Is it meant to be like this?

One minute you’re up, the next you’ve been smacked in the face with a smelly dead fish – metaphorically speaking of course.

We’re back to homeschool or Smarticus as we call it now as anything with the word ‘school’ in it has been banned by dear son. We’re not quite in our ‘groove’ yet, the routine still to be re-established. Compromises and negotiations over bed-times and starting times still go on daily but I’m hopeful week 2 will go a little smoother.

Health-wise, I’m still fighting what wants to be a full-blown chest infection; I know the signs all too well. I’m managing to hold it off with home remedies but I’m still experiencing the tiredness, general crappyness, wheeze/cough and so on. Makes it difficult to do what I need to do on a daily basis, never mind recording a podcast, but we soldier on, don’t we?!

I think the financial hiccups of late are not helping with the health or anything else. Its a mess – not of my own doing I might add. Without going into detail, I’m in a situation where I’m in a ‘system’ where everything is automatic, including the screw-ups which then I apparently have to pay to fix. Seems unfair to me but there you go. I saw someone the other day to see if they could help untangle the mess as I just see numbers now, have a giggle like a maniac and ignore it. I used to worry about things like this but now I realise its all a game and I’m their pawn so I’m happy to let someone else step in and take the burden. Turned out they were as confused as me!

On the gardening front, things have managed to slide without me even seeing it. I had no car to get up to the allotment for a couple of weeks and wasn’t healthy enough to walk/cycle up so our first visit was a couple of days ago. There is still harvest to be had but there is also a lot of tidying/fixing and so on which brings a heavy heart to a gardener who just wants to focus on the beautiful bounty at this time of year. I keep hearing everyone talking about Autumn and I’m not quite ready to let go of Summer.

There are trees in the front garden needing pruned, fruit trees needing tidied despite not giving me any fruit this year – I’m tempted to leave them out of spite but I know that will just bring problems for me next year. I’m trying to focus on the positives, as is my way: the tomatoes are the best I’ve ever grown, we’ve had rhubarb a-plenty, we have potatoes to last us months, the onions won’t last quite so long but they are looking great!

The tree spinach in the back garden is living up to its name:

And the raspberries I planted to grow along the side of the shed are coming thick and fast now too:

We still have lots to come later in the year: carrots which are a bit crowded but still good to eat, parsnips looking good so far, cabbages, courgettes….or possibly a marrow – there is a beast growing on the allotment!

I’ve also scored a surprising hit with my Italian courgette called ‘Tromboncino’. In the picture on the packet, they show this massive veg growing down over an arch and you think, “yeah right, thats going to happen”! Well, I planted one in a cardboard box and its trailing a bit so I pulled up a plastic garden chair and said “drape yourself over that”. He did. I have seen several, smaller fruits growing on it but there is one…oh yes.. there is one which is promising to be a champion among the harvest.

In fact, I’m scared to harvest it – or am I just intrigued to see how big it will grow?