Lists and more lists.

The weather forecast for this week is all grey and miserable - although it's not actually raining and hasn't really done much more than drizzle occasionally,  there is a complete blanket of cloud  causing almost 100% humidity and no view of anything at all. It seems to be coming  from the East which is unusual.  In fact, it's more like we'd expect in November or  March with low cloud swirling around us - certainly not June's normal sunshine.

I've still been checking the vegetables are ok,  planted lots more seeds on Tuesday to take advantage of the damp conditions, tied up the tomato plants and picked 68 walnuts for pickling.  After pricking holes in them all and putting them into brine to soak, I look like a very heavy smoker as my fingers have gone all yellowy-brown coloured from the walnut juice.  Should have remembered from last year and worn rubber gloves!

John has retreated to his shed, he's trying to organise it by putting up shelves and hooks for his tools.  Discovered a rat's nest in there on Tuesday but we're not sure how it got in unless it was a very slim rat as the only gaps are tiny.  Or were tiny - now they are all blocked off and unless it can get through chicken wire it'll have to find a new home, preferably further away.  Last year a rat or rats tried to nest in the garden shed but we emptied everything out, the rat disappeared under the bushes and the gap under the door was blocked up.  I think we're winning!

I have taken to making lists a lot - to do lists, planting lists, then a new list when one goes missing....Shopping lists  as we don't go very often so without a list when we get to the shops we come home without something and that something is quite often the main reason that we went.  My seed planting list is quite something.  It's in alphabetical order as that's the way I store the seed packets, then next to each  vegetable/herb are the months that they need to be planted, then I cross off the month as I plant plus a tick if they've grown or a cross if not.  Last year I also kept a log of everything we harvested to see what was best - especially if we'd bought the plants.  Didn't want to buy plants if it wasn't economical. 

I don't want to seem obsessed by lists but there are more in the kitchen!  We usually cook large meals and freeze half,  have tapas ready,  soups and stocks,  and you need to know what is frozen and where it is so there's a list for that.  Also we have fruit and vegetables frozen and you need to know what you've got for out-of-season and where it is - especially if you have 3 freezers on the go as we do.  Do I get through lots of paper?  Well, no because I use the inside of the cereal boxes cut up to make freezer labels and for lists. 

One of the freezers is a chest type,  not huge just a cube, but it's very easy to loose track of things in there.    No list needed  but different types of meals/soups/tapas are boxed and put into supermarket carrier bags which have a tag on the handle so we know which bag to take out when looking for something.

All this labelling and list making has just crept up slowly over the years.  Partly I think it's because we keep so much stock here due to having had unreliable access before the road was concreted and partly because we now grow or have access to so many vegetables  and fruit.  And if it's not organised, things will be forgotten about and be found in years to come lurking in the ice at the bottom of a freezer.