Harvest time.

 All things bright and beautiful etc it's been a good year produce wise.
After a wet and cold Spring along came the best Summer for years. We were the best part of six weeks behind with the planting but it's all turned out OK.

 The blackberries have been a bumper crop.

 The onions have not done well Stuttgart giants I don't like them I don't know what made me plant them I prefer Turbo onions but the ones I really like are the ones I'll be putting in this month Japs.

 My potato crop as done very good it's the first time for years that I have grown them. I had two bad years with potatoes the potatoes were fine it was the weather that let me down. It rained for a long period of time and I had no where to dry them out and they just rotted. Today I have the ideal conditions. Six buckets off potatoes in total should see us into next year.

 It's a great feeling digging potatoes you plant one and you never know how many there will be until you dig them up. I think it averaged twelve a plant.

 I've not been up to the allotment as often as I should have this year I've been much too busy at home.
The courgettes are a tell tail sign so many turned into marrows and we do not eat marrows in any form. Having said that we have had plenty of courgettes it's just that they grow on so quick.

 There's a couple of rows of leeks near the bucket they are winter veg.

It's a pity about the marrows seems such a waste but I will chop them up and rot them down then dig them in.

 My cash crop pumpkins these are coming on a real treat lovely and orange and getting bigger week by week.

 That's about it for this year.

My very first ever home grown bunch of grapes. It's been a good summer.

Insearch of the sea.

It's three summers since I have seen the sea.
Tuesday I sealed the patio and it would be four hour before it could be walked on so with it promising to be a dry day with sunshine I decided we would go to Cleethorpes (it's only 1hour 45 down the road)
When we got there the tide was out and when the tide goes out at Cleethorpes I mean it goes out.
I was determined to have a paddle in the sea when we set off but had to make do with just getting my feet wet. Una on the other hand was determined not to.

The water just barely covered my toes.

I was all alone then someone walking past took my photo.

The sea is behind me possibly another half mile.

Where I'm stood at at the moment if the tide was to come in it would just about cover my thights

brrrrr. Una is down on the jetty waiting for me so I never got to the sea.
Next time I will go to Bridlington the sea does not go out very far there.

Not my usual thing.

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Two years ago I was having radiotherapy at Western Park Hospital Sheffield and to my surprise so was Jean she is an old schoolmate of Unas, I’ve known her the best part of forty years.

Jean had had a course of chemotherapy and was on a follow up course of radiotherapy due to the chemo Jean had lost all her hair eyebrow lashes the lot we almost passed her without recognition luckily something click and we were all there with our arms round one another.

When she was younger she had lovely red hair just like Una, they were so much alike they could be mistaken for sisters and there she was bald and looking like a little old man I could have cried for her.

Since the hospital days we have seen her twice, once for about a minute she was getting off the Sheffield to Doncaster train and we were boarding it she had hair in fact I had to ask if it was hers or a wig she pulled it and said mine. Trains wait for no man so that was all we got to say apart from both of us saying are you OK and the answer being they say so.

Anyway we were in Barnsley Market Wednesday and who should we bump into out of the blue Jean with hair and a big smile we all hugged and talked like only people the have been knocking on the door and been turned away do.

Ready for winter.

The patio is finished time to rest no; our Steven wants a radiator put in the hallway.

A radiator put in the toilet, it is very cold in there at wintertime.

A large radiator in the bathroom this one is inadequate too small it does not throw enough heat out for the size of the bathroom. It will be OK for the toilet the new one is twice the size.

 

First job bleeding the water out of the system this took the best part of an hour, then marking the walls up to fix the brackets to hang the rads on,

New pipework with Yorkshire joints and a new bleed valve. I had to double pipe all the radiators so that any one radiator could be switched off without hindrance to the system.

The hall radiator done, next one the toilet then the bathroom both ready for the blow torch.

One last check before I fire the torch up.

It wasn't a two minute job I started it Saturday morning and finished it Monday afternoon. I'm really pleased with how it works and looks.

Next job cutting a new door hole in the coal house and bricking the old one up, no rest for the wicked. I love working it's what I was born for.

To celebrate.

The Rockingham Arms pub and bowling green.

To celebrate finishing the patio I took my girlfriend, sweetheart and wife all rolled up into one Una to the Rockingham Arms Wentworth for dinner (lunch).
For me a mixed grill and a pint of lager, for Una chicken and noodles, chips (french fries) a side salad and a diet pepsi.
It's funny but when you don't have the same thing, the other always looks nicer than what you have chosen.

Refurbishing the patio.

First a dry run to choose which pattern to use I decided on the bottom one, easier to play hopscotch on.

 Another job I've been going to do for years, pave the old concrete yard. I did it in 1984 during the miners strike with the help of my brother in law who just happened to be on strike I was never satisfied with the job we did.

Power washed the old inground dirt off so the mortar would stick.

 First blocks laid these are my keystones and the end of the first shift.

 This is the end of the second shift normally I would keep going while ever it was daylight but why kill myself there's always tomorrow. 

End of the 3rd shift had to knock of early to go and buy some more flags. I have a few left but I need about a dozen more to finish the job.

Yesterday I had a day off we went to a wedding.
Today 4th shift cut slabs to fit remaining gaps sounds a nothing of a job but it was very time consuming, all ready to lay tomorrow. 

5th shift just a short one lost the first two hour fetching our Steven and his girlfriend back from Sheffield. Luckily I had not started a mixing when I got the phone call request anyway there's always tomorrow, almost finished.

Day 6 the end is in sight

 Just one bit of picking to make a level so that the run off water will find its way to the grate.

 Job done it's been a long shift today, I'll leave the tidying up for tomorrow.

 I think it looks good if I do say so myself.

That's all my good weather jobs done, it's been a good summer so far I've really enjoyed my working holiday. What next?