally got up around six, after mippies insistet very adamantly that it's time!

It rained during the night and was still dripping somewhat. Good thing I mowed the lawn yesterday, when I could! Yet, looking at the back lawn ... you won't believe this, but it looks like it needs mowing again. This fast! Sheez!

I had a look at Smeagol's food bowl: It's empty! I've never seen any other animal around, nor any other cat, so I'm hoping he's the one eating here, over night. I decided to fill it again, when - to my delight, Smeagol showed up! He wants lovies more than food, so I stroke his head for a while, then go and fill his bowl. He's still hungry and eats quite happily!

Just after seven, I hear the bulldozer in operation. Yikes! On a Saturday? Ah well, it's sad for mippies, as they'll be too scared to go outside - but they did have a nice run, and have already returned. They don't like the wets! Everything outside is wet! I see they've given up on the bulldozer, as it's stuck in the mud - I saw the wheel spinning futilely

I'm a little stressing today. Well, you see, now that they're clearing everything around my place, MY place is freely visible! From the road, from next door, from all over ... and I feel bad about the tall weeds still growing in the two partitions behind the grapevine! And the fact that I can't mow the 'lawn' in those partitions, yet - it's still too tall, I'm still working on cutting that down to a manageable size!

At the same time, I've got indoor duties to take care of ... the bananas need freezing, the mushrooms need to be sliced, sauted and frozen ... and with the frozen veggies I just bought, my freezer is almost full, again. No space to lay out anything to pre-freeze before vacuum packing! I re-packed the bottom two drawers, so I have at least a little space. I managed to fit 3 bananas in that opening.

At the same time, mippies are driving me nuts with their 'it's wets, mommy play!' demands. I've washed the dishes, second load of laundry is in the machine - and I just can't come up with any idea for dinner!

We've had a whole 10mm rainfall over night! I'm getting a little tired of it now - simply, because it's such a boost to weed growth! I just can't keep up - as I'm working to finish the succulent bed, the weeds on the other end are already a new carpet of green! The grass is growing through the pavement again, the borders everywhere are over growing ... I can't even keep up, let alone make progress!

Okay, slow down! Take a deep breath and think! First: food for myself. Okay, I need something, preferably with vegetables, that I can turn into my 'lunch for the week'. I want to try that pasta bake thing again - only, this time, without the bread dough! THAT gave it rather a funky taste. So, I'm boiling pasta, rice, lentils, brussels sprouts and peas. Tomorrow, I'll put it in my Pyrex dish, with cheese, cream and eggs. Bake it, and once it's cooled down, I should be able to slice it and put it on bread. If not, I can just take it to work, as is. Right, that's my food sorted. Of course, I'll still need to make bread dough and bake bread tomorrow. Keeping half the dough in the fridge and baking that mid week is working out nicely!

Next: Mushrooms. I'll have to wait for the bananas to be frozen, so: in progress. Next: Litchis! Yeah, I bought a punnet of litchis yesterday - half the punnets in the shelf already looked moldy, so I selected the best one. Although I quite like litchis, I bought them mostly for the pit! Seeds, don't you know? Ha Ha!

All that stress is self-imposed. If my landlord was inclined to comment, when my garden is overgrown, he would have done so when they were here about the gate motor. At that time, the whole lawn was overgrown! I only just started mowing, little by little, getting the lawn back under control. Not a word was said, though. So, the stress I'm laying on myself is pure pride!

I can't do much outside, anyway, as it's drizzling on and off. Not raining, just dripping a bit on occasion, then drizzling - just a fine mist of water floating around, bonding until it's heavy enough to be pulled to the ground.

I've unpacked two more bathroom boxes ... gosh, I have a hoard of everything! I've packed what I could into the shower holders, so that I now have a choice again, what I feel like using. Various shower washes, various shampoo & conditioner sets, various foam and oil baths ... I've moved empty boxes from the garage to the outside room ...

One box had barely touched the ground, as I put it down in the lounge, when Mini jumped right in and settled herself! It's too cute, the way she hides in boxes - she absolutely adores having a box to hide in. Like the fortress I used to make for her with my pants - she still loves to settle in them, only, she's now too big for them to be her fortress!

Well, I've cleared along the fence in the partition with the compost heap and the dog hut. I took the fork with me, so I could dig out some tougher weeds. Then I started on the other side of the fence, behind the dog hut, in the front partition. I think I pulled out gooseberry? It's really impossible to see what you're doing, the weeds are so tall and thick along the fence. It also looks like there are yet more bricks there ... still not sure whether I'm gardening or on an archaeological dig! It's really weird, the stuff I find under 'grass' and weeds here ... And everything I do just exposes more work that will need to be done ...

Sigh, yes, I've pulled the tall weeds along the fence ... which now shows how badly that area needs mowing! I also found out that the 'help' I got a while back ... well, he cut a lot of those weeds, but didn't pull them out. So, the stumps are still there ... nice and hard. I had to be very careful where I put my foot down!

Then I pulled the weeds from the bed in front of the succulents ... again. Want to hear something funny? After I filled one bin, I took a break. When I got back to finish ... I couldn't tell where I had already worked! Why? Because I'm not weeding, I'm just pulling the tallest weeds to prevent them from flowering & making seeds! Really, as much as I love the rain, it is rather demoralising me: Every weekend I have to first spend hours re-doing what I did last weekend, to get back to where I was! Of course, I can't do EVERYTHING, so some areas are re-growing faster than I can keep them down! Two steps forward, three steps back. That's how it feels, at the moment.

If I say that the back lawn could do with mowing again ... when I just mowed it yesterday, that should give you a good idea!

I carried on with the succulent bed. I'm finding a number of baby creepers in there, as well. They come out easily enough, they haven't even got a bulb, yet. Still ... I'm going to have to keep cleaning that bed again and again!

Now I'm trying to figure out what I'll do from six to eight, when the power goes out. Yesterday, I carried on gardening until seven - but it's drizzling now ... I'll be running myself a bath before six, again. More hot water than yesterday. It's still reasonably light - even now, when it's overcast - till about seven. Then it gets dark fairly quickly. I filled Smeagol's bowl again, in case he comes around during the night.

Half six, running my bath now, I guess I'd better shut down the PC. Sigh ...

In a burst of craziness, I got really busy: vacuum packed the frozen banana pieces, sliced and packed the last bananas in the freezer, fried myself a steak for dinner ... mid meal the power went out. Mini still won't touch my meat! I'm wondering whether last time she over ate? Remember, she matched me bite for bite - right to the very last piece!

Then I went out and just pulled the large weeds out. Gently, but the ones growing near the center of the bed take a special kind of positioning to reach. I'm realising, or rather beginning to wonder, whether these weeds are actually re-growing from hairline roots - as I'm finding webs of roots under the rocks. I had placed the rocks in thoroughly weeded places, so seeing a web of white roots on the surface, under these rocks ... I wonder?

In that bed you can literally see the effect of the rain! Almost a day-by-day visual: where I've cleaned 2 days ago, you can see tiny specks of green, 3 days ago - tiny leaves, and so on. I'm beginning to wonder whether I can ever win? Well, I won't know if I don't try!

Smeagol showed up again, I had re-filled his bowl - but he wanted some lovies. I obliged - I'm still careful, as he's still wary. I have to keep focused, not like with my mippies, where I can let my mind wander. One wrong move and I could scare him - and he would react. That would set our bonding back by a bit.

When I had finished with that bed, I cleared some of the pavement in front of the dog hut, then started on the pavement outside my bedroom. It started drizzling ... so, after a while, when it was also getting too dark, I gave up and went inside.

Sat down in my lovely warm bath ... only to realise: Oops! My towel is still in the washing machine! Had to get up and sheepishly go to the bedroom for my spare towel. Dripping wet, and starkers!

I treated myself to a face mask - one of the things I had unpacked today. Then I checked my phone - and found I've now been added to the local group! Nice! Also a message from my step-sister - and we chatted quite a while. Power only came on at half past eight tonight ... sigh. Fortunately I was still chatting, so ... no worries.

I'm not keen on the 02:00 - 04:30 load shitting schedule ... the lack of fan & audio book will likely wake me up. Especially the lack of fan! I'm also having headache issues, so I took yet another Disprin (more than I've taken in one weekend since the toothache!) and an allergex as well as an anti-inflammatory. The combination should clear my head - and also keep me knocked out through the power outage!

Now, I just want to watch an episode of Columbo ... though it's already past nine ... I doubt I'll make it ... I struggled to stay awake for the end last night, too! Ah, well ... it's not TV! I can carry on watching tomorrow!