Furniture Maker to the Stars!

Well, I have to say that not much has happened here over the last few weeks which is why I haven't reported in for a while, that and probs with the blogger thingy not doing as it was told.

Well, not much has happened except . . . . Bob now has a new line of work and I think he enjoys it as much as I enjoy my job!  A while ago we went to the yard where we got the cast iron guttering for the cottage to get a couple of new brackets to repair the damage all that snow did in the Spring (yep, we still haven't got round to doing it and it'll soon be Winter again!).  Anyway, they stopped doing guttering a while ago to concentrate on the reclaimation side of things for selling down south which they've always dabbled in.  They get old theatre lights and polish them up, put them on a stand and sell them as standard lamps.  They had a massive old cast iron bandsaw which somehow or another they were going to turn into a table?!!!?  They were also doing a lot of things with old scaffold boards, cleaned up (a bit) and waxed - all very trendy apparently.  When we built our bookshelves from scaffold boards it was because it was free, we just didn't realise how 'on trend' we really are!  Anyway, we got chatting with the chap and I happened to mention that Bob makes furniture and he jumped straight onto that fact and asked if Bob could do a bit of machine work on these scaffold boards.  Originally it was just to cut a groove in the undercarriage to attach the top for some tables, then did he know where to get the brackets to attach the legs, then could he cut the legs, then could he glue up the tops . . . . . and so now he has an order to make 12 pub tables from scaff boards.  It is so different from what Bob really wants to do in so many ways.  They really have to just be knocked out as quickly and cheaply as possible for it to be worth doing, no fine finishing.  Six are now done with six more to do, but in the meantime he has an order for about 30 coat peg boards made from . . . . guess what . . . yep, scaffold boards.  That means hundreds of pegs to turn!  Next is mirrors with you've guessed what sort of frames.  Actually, since I typed the first half of this paragraph the peg board order has gone up to 100 and another order has come in for six benches (to be done by Monday teatime) for the Old Vic in London for use in a play with Vanessa Redgrave!  Furniture maker to the stars don'tya know . . . . trouble is, it's not likely to make them want to order lovely furniture from Bob is it?   Apparently, old scaffold boards are now getting scarce and they actually cost more than new ones - next someone will be in business distressing new boards to look as though they've been on a building site for 6 months.  I'm told that the Chinese are buying up everything they can get their hands on so I'm guessing that the market will soon be flooded with 'made in China' reclaimed scaffold furniture and that'll be the end for anything made in this country.  So anyway, that's keeping Bob busy at the moment and while it might not be exactly what he wants to do, it does provide a bit of money and he has to view it as his part-time job like my M&S one.

Elsewhere, this is what we've done:

We've cut slates to fit in the hole in that big old stone in
the patio and also stuck in a tiny horseshoe we found in one
of the barns - might actually be a donkey shoe, who knows?

We picked the rest of the blackcurrants and I made some
'ribena'.  This is it dripping through a jelly bag.  It is so thick
that you have to stir it in the glass to get it to mix with the water.

Here are the chickens in their 'naughty corner'.  They discovered
the blueberries and every time Bob caught them he put them up
here.  They did look quite indignant, but once three of them were in
the naughty corner, the good chicken felt left out and wanted to get
up there!

We have had to put a net over the blueberries now.  The day after we were telling Phil and Ann that we don't know what's happened to the blackbirds, they reappeared and set to with a vengence devouring any almost ripe blueberries.  The net does confuse the chickens because they can see the berries but can't get at them - ahh, how cruel!

Our very compact and bijou veg plot.  Fingers crossed,
everything is doing well so far.  We've had a few baby
carrots - actually very baby, very, very baby.  But how do
you know how big they are until you pull them up?  There are
tiny beans on the plants too and the tomatoes are turning red.
Last count, we had 25 scotch bonnet chillies on one plant!

Just look at this bizarre thing!  It is an artichoke flower and
is about a handspan across - very big and blousey!  We tried
eating the artichokes last year, but to be honest we couldn't
quite see what all the fuss is about - probably quite a sociable
starter with a group of friends all dipping the petal things in butter or
hollandaise and squirting the middle mush into mouths, but they are a real
fiddle and probably only as nice as whatever you're dipping them in!

On the social side, we went over to the far east last weekend.  We picked Ben up on Friday and went over to Mum and Dad's in Norfolk and had a nice time visiting a craft fair, picnicking by the sea, picking blueberries (on a slightly larger scale than we can from our two bushes) and then meeting up with Carol and Graham for Sunday lunch before dropping Ben off and coming home.  Then on Tuesday Bob's stepmum, Jan, brought her friend over for the day - that was quite a laugh all day and the sun shone which is always good.  Next Wednesday a couple of friends from my days working in a school (about 15 years ago now - blimey, is it really that long?!) are coming for lunch.  The last time they came we were still in the caravan and were in the middle of plastering, so they should see  few changes!  And then next weekend Mum and Dad are stopping for a few days on their way to the Lake District overlapping with Laura who is coming down from Scotland for about 10 days around her birthday.  We may also see Ben at some point during that time.  Busy, busy, busy!

We have been cat-sitting for our neighbours for the last few days.  They have two cats and a stray which they feed outside.  They said we could let them out of the house if we wanted and they'd come back if we rattled the little pot of treats they have.  Well, you can guess that that didn't go to plan!  They went out alright, but only one came back and we then had to try and keep that one in while we enticed the other one back.  It was all fun and games with the first one escaping out again and the reticent one coming back just as I'd shut the window and then running off again when I opened it all interspersed by their stray and two other cats coming in whenever we rattled the pot and tucking into the pet cat's dinner.  What a juggling act!  Well in the end one stayed in both nights and the other stayed out the whole time (hope it found something to eat somewhere!).  The neighbours are due back this evening and Bob greeted me in triumph when I got home from work because he had actually managed to get all the neighbourhood cats where they are supposed to be (including the reticent one back in the house).  Phew, I guess we could just keep quiet, but I expect we'll tell them what happened.