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

Tuesday 4th August - tomorrow's the day

when the hup! installers get to open up the hundreds, well, definitely scores of packs of components stacked on the grass at the front and back of the house, on the sub-floor of the extension, and even stored inside their van for a couple of days in case it rains. (Rains?!)

    It's like a mad, insane, crazy IKEA construction. These are just the walls and roof; the glass, and the window/door frames, will arrive 'sometime next week'. As for the end window, which forms the boundary between us and next door, well, that's not expected until 'sometime in September'. That will be the 30th, then? I'm told that delay won't cause a problem as they will board up the opening to make it water-tight so they can continue to work indoors while waiting for the glass to be delivered.

Now, when I open the back door first thing in the morning and stand n the step to take in the glories of nature, I lift my eyes to look at the trees, as lower down it looks like a construction site. I'm not complaining; 'eyes on the prize' - wasn't that a line in the first 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' film?

.....

On Monday I spent the day not taking up my new trousers. Truth be told, it's taking me a long tine to get round to them, which is silly as they are what I think of as 'heatwave trousers', cut on the lines of my pyjama trousers. And a heatwave is what we are having, although it's a bit cooler today, and maybe tomorrow. Instead I made a cover for a plastic fruit punnet to capture the various potions I like to keep ready; hand cream, lip salve, lunchtime meds etc.

It was easier than I thought; I took a piece of fabric (checking it was big enough) and sewed a simple hem along the top and bottom sides. Then I wrapped the punnet in the fabric, and everywhere where I would have put sticky tape if I had been using paper, I sewed instead. The buttons, from some vintage ones Ang gave me, are sewn on through the sides (the needle went through the plastic quite easily) to catch the fabric folded to the inside and keep the cover on. I think that was the most taxing bit; I'm not a fan of sewing on buttons and I used ten.  

....  

One of the builders said he would like our settee and took it, strapped precariously to a heap of wheelbarrows, cement mixers, shovels and I don't know what on top of his truck.  

I'm sitting on my grandmother's old Windsor chair instead, suitably padded. It's a much better size and shape for me.

     My parents brought the elephants when they came back from Singapore back in the 1970s.  

'Step by step we're moving forward, little by little we're gaining ground'...

Which reminds me of that lovely, light-hearted song 'Mairi's Wedding', sung here by The Corries;

Sunday 2nd August - Lammas Sunday

 It's a festival marking the first fruits of the harvest; lammas meaning loaf-mass.

At zoom church today the account came from Matthew's gospel,  chapter 14. The person doing the reflection (aka sermon, but shorter!) reminded us, or in my case, informed us, that it's one of the events recorded in all four gospels, so I'll get another chance to think  about it when it turns up in my slow read through John's gospel.

What had Jesus been telling the crowd all day? How could 5,000 people (not including women and children!) hear him? I was trying to relate the number of people to a place I knew; during the prom concerts at the Royal Albert Hall there are up to about 1000 people standing in the middle and roughly 4,000 in reserved seating 

That helps me get an impression. 

The whole episode, however you interpret it  is astonishing. 

This was our final hymn; Gather around, for the table is spread.

I haven't been able to find a version on YouTube with singers I like, so here is just an organist and the words.

Music: William Ross 

Words: Jeanette Holloway

Gather around, for the table is spread, 

welcome the food and rest!

Wide is our circle, with Christ at the head, 

he is the honoured guest.

Learn of his love, grow in his grace, 

pray for the peace he gives;

here at this meal, here in this place, 

know that his spirit lives!

Once he was known in the breaking of bread,

shared with a chosen few;

multitudes gathered and by him were fed, so, will he feed us too.

Daniel Roberts | Organist,  Recorded in St. Thomas Church, Stanhope, Durham