Man vs. To do list

I have been fixing and building a few things recently for the house and garden. We have had a week off so that has given me time for bigger projects. A couple of weeks ago I got a load of wood off Grandad and made some planters for Jess:

Also made little bedside bookshelf had promised months ago

 A cat tower (which now has offcuts of carpet we got free from a local carpet shop who said we could take what we wanted from their skip)

 Media unit for LPs CDs and tapes. Although record player is still broke :( have spent several hours trying to fix it to no avail.

 A vote green poster in both windows. We stood as local candidates and I got 333 votes, Jess got 384!
With no leafletting either. Just goes to show there is support for greens out there.

 Bought Jess bike lights that run off a dynamo. Made in Germany so they still work. I will stick to my LED ones for now as I have them already. We had bought some nice looking ones from Halfords that were quite expensive but really badly made. The front one was too heavy for its bracket and the back one stopped working. So I went on ebay and found these nice old ones:

 Also now we have a water butt!


Water  Butt

But there is no watering can yet to distribute the water. I just had a thought though we could always connect the hose to it.

Here are some plant pots Jess made for the shed that have nasturtiums in

I think that is pretty much it for now. The garden is going crazy, will put up more pictures soon.

-Will

BEAN there done that - Going cold turkey on the evil bean

Well, today is quite a big day as it's today that I am finally going to QUIT CAFFEINE.
I decided to do this at work yesterday as I stared uninspired at my computer mid morning and considered popping upstairs for a black coffee, while half wondering why I felt so pants in the office.
Of course the office does make you feel pants, its too hot, too cold, too light, too dark, and you  have to sit there for 9 hours a day pretending to know what you're doing. But there's a possibility also that I feel pants because the working day for me is just one long comedown from my morning hit of caffeine (which FYI is pot of coffee.. every morning)

Now, the reason that I drink a pot of coffee, every morning, is that I love coffee. I mean I really love it. I love the taste, I love the smell, I love the routine, and honestly it's what drags me out of bed at 10 past 5 every morning (an hour and a half earlier than I need to get up, especially so that I can spend that time sipping coffee.)

But unfortunately, and a part of me, a big part of me really feels that, I've reached a point where not only do I feel terrible enough (everyone who knows me knows that 'my tummy hurts' Is practically my catchphrase - could that be the BUCKET of coffee you religiously consume each morning, hmm?), but I've read enough bad business about not only the ethics but the damaging properties of coffee that I can't really defend my so seemingly harmless and normal bad little habit any more.

So, goodbye my 5:30 cup of coffee. Goodbye my 5:40 cup of coffee, goodbye my 5:50 cup of coffee... I guess this morning I'll enjoy a delicious pot of... hot water. mmm
I'll keep a diary over the next week or so of my exciting adventure into caffeine withdrawal  (if I'm coherent enough) as well as a little investigation into what coffee does, why it does it, and WHY I'M RIGHT & hopefully it won't be too long before I pop out the other side bouncing and full of energy and not missing coffee an ounce (yeah right!)

Until then, perhaps I'll just have a little nap...