A sad day

Well my earlier blog post explains why today is a sad day and I think this'll be a quite short update but a few other things have happened so I want to record them for posterity. Last night there was another storm and I went to bed early to try and beat it's arrival however I think it never actually came past me but just rumbled on for ages in the distance. I slept well and, when the alarm went at 6.30, I had no desire to wake up so I snoozed a couple of times then dragged myself out of bed.

Disgusting low clouds

Today I was collecting T as it was his first day back and I had Lucy, obviously. When I got out of bed the cloud was so low and it was cold and nasty here and really not the kind of morning I was expecting when I decided to get over here. I still put my shorts and vest on, however, as I expected it to improve. I went upstairs to make a brew and that was when I discovered the horrible fact that poor little Mo had passed away at some point after I fed the boys yesterday. He was sat in exactly the same place as when I put the parsnip near him yesterday as he had nibbled at it before. He had his head out and his eyes open and he was floppy and there was no glisten to those eyes. I picked him up and put him in a plastic box so the flies couldn't get to him any more. I have no shame saying I had tears.

What a shock.

The glass just keeps coming

Unfortunately I had to go collect T and the day had to go on so I made my brew and then went to feed Rambo, once I had drunk it as I was collecting myself. I wasn't doing a watering round (it rained so much yesterday) but when I came out of his house with his bowls I glanced over and saw some more glass on the floor. As I didn't want to lose sight of it I went down on my knees and started picking up glass and I collected loads again. It does appear to just extract itself out of the dirt. After a few minutes I carried on a filled his bowls, locking him in as soon as I left his and setting off for T.

Finally a settee for relaxing on

The weather was rubbish all the way down the new road until I got to his turning and then it got nicer and nicer all the way to his. We loaded the new sofa into the back of Thomas and headed back and the same pattern, with it become worse and worse the closer to mine we got. It was a task of moments to unload and pull it upstairs and then I shifted some of the crap that was in the way and settled it into its temporary home. I have spent a few minutes sat here already today and I can say that it is a very comfortable seat and the location is great as you can see through the bedroom (as planned) and also out the landing windows.

Back to work on the fence

Talking of the landing windows it was nice to look out and see T and Rambo up on the top bank again working away at the concreting. I couldn't afford to sit around for too long though as I was helping S and S out with the lights on their car. I grabbed a quick bacon and egg butty and then set myself to writing the blog post about Mo which I just about finished by the time they arrived. they had already picked up the lights from the shop so we were straight to get them fitted. The big man was there, recognised me, and waved them to pull up straight so he could have a look. He then turned back to the car he was welding and we stood around in the sun (as it was gorgeous down in town) for what felt like hours but was probably far less, just chatting and enjoying the company.

Eventually their car was up on the lifting apparatus and, with a few issues that I won't go into, we headed round to get their lights straightened and there were a few more issues there and they weren't charged and then we were away past the hardware store and then on for lunch at a cafe on the roundabout. It was a pleasure as always to assist and hopefully now they can finally sort the registration of their car.

The bricklaying that is needed

I got back to find that the work on the wall was going well, though he said he'd forgotten a bit about the mix of the concrete which is understandable after a couple of weeks off. I set myself to doing paid work but then the weather closed in again and I went to tell T to start clearing the roof (which he did) and then the power went off and so I popped to help him out a bit. I have decided that I am not going to wait for Bekir or Sally to do the laying of the course of bricks up next to the inside window but am going to do it myself so I spent a little time also preparing for it, and hanging a plumb line for where the edge will be. I have offered a couple of bricks up to prove the point and now I'll do this tomorrow, or T will if he has to come in for rain while I'm out.

Wood brought from the attic

T was working away as per usual, without complaint and making good progress, and he got to his going home point having brought loads of the wood down from the attic and piled it up where I had asked him in the workshop / store room. I will go through this at some point and pull out the wood I will be using for the bed head and foot and the rest will get moved into a room in the green building.

I dug a hole

Once again I settled down to work but then the power went off, came back on again then went off and stayed off. I was at a stage where I actually needed it for work so I decided to go and play with Rambo but then thought it was a good idea do bury Mo so I took him in his little box, picked up the pick axe and shovel, and went up by the silver birch (walking on the very nice scythed path from yesterday) and started digging.

Mo settled onto his bed of stones

I got as deep as I wanted (careful to not disturb the roots of the silver birch which I wanted as a marker for Mo and which were running across where I chose to dig) and then gathered together some small stones to line the bottom of the hole for Mo to be put on. I carefully placed him in the bottom of the hole and then went to the big pile of stones to pick one that I had spotted before as a headstone type of thing.

Mo's grave

I pushed soil over the top of him until it was high enough to support the stone and then, this in place, filled it fully up and smoothed it over. Tomorrow, when I am at kaufland to collect Rocky, I am going to pick up a flower to plant over there as a proper memorial. I want something flashy. I will have to tell T to be careful when he is round there to not knock the headstone over.

I am very sad to have had to do this but I am also glad that it has been done and I don't have to look forward to doing it tomorrow or the day after.

Tomorrow I pick up Rocky, as I have said, so that's something positive to look forward to and, after I did the burying, I spent a fair amount of time playing with Rambo and he made me smile again which is what I needed and isn't it lovely when something drags an unexpected smile out of you. So I am going to sign this off and hope that tomorrow my blog is a much happier one. I hope to have a nice lunch with Chaz and Ivan however I haven't had a confirmation yet. That would be nice too.