52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Hazel at the Hill]

Well done, Shen & family! *round of applause!

You'll enjoy it next year even more, now that you know what to expect and how to pace your prep.

[Sheneval]

VC - week 34 challenge - I intend to catch up on all the outstanding work in my garden and allotment aargh!

[bearded bloke]

This week it will be getting my car AND herself's car both MoT'd

[Nicos]

25x 1 litre jars of various mixes of 'ratatouille' all sterilized and ready for shelving for the winter!


The wonderful thing is that there are no courgettes nor French beans nor onions, nor tomatoes ready picked needing attention tomorrow! ...yey!!! ( bah humbug....give it 2 more days and I imagine I'll need to do another batch!!! )

[Nicos]

Wow Shen!!!...utterly fantastic!!!

[bearded bloke]

Both cars,both first,time both with no advisories

[PyreneesPlot]

It is my mother's 75th birthday in October and she is having a HUGE party and asked me to make an invitation.
The only rule was that it had to have a morning glory on it as they are her favourite flower. Fortunately mine have flowered this year so I took a photo and played around with GIMP.



Alas, you are not all invited

[veggiechicken]

A very dear friend has a progressive disease and walking, talking and eating are becoming more and more difficult for him. I've been taking him out while he is still able to - so today the plan was that we would have a picnic at Skenfrith Castle. However, I misread the map and we ended up at White Castle, where, by chance, there was a medieval re-enactment group. So I chatted herbal medicine with the Good wife although I think she was surprised that I recognised every plant she had there!!
We left White Castle, heading, as I thought for Skenfrith, but, again, I was on the wrong road and went full circle, ending up where I started. We had our picnic in his flat
So the challenge should have been to go to Skenfrith but White Castle is a worthy substitute

[Hazel at the Hill]

Blimey, VC - looking at the pic, did you hire a helicopter??

[Hazel at the Hill]

Week 34 Challenge

Get a Full Week's Sleep

I am a 'night owl'. I am more than happy to be up carousing late into the night, or catching up on work items at midnight and after. Many's the film I have seen the latter three quarters of, having come in from the pub and put on the TV.

On the other side of the coin, this means that I am not a morning person. I'm not given to strong sentiments, being an easy going kind of gal - but I do HATE THE ALARM CLOCK. Even though I am very fortunate to work from home and don't have to be 'in the office' before 9am, and the alarm is set for a modest wake-up of 8am, I STILL have trouble dragging my sorry self out the pit.

I'd love to be more of a morning person - to spring out of bed and get things done first thing would be fantastic! If I could get out for my run at 8am for half an hour or so, then how well would that set me up for the day!

But there is nothing on earth which would tempt me to do so, as things stand - but is this because I don't get enough sleep? If I stopped being such an owl and got to bed at a sensible hour, would I jump out of bed with the sun, shaking the sleep from my eyes to welcome the brand new day with joy!?

To test this one out, my challenge is to get an average of 8hrs sleep per night for a week, which is going to involve some earlier nights.



I've logged the times, and with a concerted effort at GOING TO BED, I have clocked up just 15 mins short of an average of a full 8hrs per night over the week. Hardly worth hanging the flags out for, but I reckon that compared to the estimated 7 1/2 hrs I get on average normally, this is an improvement.

Have I jumped out of bed with a spring in my step? Well, no, not really - but I do think that this is a work in progress and I should pursue the matter - try for 8 1/4 hours per night, perhaps?

My Challenge is completed - and although not life-changing, it has given me the impetus to take this further. As a rule of thumb, I have to have lights out by midnight - if you see me on here after then, you might like to remind me of the fact...

[veggiechicken]

Week 35: 26th August - 1st September

Last week of August and we'll be two thirds of the way through 2013
Don't forget to list all your August challenges at the end of this week

[Sheneval]

VC - Week 34 challenge - catch up on work on allotments and garden - week 34 challenge completed - photos will follow when I get new broadband connected tomorrow or next day.

Week 35 challenge - print and bind replacement publication books and burn new CD's following very good sales at last Saturday's History Fair at Motherwell.

[PyreneesPlot]

This week has to be laying the drive. Well, the first half, anyway.

This is what it has been like for the last three years. We have gone out after really bad storms and collected the drive from the road and put it back where it belongs!

Getting ready to start. Th drive is a little over 50m long and uphill. The driver came all the way up between the shuttering, with only a bit of clearance each side, and didn't touch a thing. Very impressed.

Job (half) done!

The second 26m is the steepest and has a big bend, too. But a week after that is done I'll finally be able to ride my motorbike up and down. Mr PP brings the bikes up and down at the moment as he has long legs. The second time I rode down I hit a big stone, and the bike and I went down. She had bent crash bungs and I had bent ribs!!

I'm thinking lavender hedge all the way up the sides?

[Martin H]

I'm thinking lavender hedge all the way up the sides?

Nice drive.

It's a great time to be striking semi-ripe cuttings of lavender. Get some cheap plants in the end of season sale at the local GC and get going?

[bearded bloke]

Yay,undeclared as I didn't want to jinx it but after a steep learning curve on in car electro-hydraulics herself now has a button operated boot lid again next weeks challenge is obviously to find the gremlin in the roof mechanism,but hey ho how hard can that be