Today has ended up being a really good day, I'm a bit late starting the blog due to what all has happened so I'll get straight on to it.
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| Let's just hope it doesn't rain |
It was another really disturbed night last night. The storm that had been forecast didn't really appear. There were several flashes around and some rumbles but it didn't rain and the storm stayed away. I woke up needing the toilet in the middle of the night but when I got back all I could hear was a creaking sound which was coming through the internal window. I got up again and took the torch up into the roof space. The creaking did not reoccur however the tarpaulin was flapping in the wind (which was not THAT strong) and it was getting worse all the time. I could see no way of improving its attachment so I headed downstairs. Unfortunately A was now awake as well so I took her to show her the tarp and she also could see now was of securing it better. I had meantime worked out that the creaking was actually one of the windows in the corridor vibrating in the breeze. Even though there was nothing to do we were both awake and thirsty so A put the kettle on and I put the laptop on and found that there was some College Football on so we sat there for a couple of cups each and watched the game. We were both ready for bed about 5.30am just before the sun was coming up and both managed to fall back to sleep pretty well. The boys were pretty noisy this morning and the lie in ended as they were barking and barking and we had to get out to feed them. A was in charge of feeding them as I took the washing out to hang up. This is the definition of hope, where it is so overcast, there is huge rain forecast, and you can even feel some mist in the air.
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| The used to be a tarpaulin across here |
I hung it all out and then looked up at the roof; something was different. Wrong. Then it struck me. The tarpaulin was not in place any more. I could see that it was still attached but it had torn away all down the right side (as I was looking at it) and was blown along the top of the south side of the roof. Not good. I told A what I had spotted then headed inside and went straight up to the roof, to make it easier for A to deal with the boys, and also to get a look at what was going on.
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| Me on the roof! Yes! ME! ON THE ROOF! |
First of all I found that it was still attached, just about, at the very top of the roof. I tried to climb the wooden ladder but it was way too flimsy for me and then when A got up on the roof she footed the metal ladder so I could get up and detach it. Then was the question of what to do with all the nails that were still firmly fixed all along the edge. I took the decision to jump up on the sloping side of the roof and crawl along with the hammer and sort it out myself. Fortunately the men had put some wooden struts along for footing so it wasn't too bad going out but I was quite scared on the way back. Unless you didn't know I am quite scared of heights so this took some mental determination to do. With the tarpaulin now loose I got A to pull it in before I negotiated the way back. We then stashed it out of the way and went down for a brew.
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| Fruitful land |
Breakfast was bacon and egg butties and was really lovely and set the day off well. After this A had some more work to do so I decided to pop out and collect more (what I thought were) apples that had appeared on the one remaining non- silver birch in the entrance avenue. I collected quite a few and then also went past a few rosehip bushes to grab the ripe fruits on these plants.
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| Mother's apples |
When I got inside I decided that today I would make the jam for my mother. My dad is more than welcome to partake but the thing is I had the apples from my mum's martenitsa tree and this means this is my mum's jam. The frozen apples defrosted really quickly and I set to chopping them. I didn't have that many at this stage (about 250g) so I then chopped the first of the new fruit and found that they weren't apples they were quince. MORE quince! That makes about seven quince trees so far and SO many quince fruit. I think I may well get rid of some of the older of these as I really have gone off quince with the experience of preparing that 3kg the other day.
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| Jam making, and the bonus ingredient |
With such a small amount of fruit I decided to head out and try and find more apples on both my Mum's tree and the other ones. First of all I found a couple of good looking windfalls down by the tree we had climbed with the ladder a few weeks ago, and then I took the ladder out into the back and got a number more fruits off her tree. When A had a break we headed back down for the windfalls and found quite a few that, even after I chopped them, were really good quality. They must have fallen last night with the wind. Anyway, I ended up with about 700g of fruit and proceeded to follow the instructions to make the chosen jam (making use of some of the real honey we bought the other week) and it has been bottled up (with some extra for us to enjoy) and I now have to make sure I don't forget to pack it!
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| A doing the meausring |
With this complete I went to help A with her task for the day. She had been using the saw to cut the remaining beams for the headboard and now we were going to fix them together. I came up with the idea of a beam running along with each upright screwed to it, that would then sit on top of the bedframe and itself be attached to that. A did the measuring and marked up each upright with the 200mm required to set it in the correct place.
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| Making use of my new tool |
With the measurements made we set to doing the actual work. We used the power driver as a drill and at first were swapping over the bit with the driver bit to do the screws but then I remembered the new bit for the manual driver and so I grabbed it and we made use of it for the rest of the work. This is actually the first time I have used it and I was so impressed.
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| This is going to look so good |
We did make one mistake (well, I did) when the cross piece wasn't square but that was quickly fixed and after a while and a break for lunch (it was suddenly 2pm and I was hungy) we had the uprights all nicely pulled together and in place. Now we need to make it a bit more secure so my suggestion is for an interesting old plank going across the top where it will be visible and we shall see tomorrow what A decides to do.
Straight after finishing we got ourselves ready and went out for a shopping trip. First of all I needed to get fuel for Thomas but when we got to the petrol station they had run out and were just refuelling themselves so we had to wait for ages to get served. It was then chaos with loads of Romanians clogging the place up, both in the shop jumping queues and parking all over the forecourt and preventing the gas truck from getting out and thus me from moving from my pump. Chaos. Anyway, after this it was off to Kaufland and then Lidl and everything on our list was bought and a few more thing besides including a mint plant finally and a trunk for the bottom of the bed to put bedding in.
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| A bug in the soil |
When we got home we carried everything inside and I switched College Game Day on though I was about 15 minutes late to catch the theme music this week; next week huh. I watched a bit and then A started getting dinner ready which was going to be a curry. She got the root ginger out to grate some and found that it had sprouted and so this prompted me to get out of my chair. Not only did I have this ginger to plant I also had the new mint and the other herb we had bought before to put into a large pot ad set on the balcony. While I was digging out some good quality soil from an old plant pot I found a load of these grubs which were asleep and woke when I dug them out. We got the picture before chucking them out the back window.
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| Rooted root ginger, and the new herb garden |
I have loads of plant pots so I got the three biggest (and made sure one was green for the mint) and when the three plants were in the new pots, with old soil mixed with potting compost, I took them out to the balcony and set them up by the wall, then watered them all in well. After the success with the lettuce I hope this proves a prosperous place for our herbs and ginger.
Since then we have watched College Football, eaten an outstanding curry A put together, and I've typed this blog. It never did rain today and the washing got dried both on the line and, when it looked a bit threatening and was brought up onto the airers on the balcony, the sun came out and dried it even fast. So much for 20mm of rain! A is asleep on the sofa behind me and I'm going to wrap this up, put the boys away, and then get to bed myself; after last night I'm pretty shattered now.
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