Booted and suited, and meter-reading

Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned 'rain' yesterday.  I was all geared up to paint the garage door this morning (or indeed, anytime today) but the weather decided to be undecisive and throw in the odd sporadic drizzle so Plan A has been put on hold until tomorrow.

The carrot seedlings are beginning to get some feathery leaves

There is, however, always a Plan B.  At 9 o'clock this morning N made some phone enquiries about bulk compost.  By 10 o'clock it had been delivered!  A cubic metre of lovely, local compost, dumped in it's bag on the front lawn and needing to be bagged up and moved to the back garden.  We booted and suited up - welly boots and boilersuits - and got stuck in.  N later informed me this is why he loves me, not for any romantic reason but because I'm more than up to heavy manual labour!  

About a quarter of the way there

There was a lot of compost (and it is lovely rich dark brown crumbly compost) and we have topped up all the raised beds, got big pots ready for potatoes and tomatoes next season and still managed to fill 13 plastic bags; we never throw the empty bags away, they get used over and over for storage, taking rubbish to the tip, etc.

We've made more progress with the porch, although we are a little concerned that the T&G we've lined the walls with gives the impression of an outside loo.  Or a beach hut.  

We always read our gas and electricity meters every Monday morning and record the figures and work out our weekly usage.  We can see straightaway if we've used more than usual - last week, for example, we ran the central heating for half an hour (as it's a new system) and that was reflected in a higher usage figure.  However, we seem to be using far less than the 'average' comparable household, according to our energy providers.  We are mindful of the energy we use, not wishing to pay for any more than we need to.  We don't need lights blazing in all rooms, just the ones we are actually in (and very often we just have a table lamp on).  We watch very little TV, preferring to read, listen to the radio, sew, knit or do puzzles and we couldn't justify keeping Sky so that's gone, and we have no need to leave anything on stand-by now.  We chose not to have a bath installed in this house, and we have short (ie 5 minute) showers.  Winter is approaching and we are interested to see how the house performs in colder weather.  We anticipate being able to close off some rooms and concentrate the heating in just the ones we are using.  Our heating thermostat will be set at a sensible (ie lower than most!) temperature.  We have double-glazing and cavity wall insulation, and the loft is thickly insulated as well.  Monitoring our weekly usage keeps us vigilant and hopefully means we will stay within our budgeted payments.  To us it seems such an obvious and sensible thing to do but we are aware of people who are quite happy to pay way more than we do, and just accept it.  It's surprising how easy it is to waste money unnecessarily.  I've often thought I'd like to see how much I could save on their bills by making some very simple changes, most of which would have little or no impact on their lifestyle.  Is it being thrifty, or frugal, or simply being a bit more aware that if everyone wastes energy, then we all have to pay the (higher) price?

Work on the porch

I hadn't realised I'd not blogged since Wednesday - what happened to those four days?  We've been busy around the house, making the most of the continuing dry weather to start on a bit of outside painting.  

I've plodded on with the preservative on the big shed, just one side to go then I need to start all over again with a second coat - I can hardly wait!  I know it makes sense to get this done while I can but it requires a fine balancing act on the top of the tall step-ladders, not to mention a lot of cobwebs.  

We have also turned our attention to the porch area which is certainly in need of a bit of a make-over.  We're able to do the work ourselves - me painting (a definite trend going on her, methinks!), N setting to with some woodwork, namely cladding the walls and new flooring.  The porch is narrow (this is why it's me doing the painting), and was previously painted a rather gaudy blue.  It had to go.

Sanding, taping the window-frames, undercoating, top-coat of gloss - it's a labour-intensive job but I have been quite happy, quietly painting away, covering up the blue.  I did discover the inside of the door frame had been forgotten about, so I must add that to my ever-growing list of 'snagging' tasks.  N has done a lot of preparatory work on the garage door which was flaking badly, and hopefully I'll give that a top coat tomorrow.

There's also been lots of cooking and baking, a bit of sewing in between and just generally chatting about this and that.  We have a busy couple of weeks coming up and have a number of jobs that we would very much like to complete.  The evenings are pulling in fast and there's a crispness to the early morning air.  We need to take full advantage of these autumn days - there's so much to do.

Bored? No time for that here!

Our days seem to be so full at the moment, always something that either needs doing or that we want to do (not always the same thing!)  There's a long list of little jobs that need to be done around the house, odds and ends that have to be finished off after all the refurbishment of the summer months.  So we certainly don't wake up in the morning wondering 'what shall we do today?'

This morning I set to cleaning the outside windows.  I've tackled them a couple of times since we've been here but never really got the glass sparkling so that was my task today.  And, in between the rain showers, I've not done too badly.  A lot of elbow-grease was needed which in turn has aggravated the RSI in the shoulder but it's satisfying to see through clean glass at last.

N pottered around with light-fittings, then had another look at the lock mechanism on the front door.  It's never been quite right, and I know it's annoyed him.  So it didn't really surprise me when I looked around and found the lock in bits and a request to lend a hand taking the door off it's slider!  Ah well, it seemed an opportunity to clean inside there, too.  This is what happens a lot round here - one small job leads to another, then another and so on.  We're glad we have the time, and indeed the inclination, to tackle these jobs.  And as N reminded me, by having a go ourselves, we are certainly saving quite a few pennies in the process.  Very often the job is not difficult, merely time-consuming, and by taking it slowly and methodically we have been able to deal with many awkward tasks ourselves.  We find we're more willing to 'have a go' at things, taking our time to consider the problem then searching for a solution.  We both have skills which we can utilise and there's a good deal of fun to be had in creatively thinking outside the box, and if we manage to use something we already have lurking in the garage, garden shed or sewing room, then so much the better!  

It's good to have things to do to fill our days without the need or desire to resort to shopping.  'Boredom' is not a word that enters our vocabulary at all; we both have hobbies and interests that happily keep us occupied and busy, and that's in addition to pottering around on jobs in the house and garden.  I have a list of jobs to do that will keep me happily occupied through till next year and beyond - and that doesn't even include two quilts that need sandwiching and quilting!  No, definitely no chance of being bored any time soon round here!

Along the shore

Another lovely and productive day.  Cleaning, painting, odd pottering-DIY sort of jobs done.  A bit of reading and a bit of sewing (or unpicking, strictly speaking) thrown in for good measure.

We took ourselves off for a walk along the shore this afternoon, making the most of the late autumn sunshine.  The tide was out leaving some very 'spongy' seaweed - just as well we wore boots!  A bit of rock-clambering was involved, and trying to avoid some rather slimey, slippery green stuff but all good fun and worth it just to be out in the fresh sea air, listening to the call of the oyster-catchers.

We were surprised to find several quite large jelly-fish washed up along the shore.  There's something rather unreal about these creatures.

Just to the right of the jelly-fish is a 50p piece, for size comparison

Out path back took us through woods, and we were delighted to spot a little red squirrel in the foliage above us.  

He looked at us, and we stared right back at him!  It is always magical to see these creatures so close to.

The bird-table made by GS and grand-dad has been standing in the garden for several days, with a dish of tempting assorted seeds.  Late this afternoon we spied our first diner - a wood pigeon, of course, but welcome nonetheless.

And I had to record this rather bizarre scene that greeted me when I pulled the curtains this morning.

We seem to be on the flight path for many planes as we see their vapour trails on a regular basis.  The trails are, without fail, straight.  Not this one!  It looked for all the world like a giant 'question mark' in the sky.  Perhaps the pilot was wondering where he was supposed to be going!

Misty

We've been having some really misty, foggy starts to the days here this week.  

 Early in the morning we can hear the fog-horn sounding through the stillness, and peering out of the window we can sometimes barely see the fence at the bottom of the garden.  The spiders' webs are picked out in water droplets and look spectacular.  Usually the mist clears in a few hours and we're treated to a beautiful autumnal afternoon.

We've been busy pottering for the past couple of days.  There's so many odds and ends to finish off - lampshades (and renewing light fittings and wiring!), roller blinds, exterior paintwork to be cleaned and treated prior to painting . . . the list goes on and on.  We have finally worked out what to do with the huge expanse of lawn in the front garden; that will be a fairly big project later in the autumn but at least we can start planning.

Making the most of the continuing fine weather, I have plodded on with the sheds, painting them with wood preservative to prolong their use.  

Before . . . 

. . . and after.

The wood is so dry it is soaking up the preservative - I think we will need another can of it very soon!  But it pays to look after these garden buildings just as much as the house itself.  And a bit of hard work in the sunshine is more than worth it.

In the garden

The wood preservative on the sheds was given its first real trial this morning - the heavens opened and we had a downpour, accompanied by thunder and lightning.  The rain was bouncing off the shed roof, it was that hard.  But I'm pleased to say that on inspection, none of the sheds showed any sign of leaking so the painting of the past couple of days seems to have paid off.

The carrot bed (aka the old water tank!) has plenty of germinating carrot seedlings:

It's always exciting to see these early signs of growth.

And we've planted up the first of our new raised beds.  We've saved some of the garlic corms we harvested earlier in the summer and planted them out this afternoon.

Splitting the corms

Ready for planting - the huge corm centre front is Elephant garlic

There's so much to do in the garden but we just tackle one job at a time - when the weather permits!  

Yesterday we celebrated a birthday (is she really 31 already?) and an anniversary; today we shared a meal at home with a dear friend.  Nothing fancy, just good food and good company, and a good time was had by all.

Start the week as we mean to go on

These are some of the mini cyclamen that I rescued last week; they make a lovely splash of colour on the back steps.

Well, we're off and running this week!  Menu plan written out, meters read and usage recorded, bread baked, and 'to do' list being worked through as we speak.  I think we were more stressed about the flat sale than we realised.  It really is a huge relief and consequently we are far more relaxed and able to get on with things again.

Monday is, tentatively, cleaning day.  Not necessarily set in stone, but having fretted about not being able to clean the house when we were in the midst of the refurb, I like the thought of a routine.  Dust, hoover, tidy-up - the whole house was done in an hour!  We don't have a huge amount of 'stuff' cluttering up every surface so that makes cleaning so much easier.  We've also learned to put away rather than leave things out - now we have found homes for almost everything that also becomes a doddle - and cleaning the house is not the chore it has been in the past.  Perhaps it's because I wear my new apron - thinking about it, that is probably the reason!  I'm becoming quite attached to my pinny.

Having got the inside of the house sorted out, we need to turn our attention to outside.  There is a lot of maintenance to do in the garden and the exterior of the property and we will need to do this on a regular basis.  This morning was set aside to check over the two small wooden sheds, both of which were in need of a bit of TLC.  I painted them with wood preservative which will help keep them watertight and N checked them over for gaps in the planking.  

As so often happens, one job led to another and before long he had completely dismantled one of the shed doors.  There was a problem and it needed to be sorted, and N spent half an hour working out a solution and finding odd bits of wood that would serve the purpose.  The door now fits properly.  A good mornings' work.