Sunday 6th September - Living water

 This was the theme of today's zoom church service. 

We've experienced both drought and downpour these past weeks, although in a very minor way compared to the serious killer droughts and downpours elsewhere in the world.

I counted; we have seven taps in our house delivering hot or cold fresh clean water whenever we want; another privilege not to be taken for granted.

One of my husband's twice daily jobs from as soon as he was strong enough to work the handle was to pump the water from the spring to the water tank in the house. They were blessed with a reliable source of fresh water filtered through acres and acres of peat Moor above the house.

This was one of the pieces of music in the service;

.....

I've spent the afternoon sitting at a garden table in the shell of the new extension enjoying the fresh, if slightly chill air. I can't wait for the time when I can meet our friends for coffee, or tea, or meals even, properly protected from the elements and at the same time with good through ventilation to avoid any risk of respiratory infection. 

Or just sit, with the windows open, and look at our garden... 

(Very wobbly drawing on my tablet using free bamboo app and the stylus that came with the tablet)

Saturday 5th September - playing happy families...

But first, Friday;

But even before Friday, Thursday 

Which was a four 'event' day... I usually try and stick to a limit of three 'events' per day. But I syarted with a shower, which counts as an event because I find it quite tiring, then had a lovely piano session with a student in the morning (and also sorted out some music for another student).  

The hup! installation team had an interruption to their teabreak when the legs on their worktable, with both of them sitting on it, and the tea tray between them, suddenly snapped. Everything thing and everyone landed in a heap; the people were unheard but sadly my old Brown Betty teapot from university days did not. Ah well, at least it was only an old teapot that broke, and not and arm or a leg.

Followed by some time spent cooking; lunch, and loading the crock pot. Batch cooking counts as a relatively minor event. 

The architect, and then the electrician, and then the man who will be doing the external rendering all came round too, one after another...

Finally I had the regular weekly zoom with my lovely church group friends. Whew.

So it's not surprising that Friday was a low-energy day.

Today, however, has been a wonderful day. I drew the 10-minute journal in the morning,  before the 'children' - adults, now, of course, got here 

So the future box describes a future that was only a few hours away... I'd had a bit of a planning crisis the previous day when I realised I didn't have oat milk, or dairy-free ice-cream or biscuits in the house. Thank heavens for on-linecgrocery orders... I just placed an order for delivery this morning, adding in the usual weekly shop. Hence the ❤️ box!

We had lunch all together inside the extension - what fun! 

With garden furniture and a table cloth and place settings and no glazing in any doors or windows it felt like a curious mixture of inside and outside dining. 

It was a lovely way to christen the space - a family meal together as we used to. Even when the room is finished and glazed it will be easy to arrange good ventilation for meeting people indoors when it's wet outside. 

They have also sorted through a lot more of the stuff in their old bedrooms, some to take back this time, some to donate or throw, and the rest to keep. Progress!

The weather was sunny amd dry (if a bit breezy) all day, perfect, and a great improvement on yesterday's rain. 

Thursday 3rd September - homemade

After some underwhelming supermarket ready meals last month, and earlier this week, I'm trying to go back to more cooking from scratch. It's easier, too with the cooler weather.

Yesterday, for supper, I made some vegetable soup, just a chopped carrot, onion, stick of celery all softened in olive oil and then cooked in stock with a dollop of tomato puree and dried herbs. I  added a tin of butter beans (drained and rinsed). There was enough for two days, so I served half the veg and all the liquid and put the rest in the fridge. (Lunch was homemade spaghetti with roasted courgettes).

Today I added more tomato, and quite a decent amount of cooked chicken and we had it for lunch with baked potatoes. Supper was a crustless quiche with bubble and squeak. 

I'm very pleased to have used up the eggs and pancetta which were approaching their 'use by' dates, and the leftover potatoes as well! I've also cooked a crockpot-full of minced beef, again, at it's 'use-by' date, to freeze and use in various recipes. 

I am feeling so virtuous!

Today's 10-minute journal;

Yesterday I dealt with bills, etc. Today I tried out my 'keep it handy' container of watercolours, brushes, lidded jar of water, pen etc first to colour the picture,  and later just to fiddle around with. I reckon this setup might suit for a quick few minutes dabbling.

Later in the morning; the first piano session of the new academic year! Good fun for both of us.

A friend came round yesterday evening with a bunch of five of the biggest gladioli stems I have ever seen. They are on the hearth in front of the fireplace and are easily taller than the fire surround! They have started coming out.

....

Nothing much to add to the extension progress. They have been very busy all day doing what I xalk 'invisible work', fixing things in place, adding extra screws, fastening things down, tiling the roof, ready for tomorrow. 

Wednesday 2nd September - rainy, but good day

I'm thinking of having a darkish green back wall to the extension; not too dark, not to light, not too yellowy,  not to blue... time to look at paint charts. This feels very daring... we've always ysed light colours. The kitchen units are a pale shell grey,  as I remember. 

The day was cool, even cold at times to people who have been softened upby heatwaves. Frequent showers of rain too. The hup! installers moved the garden table and chairs from the patio to inside the extension so they could sit in the dry for their tea breaks.

The builder, who will be taking on the next phase, turned up with a long ladder. A nice bit of exemplary teamwork, one 'hupper' holding the ladder, and another passing the soil pipe up meant that it was replaced in minutes. He stayed to talk to the huppers about mysterious subjects like 'first fix' and he'll be able to send the electrician round to start work while the huppers are here. The electric cabling will run in the channels round the walls.

The window and door frames have indeed gone in today, as I hoped, ready for glazing.

The panels either side of the French windows are hinged at the side, for opening, but are also hinged at the bottom to tilt inwards. Two of the glazed roof lights will also open and close.

Tuesday 1st day of Autumn - and I'm back...

 I wasn't my normal self yesterday, but I'm OK today.

Yesterday morning after I had swallowed my morning pills and as I was putting things back, I noticed an inconspicuous little yellow tablet lying among the bits and pieces on the table. How long had that been there? Since this morning,  of for several days? Should I take it, or not? Would I be under-medicated if I left it, or over-medicated if I took it? It was obe of the two steroid tablets I take every morning. 

I left it, and forgot about it. 

As the day wore on, I felt more and more peculiar, dizzy, shakey, breathless... not like me at all... then I remembered the time, several years ago, when I had been asked to try geadually reducing my steroid dose to see if I could manage on less. At 5mg, I had felt dizzy, shake, breathless... so clearly that had been today's tablet. An early night helped 'sleep off' the effects, and today I'm fine. Phew!

Sadly I had to cry off the home-group Communion featured in Sunday's 10 minute journal (complete with bonus quote - I'm drawing these in my Commonplace Book). The top left picture shows me measuring the square I had nearly finished, only to find it was nearly seven inches instead of six inches wide. Sigh.

But we've arranged another date in September. The month is filling up already. 

Here's yesterday's 

BB put in another stint of transferring old compost from the old bin (which is broken) to the new one. One more time should complete the job, We're in no hurry, as smothering the kitchen scraps in wormy compost must be helping the stuff to sort itself out after the summer drying out disaster.

You really do get what you pay for with convenience foods. We have been consistently underwhelmed by recent jar and ready meals. This M & S gastropods lasagne was a cut above - less of the gloopy generic tomato sauce flavour, less salty, less sweet, less oily. And more expensive. Still, it isn't as though we eat out very often, and this was still cheaper for the two of us than a pub meal for one.

With the cooler weather I have made meals from scratch more often and we do prefer them to ready meals. And that's just the taste!

Today's also comes with a bonus;

I'm wondering what on earth I'm going to do with all the 6" knitted squares I'll end up with. I fancy a patchwork jumper. There are patterns for boxy jumpers knitted from four rectangles sewn together, front, back, and the other two pieces folded into sleeves. Something like 48 squares should do it, but I don't think Ang will want to keep the collaboration going for FOUR YEARS!

Sunday 30th August - we can help...

 Reading the news is overwhelming at the moment, but we can help...

'Many a mickle makes a muckle', the say...

We can donate... to the disasters emergency committee, Red Cross, Christian Aid, Save the Children, Medecins sans Frontiers (MSF) to mention just a few organisations working in areas throughout the world where there is desperate need.

And we can pray... Ang posted a prayer for Nepal on her site today. Or you can just hold a place, or situation, or person, in your mind and ask for God's mercy upon them

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison 

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy

Voces8 singing the Kyrie from William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices