Everything was all going so well too…But at least I was ahead, which probably had something to do with it as well.
We were woken on Tuesday morning by something tap-dancing over our heads. It sounded as though whatever it was was inside the walls or the roof. I got up, put poet’s parka on, and walked around the outside of the house looking for rodents scurrying across the roof. I didn’t see anything. But while I was out there, the poet said the tap-dancing stopped.
Either they’re inside the roof and they heard me, or they’re outside the house and were watching me from a tree. I think it’s the latter.
While I was out there, in flip-flops (thongs) because it was wet and I didn’t want to soak my slippers, I managed to skid on the path and I almost went for a burton. That would have looked well, me in my nightie, the poet’s parka and a pair of flip-flops, sprawled on the wet grass…
We decided there was too much moss and algae on the path and before I got to my desk a few hours later, I started to create a list inside my head of things that need doing in the garden.
Well, the list got longer and longer and longer. So I thought I might split the entire garden into sections:
- front-right
- front-front
- front-left
- back-right
- back-back
- back-left
We also have 4 lawns, 2 in the back and 2 in the front.
When I landed at my desk, instead of cracking on with work I started to write out my lists section by section. And it took a Very Long Time. The poet had long gone to work and just looking at these lists reminded me of how overwhelming we’re finding the garden overall.
So I returned to a forum I used to be an active part of many years ago, on the MoneySavingExpert site. It’s also where the competitions boards are, but I was an active member of Money Saving Old Style board too.
Money Saving Old Style has been moved to a Hobbies sub-board, and on there is a weekly ‘flylady’ thread, with suggested lists of things that need doing room by room, but also in 3 levels:
- level 1 is quick and easy
- level 2 is a bit more time-consuming
- level 3 is when you’ve got it off to a fine art or have absolutely nothing else to do all day
And I wrote out my own flylady list of things to do, day by day. When I mentioned this to the poet, he said, “Oh, so you mean everything I do?” Well, yes, he does do a lot of it, but only because he gets bored of waiting for me to do it, or he’ll do it because it needs doing and he’ll benefit from it as well and he has time to do it so he may as well.
But I don’t mind spending my 10-minute Pomodoro breaks doing the level 1 or 2 stuff as it beats sitting at the computer surfing the net when I already sit at the computer all day anyway.
Both of these lists went into an exercise book. But when I looked at the Hobbies board on MSE, I noticed a Garden board too. And when I drilled down into the Garden board, lo and behold, there was a greenflylady board! The same concept of choosing something small to do every day in order to achieve the big stuff eventually.
One of the things on the daily list here was to have a 15-minute assessment walk, or a 15-minute dead-heading walk, or a 15-minute weeding walk, or a 15-minute tidying walk. Some of the members were trying to keep on top of general garden maintenance, some had blank canvasses to work from, and some had neglected gardens to revive and restore.
So I introduced myself on this greenflylady board (don’t worry, there are greenflyblokes on there too), and explained our situation. They were great. A couple came back straight away, asking me to share some pictures as well as with some starting advice. So I decided to make my first 15-minute assessment walk a photo-walk too.
And I spotted that it wasn’t moss or algae I’d slipped on in the dark morning, it was a blocked drain, from our bathroom.
I took more than 80 pictures, just of the front garden. I’d do this anyway, as ‘before’ shots before sharing the ‘after’ shots. Taking the pictures didn’t take up much time. Getting them from my phone onto my computer took the time, which I did by uploading them to Google Drive and then downloading them to a specially prepared folder.
I selected 5 or 6 pics and shared those to the forum, and before I knew it, the day was over again!
Well, I couldn’t let the day go without doing some work. So I quickly had a look at the plates that came back for the client edit and got that back to the client. Today I’ve promised them the book too.
On his way home from work, the poet went to collect grand-doggy #1. And when they got back, the first thing he did, by torchlight, was go and look at that blocked drain. Fortunately it was only some leaves and debris covering the grate, so he didn’t have to push his arm all the way in.
After wasting an entire day, nearly, here’s the rest of today’s agenda:
- share today’s blog post on BlueSky and Medium
- The Secret of Whitehorse Farm
- outline The Ace of Swords
- brainstorm 12 Stories for December
- monthly date work
- publish The Kite Festival
- revise The Horby Bells
- client proofreading amendments
- tomorrow’s blog post
That sounds like a really good approach to the garden. The yard at the Cape house was about a third of an acre, but because it was so uneven, it was difficult to keep up with on my own.
Fingers crossed it works. We’ve already made a bit of a start today buying the wood-chipper because, you know, men and power tools… (and some women too, but not me!) I think he’s assembling it as I write…