Saturday 16th August - Shock! Alert!

Yesterday evening at around 9.30pm I was lolling in a chair catching up on episode two of Vsn Der Walk when my phone let out this horrible and terrifying alarm sound, the sort that I associate with James Bond films where the building will explode in 30 seconds unless Mr Bond can defuse the bomb and everyone else runs in all directions at once...

It really was that alarming. 

Unfortunately, in my confusion and alarm and desperationto make the noise stop, all I saw was the little underlined word 'OK' at the bottom of the verbiage, so I clicked on that, even though I was definitely NOT ok and the noise did stop - bliss - but the words disappeared so I had no idea what that was about. 

My ignorance didn't last long though, as the alarm came on again. This time I had enough nouse to turn down the volume and read the message. 

The government had sent out an alarm to  mobile phones (BB sitting next to me didn't receive one) telling us not to use barbecues, fireworks, garden incinerators, firepits or to light any bonfires, and dispose of cigarettes carefully. 

That really shouldn't need saying... but it's the school holidays, and everyone is out and about,  and camping, and picnicking, and having a good time... they don't call it the silly season for no reason. 

...

There's nothing to show on the extension except the last wall is up, 

and they are now getting prepped to do the roof. Actually, if I pause a moment,  having all three walls completed in one week, by just two men, is fast work compared to how long it took our neighbours to get to this stage last year.

Yesterday was entirely measuring, checking, measuring, rereading the plans and documentation...

They had three issues to resolve; 

The first was relatively straightforward; a smallish triangular piece that they couldn't find anywhere on the plans. That was because it shouldn't have been included in the shipment. Solution; chuck it in the waste pile.

The second is the big window forming most of the end wall. For some reason it is going to fix straight onto the wall of the house, rather than there being a vertical panel at that end. It's not a big problem, but does make setting everything up for getting the roof panels perfect a bit trickier. 

You can see a sort of pillar at the left hand side of the window space; if there had been something similar at the right hand side life would have been a lot simpler. And maybe cheaper... the safety glass for that window is very expensive. Oh well, it's done now, and the installers have worked out what to do 

The third problem is the soil pipe from the bathroom. There had been a lot of discussion about moving it to the corner of the house, and it seems that the final situation is that we (the builders, architect and us) agreed it would stay as it was, and the hup! contractors thought it was being moved. Height ho. The installers have worked out a fix, and ordered a bit of panel, and say all will be well. 

Meanwhile two days of peace over the weekend. We can sit out in the shell of our extension and 'play house' if we like!

Thursday 13th August - have you noticed how warm it is?

 Or rather HOT!

Outside,  in the full glare of the midday sun (1:15 to be more accurate) the two installer carry on, stoic to the end. I hope it won't be the end of them...

Close of play yesterday 

I'm standing just inside the current kitchen door. That's where the new kitchen window will be, looking down the garden. The sink and dishwasher will be there, cooking area to the left along the wall yet to be put up. Then, just by where one of the nen is walking to get the next block, will be the new kitchen door. 

Looking to the right

The gap is for the French windows opening out onto the new patio, with a full height opening window either side. Then come the party wall; solid to about chest high and then full height opaque privacy glass above. This is to mitigate loss of light to the neighbour's house and garden. I don't know how effective this will be, but changing the solid wall for glass removed a lot of the distress and unhappiness that they were feeling about our extension so it's worth it for that. They've been good to us over the years and we didn't want to upset our little community. It's hideous when neighbours fall out...

Today the missing wall is now up and all the panels properly secured. We have reached the roof!

...

Brain fog in the heat is a real thing. I was reading an article this mo(while it was cooler) which explained how the brain is involved in regulating body temperature, controlling sweating, distribution of liquid around the cardiovascular system etc. So there is less brain power available for thinking. 

Which is just a preamble to me saying 'toodle-oo' as I've run out of brain  for now!

Look after yourselves...

Sunday 9th/Monday 10 August- compost capers

 

Easy-peeler clementine (or satsuma?) chilled from the fridge, seconds before I ate it.

On Sunday morning, quite early before the day started heating up, we made more progress on The Great Compost Caper. I say 'we', but actually it was BB who did all the work while I cheered him on from the sidelines.

The problems;

Firstly the stuff in the compost bin had stopped doing whatever it was supposed to be doing. The very hot weather dried out the kitchen waste which just sat in a pile on top of the partially digested stuff below. This soil was noisesome, full of bits, and solidly compacted.

Secondly, the bin itself cracked when the builders carefully moved it after all the ground works were completed. I wasn't surprised, it was a plastic Green Johanna bin which we'd had since the 1990s, so it was around 30 years old, and had been moved several times.

On Friday, the replacement arrived and BB assembled it. On Saturday morning we got ot ready; a layer of broken sticks and twigs,

 covered by a layer of horrible soil, which was, fortunately full of worms, 

a layer of dried out kitchen waste, and half a bucket of water to moisten it.

All that's left to do is to add the rest of the partially digested soil etc, and then hope for the best. 

The Green Johanna has never failed us before, except when we gave it too much grass and it started smouldering... oh, and when we gave it a forgotten half sack of potatoes which turned into a very smelly liquid.A bucket of water fixed the first problem, and stirring in a large amount of shredded cardboard and paper solved the second.

So we're hoping that all will soon be well. The lesson is, compost bins don't always thrive if neglected!

....

Today, to my surprise, the men arrived to start on the hup! installation. 

Well well well! I've let the lucky winner know; it's the architect. 'I'm going to be optimistic,' he said.

There's not much to see for a day's work as they have been measuring and checking and checking and measuring, and setting up before they start manhandling everything into place.

The hot dry weather is helping them, as everything can be left lying out in the garden overnight without fear of rain.

Saturday 8th August - good morning

 

I've propped my kindle up on a book rest, so this isn't a real picture. But a book looks better than a kindle screen. 

I'm re-reading 'Time's Prisoner' by Linda Gillard, an author I enjoy (I finished 'The Trysting Tree' yesterday). She writes about secrets in families, that eventually surface and unravel. Books like these should teach everyone that keeping secrets through the generations can be more destructive than admitting the truth....

There may be mysteries and tears, but there are often 'pause for thought' insights; about friendships,  grief, small pleasures, life in general.  More importantly I don't find them 'heartbreaking, harrowing, gut-wrenching, terrifying'. 

Mostly. The sequel, 'Time's Tyrrany' does have some graphic writing about being a nurse during the worst of 5he covid epidemic. I see a third book in the series is due out in November  - hooray!

I'm avoiding starting the current Book Club choice, 'Pachinko' as the blurb looks a bit threatening to me. But I've got as far as downloading it, at least.

...

Yesterday we visited Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey. I don't know why we've ignored it for so long... well, maybe I do. The last time we went  was perhaps 30 years ago, one cold wet, grey day in Winter. Back then there was just a small muddy parking area among the trees, a little shack for coffee (closed, as I recall) amd random paths diwn, down the steep valley to the lake. Even back then, steep down wards paths used to fill me with dread; when you've walked down, the only way back is up.

It's now entirely changed; car park, huge visitor centre, café, shop, flat buggy-friendly paths through the shade of the trees, excellent loos. Twenty-year-old me would have grumbled about spoiling a lovely wild place; seventy-(nearly)-old-me with reduced stamina and mobility, plus an interest in 'the facilities', heartily approves. 

It's all tinder dry at the moment; the grass, trees, shrubs, leaves all in shades of dusty grey green straw brown, with occasional bursts of colour; a thistle, or a bright cerise buddleia flower.

We went for lunch; a properly pepperly Cornish pasty and bit of salad, and a short walk around.  We'll be going back!

Thursday 7th August - I've been wearing a jersey today!

 After the past couple of weeks I consider that to be good news. Yesterday and today were noticeably cooler, so much so that when I was in the shade I put on a jersey. 

Ah....

I've suddenly had the urge to start drawing again; 5-10 minute sketches, limited by the materials I had to hand;

These were done on my kindle scribe. 

In this one I used the stylus on the pencil setting  

This one using the stylus on fountain pen and then highlighter settings.

When I visited a friend this afternoon we sat in her garden, cool, quiet, shady, tidy and dust free. What a contrast to our place, baking in the sun, cluttered, dusty and with distant traffic noise from the busy dual carriageway about half a mile or so away.

When she went to make a fresh pot of tea I fetched out a biro and tiny notebook to sketch some honesty growing in a nearby flowerbed. (I've hidden her name)

A little reminder of the time together, I'll stick it in my diary.

.....

I'm getting a bit fed up with waking several times in the night. Once I'm awake my body says 'time to go to the loo.' I've tried persuading myself that it isn't necessary, but I've discovered I'm not very persuadeable. So annoying. But last night as I stumbled back, half asleep, I saw a perfect half moon, like a round of cheese cut with a knife, through the open curtains,  and could vaguely make out some twinkly stars to one side.

It was such a lovely sight that it was (almost) worth waking up for. 

And it didn't take long to get back to sleep, listen to a book on my headphones. I set the timer to ten minutes and was asleep in less time than that.

Wednesday 5th August a good day for dusting

Because, contrary to expectations, no-one is doing any dust-making activities. 

I rang The Man in the Office, this now the company doing the installation work, not the builders, to ask why no-one had come.

To cut a long story short, the installation in Scotland has overrun and so they won't start here until Monday next week. Or perhaps Tuesday. 

I had a few firm words about Communication but actually, knowing the back story (which I'm not sharing here) I have some sympathy with his predicament. However I will NOT tolerate being treated like a mushroom 🍄! (Kept in the dark). Instead I am opening a little sweepstake for the actual start date. 

Monday 10th, Wednesday 12th, Thursday 13th and Monday 17th have all been taken... 

We've blocked the vacuum cleaner again with all the fine dust, but luckily it's just a matter of dismantling and washing the filters. A job for tomorrow. 

I've also cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors, and, having washed all the detergent out of the microfibre pad and wrung it nearly dry, damp mopped some wood floors. I'll have a go at the rest tomorrow. 

Here's something cheering; I've been catching up on getting things that I've saved written into my Commonplace book and found this;

https://poets.org/poem/eletelephony