Its been a very long time

Blog posts have been way down my list of priorities unfortunately. The short and honest truth is that the PND got so bad that I simply could not function. I was anxious, stessed and desperate. I even started to make severe scatches into my arms with knives. Not good. Hubby had to go on a course and so my BIL and MIL took days off to come and sit with me so I was not alone. It was bleak.

But. The last two weeks have been really rather lovely. All ordinary and standard. I have enjoyed spontaneous laughter with John, enjoyed playing and laughing with the children and just totally enjoyed life. Part of me cannot express how scared I am it is temporary, another part thinks that even if it is, this is still a significant step to being well again. Oddly, not having visits from HV's and Mental Health team members seems to have helped more than the visits do. Hmmm.

Good news. All my chickens are laying! YAY. 8 eggs a day, well, not every day, even chickens get a day off. I am starting to sell them as half dozens now, rather than in 4's. They have made one heck of a mess of their area in the last two days though. Its the worst its been since they moved in. I have a plan, involving lattice fencing, to give them a permanent enclosure to roam in, keeping them off the grass, just for the summer, so that the children can play and run bare foot without stepping in piles of Guano.

Talking of chicken poo, I have been taking it down the allotment. Its with some excitment I write that I have got Onions and carrots in down there. Whilst here, at home, in the summer house I have parsley, carrots, potatoes,Rasishes, Broad Beans, Green Peppers, Sweet corn, courgettes, tomatoes, parsnips and some more onions, all seeds (with oneor two exceptions) so will have to wait and see whether they grow or not. The radishes are in the raised bed, and are doing well, whilst the Broads beans and the Sweetcorn were bought at the market in Kingston, £1 per pot and each pot had several seedlings in. They were a little pot bound and it wasnt easy to get them seperated and into larger pots so it remains to be seen whether they survive the trauma. My small temporary growing greenhouse thing is now full. I have no more room to grow anything using that. Will have to come up with a cunning plan on how to increase the growing area.

As for the allotment. I have made a raised bed from an old pallet. I quite enjyed breaking it up, and then rebuilding it into something I need. I have also repaired the compost bin there as several planks of wood from the front were missing, making the front too low to be useful. These have now been replaced so I have a much deeper area (just as well with all that chicken poo...). John got me two nice pallets from work and these have been nailed to each other and one side of my little (very little) shed to make a small enclosed storage area. I have also got hold of 150 paving bricks and a huge pile of net curtains, both freecycle. One of the curtains has been nailed up inside my shed window so that when I use my pot toilet for a quick wee, I can do so in privacy (I tip the wee onto the compost as it acts as an accelerant, speeding up the process). The rest of them are going to be used to protect my as yet none existant fruit bushes.

One of my allotment neighbours has dug over a huge area for me. I felt very guilty when he said he would do it, but he insisted, saying that there was nothing to do on his plot so he may as well dig mine. Just as well as I have all those seeds which will hopefully grow and need somewhere to go. In return I have baked him some cakes, which I will take down tomorrow.

One of my neighbours here at home has also managed to get me some fabulous, good solid and chunky planks of wood, and two more pallets. These will be turned into gorgeous, sturdy raised beds too. I think I am turning into a bit of a raised bed fanatic.

Going to spend some time with my poor, long suffering but totally lovely hubby. see you soon.