New Year

My new years resolution is to keep up to date with this blog - only I dont want to call it a resolution as they dont normally last past the 2nd January do they. I am going to start this new year with something that I should have posted weeks ago and that is a picture of the beautiful homemade decoration I received from my swap partner, Averil, who writes the blog Art and Clasp. The swap was organised through another blog called New Zealand Handmade. I really love the decoration and the homemade card that Averil sent was so much nicer than the one I made for her, I need to practice my card making skills. Please excuse the bad photos, I blame the camera.

My Christmas decoration has been posted today to my swap partner I got through New Zealand Homemade. I am not going to say too much about it as I dont want to spoil the ssurprise of my partner but will blog more about it once she has received it.

Busy week this week. I am now on night duty at the hospital. I was working last night from 8pm - 8am and I am now getting ready to do another night shift. I find it very difficulot to sleep during the day as it is difficult to get the room dark and there is more noise than at nights so not feeling too great at the moment. I have the weekend off but I am then doing nights on Monday and Tuesday.
I have sent lots of postcards this week through postcrossing and have received a few postcards as well. I have also been thinking about Christmas crafts as I am doing a homemade Christmas decoration swap that has been orgainised through New Zealand Handmade.

Just updating my blog as I said that I would before the end of the week but it wont be the most interesting of posts. I am on day 3 of a 7 day run of shifts - I am exhausted. I was on an early shift today that started at 7.30 and am on an early tomorrow, I need to sleep. I wish I had time to visit my allotment this week but I haven't been. I also haven't done any of the craft work I had wanted to do and probably wont have time to until Thursday when I am next off.

This year I am taking part in a Christmas ornament swap with New Zealand Handmade. I would like to add the button to my blog but haven't worked out how to yet. Maybe I will before the end of the day.

I haven't updated my blog for so long that I wasn't sure it would still be here so I was glad to find that it was. A lot of things have changed the big one being that I am no longer a student nurse but a staff nurse working on a surgical ward. It took 3 long years to get here but I love my job. The blog name will stay the same - for the time being anyway.

I have been busy on my allotment. I brought a new shed. I brought a small metal one that I thought would be difficult to vandalise - it was up about 3 weeks before it was vandalised and someone used my cutters to cut into the side of it, I was not happy. I have grown lots of veg, some with more success than others.

My blog is going to change a bit. I will continue to write about my allotment but I have read so many other lovely blogs recently about cooking and crafts that I am going to also blog about cooking and crafts.

I will be blogging again before the end of the week.

It is nearly a year since I last posted on this blog and a lot has happened in this time. I have now moved into the second year of nursing. I have been let loose on the wards and, among other things, have given injections, put in catheters, seen a total knee replacement operation (without fainting) assisted a doctor in minor surgery removing skin cancers as well as making beds and bed baths - great stuff. The academic work is getting harder and is taking up more of my time.
My allotment is doing fine but doesn't have much on it at the moment although I did pick my first rhubarb last week. Part of the roof of my shed came off in the high winds a month ago. My allotment neighbour did a repair job on it but I think I am going to need a new shed shed before too much longer. Today is lovely so I am going to go there this afternoon as tomorrow I have heard it might snow! Looking at my blog for this time last year it was already hot and I was putting my potatoes in but I think I might leave them for a while yet.

The picture above shows the bud that grew on one of my garlic plants. Thanks to RobD of a plot too far who advised me to cut it off that is what I did just after I took this photo, strangely enough it smelt of garlic. The lettuce that had started bolting looked like they were trying to become trees and I have cut them down. My allotment neighbour has taken some to feed his tortoise and my mum, who is feeding her neighbours tortoises this week, has taken the rest. I have planted a lot of extra veg including sweetcorn, beetroot and pak-choi. I have been waiting for the carrots to start coming up that I planted a month ago but they don't seem to be doing anything. I haven't been up over the weekend as there has been so much rain and it has been very cold and windy but I went up today to see what the damage was. As expected there were loads of weeds. I did however pick some lettuce, radishes and a small courgette that I had with my tea. I also picked my first garlic which I got really exited about - that might be the highlight of my week. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a nice day so that I can get up to the allotment to get rid of the weeds and pick the rest of the garlic that is ready.

On Friday it was my nephew Jamie's 12th birthday

Happy Birthday Jamie