A quick catch-up on the domestic front

As we pass the midpoint of March, and with five blog articles under my belt, I have reached the halfway point in my goal of 10 posts per month. It’s been hard going at times, as there’s been a lot happening on both the domestic and the work front, including the planning of a couple more cruises.  The latter demonstrates that play is just as important as work, if not more so! In the meantime, I have remained occupied with several projects leading to improvements on both the house and garden fronts. I won't bore you with the details now, although I will return to that great British standby topic, of the weather.

So far this month, we’ve experienced intermittent spells of warm weather, interspersed by a couple of cold, and I mean very cold, snaps. During my lunchtime walk yesterday, I had to return briefly to the office to grab my woolly hat due to the cold northerly wind. 

Walking across the old Penshurst airfield meant facing this biting wind directly, but today it was a different scenario, with the beginning of forecast spell of warmer conditions. I’m sure that poor mother nature doesn’t know which way to turn, but despite recent setbacks spring is well and truly on its way. Numerous daffodils are now in bloom, and some trees are showing signs of blossom. Typically, blackthorn is the first tree to bloom, with its pink and white flowers adding a contrasting touch to the yellow hues of daffodils and primroses.

This year, we are saying farewell to the kitchen garden, which is the plot of land closest to the house. It did us proud last year, with a bountiful crop of runner beans, plus a few sweetcorn, although I rather naively left it too late, before harvesting the cobs. On the other side of the garden though, the leeks I planted out early last autumn, have come into their own, and we are slowly munching our way through them, not only in stews or casseroles, but also as tasty late winter vegetables, in their own right.

Growing one’s own veg requires a lot of effort, as well as time, and it is the latter that I want to have more of this summer, especially as there are places, I wish to visit and pubs I want to drink in. The kitchen garden then, is to be converted into an area of hard standing. I have already reached out to an old school friend of Matthew’s, who has successfully established his own landscape gardening business, and am waiting for him to call round in order to price up the job.

Mrs. PBT has already staked her claim to this proposed area and marked it as somewhere to “sit out", whatever that means. This is despite us already having a patio area, for that sort of thing. It’s probably just as well that she doesn’t know of my plan for a new, but smaller greenhouse, as this flat, area of solid ground would serve well as the ideal base for such a construction.   

 Our current, and rather tumbledown greenhouse, came as part of the house, when we moved in during 1994. Although I have made numerous repairs to the structure, including replacing broken panes with Perspex ones, and fitting staging inside, thanks to a combination of weather and old age, it has now deteriorated to a point where it is beyond redemption. So, a small, compact greenhouse sited nearer the house, seems a practical solution, and one I am determined to press on with.

In the meantime, we’ve got a couple of cruises to look forward to. The first, in just over a week, is a four-day cruise, to Hamburg and back. Our son Matthew will accompany us on this short sea voyage, which will be his first cruise, and his first experience of life afloat. He appears to be looking forward to it, although he has not expressed much enthusiasm verbally. I have assured him of an extended tour of central Hamburg, planned to span from mid-morning until late afternoon, and after reviewing various blogs, including Retired Martin's, as well as online recommendations, I have compiled a shortlist of potential bars and pubs near the city centre, with one looking out across the Elbe River.

 

Starting from the third week in May, Mrs PBT’s and I will be embarking on a two-week cruise around the coast of the British Isles. The itinerary includes several stops in the Highlands and Islands, with a crossing of the Irish Sea towards the end of the voyage. Our ship will be docking at both Dublin and Cork. I may opt to skip the former, having spent a long weekend in the Irish capital a decade ago, mainly because the ship docks some distance from the city centre, and requires a tender for disembarkation. Eileen isn’t over-keen on hopping off one vessel and onto another, particularly if there’s a bit of a swell. Cork should be an enjoyable destination, as it is the Republic's second-largest city and renowned for its legendary stout brands such as Murphy's and Beamish, both of which are better than Guinness, IMO.

Upon returning from our these two spring holidays, I am planning to head north and explore a few of the Yorkshire towns that I have not previously had the opportunity to visit in depth, if at all. Halifax, Huddersfield, and Hebden Bridge spring to mind, so any recommendations as to which is the better pub town? After that, is back to domesticity, and the plan is to have a new kitchen installed. We’ve been in the house for over 30 years, and the current kitchen is the result of a botched DIY job by the previous, rather eccentric owner of the property. We will try and arrange for that work to be carried out whilst we’re sailing around Britain's coastline.

Finally, even though there may be more domestic stuff to write about later, the blog is undergoing a reorganization. This involves removing a number of inactive, or rarely updated blogs, that were cluttering my blog list, making it difficult to find active ones. While they don’t affect the blog directly, having to scroll through numerous entries that haven’t been updated for months or longer means it's time to let go of some, even if they hold sentimental value to their authors. On the plus side, I have added several new sites to the list, more details to follow, if you haven’t spotted these changes already.