I was quite proud of myself today. Now being retired I sort of decide now and again in a fit of energy to start cleaning all that stuff I did not clean so well over the last few years. As a working woman I sort of squeezed the necessary jobs in when I could. Windows were cleaned on Saturday mornings, bathrooms and showers once a week when I had the time, although thanks to the fact that my husband was retired a few years before me, he did quite a lot. There were a few things that never really did get as much attention as they should. Windows are easy to clean, but the surrounding bits need a bit more time. We have blinds on our windows as can be seen in the picture. As you can see this blind is clean, shining and really showing itself from its best side (the rays of light coming out of the blind were from the photo programme, but I thought it looked even better). Anyhow this afternoon I decided to attack this metal blind. As it is on the ground floor it was not so difficult. I had a water supply from the hose in the garden so the first part of the work was to turn the water on full power and wash the whole thing down. Yes I did remember to close the window first of all. I must say it was quite dirty, even a bit of green deposits at the bottom. I noticed about 20 homeless spiders running in all directions when I started.
After the initial shower of the blind I took a cloth and did it all from hand. Unfortunately the blind had two sides and it was not so easy cleaning through the spaces of each layer, but after 45 minutes work I was more or less finished. It was a piece of cake afterwards to clean the window underneath. To use a german word which I have never been able to translate into another language, I felt quite "kaput" afterwards but was proud of my work. The mad things that come into your head when you are retired. This was the second blind I did in two weeks. Now I only have another five and then I am finished for the year.
The morning was also quite profitable. We went shopping as usual and I noticed there was a special offer in the gardening department of geraniums. Now basically I am not really a member of the geranium fan club. They are ok, but a bit sort of boring. Everyone has geraniums in their window boxes. On the other hand I did have a large box waiting for something to be planted. Last year I put begonias in it, although wonderful flowers, they got a bit top heavy for the stalks and bent over quite often. Geraniums do at least what you want them to do.
I had another problem. This big box I had needed some topping up with earth. Now geraniums prefer a heavy sort of earth with no peat and I did not have this earth. As luck would have it one of my neighbours is doing some sort of agricultural wonder in her garden and had a delivery of earth, but too much. She asked me if I could use it and when I had a look found it to be exactly what I needed, so that was the first stroke of luck, I did not have to buy any earth. I only had to carry the earth across to my garden.
Eventually I arrived at the gardening department of the store. The geraniums were pink or red. Husband said get a mixture, but I said that one colour would be better and so I got 10 red geranium plants. They were selling for 1.90 Swiss francs each instead of 3.80 Swiss francs and combined with a special token I had for 10% cheaper in the gardening department, I had quite a bargain. I have a new hobby since being retired. I have started intensively studying prices and special offers. It is really quite fun. I never used to have the time when a working woman, just a quick look around the shop and grab what you need. Now it has slowly developed into a field of study. Even my choice of vegetable is influenced. Today we had Swiss chard which was quite reasonable. I would have got kohlrabi, but they were very small and for 2 Swiss francs per piece, I found that a bit expensive.
Anyhow, they were the highlights in the day of a retired person. Tomorrow I will have fun cleaning the kitchen, a half hour job, so I usually combine it with giving the doors a quick wipe over. I might even put a few seedlings in the garden I have been growing since March. Oh, isn't life exciting. And presenting my window box with the geraniums. They are naturally now quite small, but they will grow I am sure.
After the initial shower of the blind I took a cloth and did it all from hand. Unfortunately the blind had two sides and it was not so easy cleaning through the spaces of each layer, but after 45 minutes work I was more or less finished. It was a piece of cake afterwards to clean the window underneath. To use a german word which I have never been able to translate into another language, I felt quite "kaput" afterwards but was proud of my work. The mad things that come into your head when you are retired. This was the second blind I did in two weeks. Now I only have another five and then I am finished for the year.
The morning was also quite profitable. We went shopping as usual and I noticed there was a special offer in the gardening department of geraniums. Now basically I am not really a member of the geranium fan club. They are ok, but a bit sort of boring. Everyone has geraniums in their window boxes. On the other hand I did have a large box waiting for something to be planted. Last year I put begonias in it, although wonderful flowers, they got a bit top heavy for the stalks and bent over quite often. Geraniums do at least what you want them to do.
I had another problem. This big box I had needed some topping up with earth. Now geraniums prefer a heavy sort of earth with no peat and I did not have this earth. As luck would have it one of my neighbours is doing some sort of agricultural wonder in her garden and had a delivery of earth, but too much. She asked me if I could use it and when I had a look found it to be exactly what I needed, so that was the first stroke of luck, I did not have to buy any earth. I only had to carry the earth across to my garden.
Eventually I arrived at the gardening department of the store. The geraniums were pink or red. Husband said get a mixture, but I said that one colour would be better and so I got 10 red geranium plants. They were selling for 1.90 Swiss francs each instead of 3.80 Swiss francs and combined with a special token I had for 10% cheaper in the gardening department, I had quite a bargain. I have a new hobby since being retired. I have started intensively studying prices and special offers. It is really quite fun. I never used to have the time when a working woman, just a quick look around the shop and grab what you need. Now it has slowly developed into a field of study. Even my choice of vegetable is influenced. Today we had Swiss chard which was quite reasonable. I would have got kohlrabi, but they were very small and for 2 Swiss francs per piece, I found that a bit expensive.
Anyhow, they were the highlights in the day of a retired person. Tomorrow I will have fun cleaning the kitchen, a half hour job, so I usually combine it with giving the doors a quick wipe over. I might even put a few seedlings in the garden I have been growing since March. Oh, isn't life exciting. And presenting my window box with the geraniums. They are naturally now quite small, but they will grow I am sure.
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