Friday 30th July 10

A nice late morning, although was woken by one of my offspring at sometime after 7am, I went back to sleep. So, up after 9 and a harmonious household.

I did a bit of housework and the day sort of disappeared. Richard rang and I cycled down to Country Fresh and brought back 2 big sacks and 2 boxes of resources. I felt comfortable to cycle down without my Aircast plastic ankle support, as it's feeling a lot better.

A bit later I dealt with a patch of garden which I've watched becoming more overgrown, so I weeded that path, pulling up ground elder and then cutting back a long length of hedge with the shears, which will allow the squash plants in the radiator raised bed to crawl along the hedge and have a secure hold. This is where I grew my prize pumpkin last year, with the roots in the radiator bed (which started off as a compost heap) and the vine growing along the hedge. This year, I've got Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino squash again and already there are some good fruits hanging down... one is already over 30cm long. I picked Jack Edwards Pea Beans and courgettes and brought them to the house for tea time consumption.

In the evening I spent an hour watching a Gardeners World whilst stripping electrical flex, cutting the plastic insulation with my penknife and removing the wires inside, then pulling the wire with the copper centre over the knife blade so I can separate the insulation from the metal. I bin the plastic but the copper is quite valuable, and I'll take several kilos to the metal merchant in the next few weeks...

I've been getting fed up with my email inbox filling up and sometimes messages bouncing back to their sender, so today I went onto the Tiscali website and bought £13 worth of extra space. Suddenly my inbox which was 99% full was only 8% full... Woo hoo! However, I will continue to try to keep it at a sensible size. But at least if someone sends me a huge file, it will be accepted.

The other thing Gill and I did today was to organise a little camping expedition early next week. I'm working in Pickering on Sunday, and am going up on the bus. I finish at 3, and will take the bus to Thornton Le Dale. Gill will go up to Thornton Le Dale with the boys and the tent, sleeping bags etc and put up the tent at the Prospect Farm Campsite in the village. Gill will take my jugglestuff home on the bus and I'll stay with the boys, for one or two nights here. If the first night is OK, we'll hire bikes and go up into Dalby Forest on the Monday. So, if no blog posts appear around then, that's where I'll be, giving Gill some space and peace and quiet!