Sunday 23rd August

 From our zoom church service today;

Saturday 22nd August - a very peculiar time

 Today's ten minute journal page

The peculiar time started quite late yesterday evening with a power cut at around quarter to ten. The sitting room was plunged not only into darkness, but more alarmingly, into silence after the oxygen concentrator emitted a couple of shrill alarms. I sat very still, taking slow, deep breathes, while BB used the light of his Kindle (!) which he had been reading, to make his way to the hall. We have an emergency light plugged in the hall, (and upstairs on the landing) so it was easy enough to fetch an oxygen cylinder for me to use instead of the concentrator. 

Power was restored very quickly, but the episode made us realise we need to think about having emergency lights in the living area, kitchen and bedroom. Suppose there's a power cut when you are pouring boiling water from a kettle?

We always have at least one, and usually two cylinders in the hall so I wouldn't have had far to go if I needed to sort myself out. But it was a good opportunity to revisit the situation. 

That madness of the day continued. I managed to load the crackpot for step 1 of making BBQ pork belly. That's child's play; just put the strips in the pit and cook on high for three to three and a half hours. 

However I was convinced it was Sunday. Why? I can only think that it was because having no workmen on site on Friday made it feel like a Saturday... anyway, I logged onto the zoom for the church service only to discover that I couldn't see anyone else... panic station as I'm down for a reading... So I whatsapped my cousin, who speedily replied 'Saturday?'. Duh.

Feeling a bit of a fool I thought I'd do something useful like the washing up, and promptly cut a finger quite deeply on our sharpest kitchen knife. Not quite like the nursery rhyme; it was 'this little finger on my left'. Ow!

After running it under the cold tap I applied pressure for 10 minutes, and BB stuck a plaster on, which seems to have lasted ok. Still, it's got me out of the washing up and various other jobs. BB finished off the BBQ pork;

remove the slices and pour away the liquid in the pot (into a bowl, NOT down the drain!). 

make a sauce from 1-2 tablespoons each of dark soy sauce, tomato ketchup, I tablespoon runny honey (I  often substitute sweet chilli dipping sauce) a clove of garlic and about the same amount of fresh ginger, both grated (I shake in garlic granules and dried ginger) and a pinch of five-spice powder all stirred together.  Put the pork belly strips back in the crock pot, pour over and mix in the sauce, and cook for another hour to hour and a half on high.

This is for two pieces of pork; adjust for larger quantities. 

That's the day so far... it's half past eight now and it's been very calm...

I've finished a sock, apart from the heel!

I started with the toe, and I've used 'Judy's super stretchy bind-off' for the cuff. YouTube is your friend here if you want to try it. After several disastrous bind-offs on previous socks, which were all too tight, I've discovered this works every time and it's not too much hassle. 

I've even started the next sock. Again,  it's a special cast on method 'Judy's closed toe cast on' which I knew would take me several attempts (YouTube again) but is well worth persevering with. 

My step count for today reflects the amount of time I've been sitting quietly so as not to disturb the plaster on my finger!

Friday 21st August

 This morning's ten minute journal:

.....

The solid roof panels for the extension are now in place. The plan is to add the glass ones next week, and I think delivery of the doors and windows will happen too. Possibly even fitting them.

Wiring the electric mechanism for opening the roof panels needs to happen at some point, but I guess that's further down the line once the electrician has installed everything.  I'm a bit hazy about that.

Here's how it looks standing in one corner,  looking towards the new kitchen door. There will be two glazed panels in the gap in the roof, but they have left a big space so that someone can get to the pesky pipe (starting at 7:45 on Monday!).

And here's how it looks from the other corner.  I'm standing between the current kitchen door and the new kitchen door, looking towards the new patio.

There's a delay getting the big triangular piece of glass for the end wall.

The office; "I'm sorry, it's delayed until September. "

Me; "Do you mean the 1st or the 30th or somewhere in-between?"

The answer was inconclusive...

No hup! fitters today, (they did let me know) but it will be everyone cracking on (not literally, it is glass) next week.

...

Because of a regular zoom call on Thursdays between 8-9:30 pm, we've a whole load of great TV to look forward to over the weekend; Celebrity Masterchef, Ludwig and Professor T. After weeks of disappointing scheduling I rather pleased! I still haven't started watching Ann Droid yet, but it is getting excellent reviews so it's on my list.

Thursday 20th August - Rain!

Yesterday's 10-minute journal;

My collaboration squares went off to Ang on Tuesday, and arrived with her yesterday.  Hurrah for 2nd class post! 

At long last I hemmed my 'heatwave' trousers. I don't know why I coloured them green as they are a very pale duck egg blue. The fabric is like a thin, fine linen mix, so hemming had to be tiny wee stitches, just picking up a couple of threads on the outside. I think Esmé from Sewing Bee might have passed them!

I teased the builders saying they needed to hurry along with the roof because the forecast was for rain..

And it was true; yesterday we had Proper Rain for about fifteen-twenty minutes! It was drizzling most of the morning, but the hup! installers kept on doing whatever it was they were doing, but midmorning they retreated to their van with a mug of tea each for an unscheduled break. Not enough roof up yet to protect them. Luckily the rain didn't last and they emerged to carry on.

There's still nothing spectacular to see, but looking more closely I noticed beams mounted on the outside wall for the sloping roof panels to key into prepared sockets. It's all very precise measure four times and fix once stuff; the installers are very meticulous wh8ch gives me confidence.

...

Ang's squares arrived lunchtime yesterday in a pretty candy striped box (from the Snag tights company). The squares, for there were two of them! were wrapped in a sweet little handkerchief held together with a silver starburst pin.

A kit for foundation patchwork, the handkerchief and pin, and two squares.  I like the lattice pattern very much, and the variegated colours contrast well with the pink border. The multi-coloured square is a 'mindful' square are you have to pay attention to do the two different kinds of decrease in every other row... needs a bit more concentration. I shall add them to my growing stash while I continue to think what to make them all into...

Tuesday 18th August - no visible progress

 Yesterday was mostly another 'setting out' day before work can begin on the roof. That dratted soil pipe continues to be a problem. The hup! (that's the name of the building system) installers would normally cut through the top section, which is just the vent part, in order to 'grind into the bricks behind it' and 'drop a collar over it', and then rejoin the bits. Sounds straightforward, except 

it turns out that although the rest of the pipe is iron, that top bit is asbestos cement. Which no-one wants to cut through, obviously. 

The architect came over in the afternoon, and deep discussions took place with gesticulating and head-scratching. The current plan is to find someone to loosen up where the pipe joins the iron bit, and loosen up where it goes through the roof, push the pipe up, do the grinding, place the collar, and seal it all in place as though nothing had happened. 

I'm praying as from now!

....

While the architect hunts up suitable contractors today,  the hup! installers are doing other bits and pieces, keeping busy.

....

How long does it take to form a habit? I don't think I've ever managed it. For example, I'm pretty good at the morning and evening meds, but the lunchtime ones can be a bit random. And my daily page-a-day write up has kept going, with only a couple of blank pages per year, since about 2014, I think. Although I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is... I think it's because at one time I genuinely couldn't remember what I'd done a couple of days ago. At least I could now supply an alibi for almost every day... but would it be true? 

....

All the above is a preamble to a picture journal plan described by Adam Ming (on substack, a sort of cross between blogs and Facebook but without adverts).

You set a timer for 10 minutes and draw a frame, divided into four boxes, one for yesterday, one for what's coming up today, one for the future, and one for something you are thankful for. That leaves you with about three minutes to fill each box with a simple picture and a few words... like a short cartoon strip in format.

Yesterday's 

And today's 

You don't have time to overthink!

It reminds me of the tiny postage sized pictures I made in April, May June of lockdown 2020,

(I did complete the month!)

and also when I did the sketch-a-day diary some years later.

If I  keep this 10 minute journal going for a week I'll be happy enough 🙂 

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

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