We've had surgery today

Indeed, yes, we've had major surgery today - limbs amputated and everything.  You'll have guessed, I guess, that I mean tree rather than human surgery.  There's an overhead telephone cable runs down our little lane and there are rather a lot of branches either leaning on it or propping it up.  A while ago we pointed this out to the Quarry Manager (the quarry owns the land on that side of the lane), so he obviously took it on board and a team of three came this afternoon with their chipper and cherry-picker.  They have only made a start, but already the lane looks lighter - you can see the outside world down there!  They said we could have some of the timber so we went along and collected that up when they'd gone and there should be more when they come to do the next bit.  The lane looks a real mess now though.  Over the last week or two it had really dried up, but last night's torrential rain and their tyres with the addition of twigs, leaves and woodchips have made a real mess.  Not to worry though, the council roadsweeper'll be round I'm sure . . . . . not . . . . . I don't think we don't exist as far as they're concerned except to pay council tax!  Potholes get filled and lanes swept elsewhere and the snowplough clears other lanes, but not here - they actually left the piled-up snow across the entrance to our lane one year!



Bob doing the housework -
hoovering up the concrete dust before sealing
it with watered down PVA
(or cleaning it so the chickens can pooh on it!!!)



We've started the dreaded job of laying the kitchen floor - not actually as bad as feared, but still quite time-consuming.  I think most of the really worn tiles broke when we took them up.  The rest vary a fair bit, but we started with some of the thickest, used a thin mortar bed and so we can, hopefully, even them out with slightly thicker mortar.  Before we took the tiles up, I quite liked them.  By the time they'd been stacked outside for a winter, covered in mud and green, I'd gone off them a bit.  Even when we'd cleaned them and stacked them I was a bit dubious - they still looked quite grubby. 

A dry-run of laying some quarry tiles in the kitchen



But now that we've laid a section, I'm coming round to liking them again.  They certainly have character!  They are probably about 150 years old, so that's understandable.  They will definitely look right with the old bricks of the inglenook, the oak and the limewashed stone . . . . just quite different to the wipe-down lino I'm used to!!

We have also got all the limewashed areas up to the same stage.  Laura and I did a couple of coats on some bits a few weeks ago, so we had to get the rest up to the same stage - done.  Next is to have a go at colouring some limewash with the hope that we'll end up with a lovely cream colour.  We now have some yellow ochre, but I haven't a clue how much to add.  Really is a leap of faith because you can't tell what it'll look like until you've done it and given it a day to dry.  When you first put it on it'll look really bright yellow (as all you'll see is the pigment) until it starts to dry and the white of the lime starts to come through.  It'll be a bit nerve-wracking I think . . . . or quite exciting?  I like yellow anyway, so it can't be too bad and if it's too bright I'm guessing you could do a coat of plain limewash which should lighten it - oh, we have so much to learn!  You'll know it's been a disaster when I start telling you we've decided to plasterboard those walls!

Quck update on the bird-front.  The wrens are still sitting on the nest in the lounge.  They stay there when we are in and out doing stuff taking no notice of them, but if we stand in there talking to visitors they fly out and wait until we've gone to come back.  I was a bit worried that we may have scared them off while Mum and Dad were here as we didn't see them for the few days after, but this morning we spotted a little face looking out at us.  I would think that, if they haven't already, the eggs should hatch any day.  It must be a couple of weeks since they started sitting which is about the right incubation time.  I expect we'll see a flurry of activity with both adults constantly in and out very soon.  The blue tits in the quarry-sign pole are busy in and out, so I think they may have babies.  There are also a pair of blue-tits nesting in an outside wall of the house which we haven't re-pointed yet and maybe another pair in one of the top barn walls.  There's no sign of activity on the old beech tree, so I think both sorts of woodpecker and the nuthatches have scared each other off.  Chickens - Bonny was looking a bit forlorn again this afternoon and Bob has just got back from shutting them up for the night and says she was under the house with two of her shell-less eggs - no wonder she was feeling off-colour - course one of them may have been from last night and we just didn't notice it.  Hopefully she'll be feeling better now with that out of her system!



Our second bath in two days . . . . forgot the wine, tut!
Do you like the 'public toilets colour scheme?
The green's the moisture resistant plasterboard which has a chamfer on the edge
(filled with plaster to level it for tiling - the pink line), then the ordinary plasterboard
above.  I expect you'll be surprised to learn that we've decided not to keep
this colour scheme but to go for white tiles instead!