Scary Monsters!

No, they're not the scary monsters, cheeky!  That's Mum and Dad, who've been here for a few days.  We put them to work cleaning the kitchen floor.  We had lovely weather, so it was a good time to do wet stuff.  We borrowed a pressure washer and got a production-line going with Mum on the washer and the rest of us laying tiles out on pallets, turning them over, loading them into wheelbarrows then barrowing them down and stacking them outside the kitchen door.  It was certainly easier than scrubbing them by hand and made easier by having help.  So, we're now ready to lay them.

We spent some time this afternoon in the kitchen trying to decide on where our centre lines should be.  Nothing lines up, there are no right angles and none of the walls are straight so it's a bit difficult to decide.  The oak post in the middle of the room won though, so that will be the centre of the cross.  We also got the kitchen sink out of its box and balanced in in place on some work benches to decide where it should go.  We're going to sit it on brick pillars with wooden doors between - we saw similar in the cafe at Laura's monastry which we liked and thought we'd copy, so we marked out where that'll go.  We have a problem of lots of deep recesses in the kitchen which will be awkward to get to . . . so, lots of storage space for things that don't get used very often, but nowhere for the everyday things.  One such place will be next to the sink down the side of the inglenook.  Too big to waste, but awkward to use!  The access to it (under the worktop) will be quite narrow.  So we think we will invent some free-standing shelves on little wheels - three sets which will wheel into the opening and then push sideways into the awkward space.  The last one (ie the one that's easiest to get to) will hold the bins.  So, to get to the others you pull the bin trolley right out, pull the next one sideways and then towards you out of the opening and so on.  It's not ideal, but is the best we've come up with so far - work in progress I think. 

This morning we trawled around electrical and plumbers merchants getting prices for sockets, light switches, etc, etc, looking at light fittings, extractor fans, showers and so on.  Now need to decide where to get what and get on with buying stuff.  The electician is coming on 25 May to start 2nd fix and the plumber is booked for 6 June.  He did come on Tuesday to fit the bath and shower tray - bit frustrating as he didn't have a waste for the bath and the one Bob dashed into town to get wasn't right.  While Bob was out he got on with the shower tray, fixed all the little legs onto it, put it in place and put his spirit level on it and realised that it was bowed in every direction.  In effect there was a slight hump in the middle of the tray, so we would have ended up with a swampy moat around the edge!  Must have been a manufacturing problem because a cast resin tray wouldn't bow from poor storage.  Anyway we rang the plumbers merchant and they said they'd get another one for the next day, so the plumber picked it up and came back and fitted it as well as the bath yesterday.  So, at last we have a bath and we enjoyed relaxing in it this afternoon, lovely and deep - what luxury . . . . . shame there was no water in it!  Oh, we also ordered the floorboards for upstairs (should arrive on Saturday) and booked the electricity company to come and fit an Economy 7 meter (Friday, 13th!!!  Is that really a good idea?).  We need E7 for the underfloor heating which acts like a storage heater.  So, a busy day, but not really much to show for it.

Now to the scary monsters!  Just look at this  . . .

. . . . it's one of those May Bugs I told you about.  Somehow it must have got one of its feet stuck in the seal around the window and so was buzzing there for ages while we looked on horrified and took photos.  It kept buzzing really loudly trying to free itself and then it just sat quietly waving its antennae.  I felt quite sorry for it and couldn't just leave it there so, very bravely I thought, I got a ruler and opened the top of the window and gently pushed it along to free it - I guess it could have lost a foot, but it would certainly have died if it had stayed trapped.  All the time I was hoping it wasn't going to fly in through the window as soon as it was free.  Phew, it didn't - instead it went to get its friends and they carried on bombarding the window!   Yeargghhh - horiffying, but quite fascinating (when there's a pane of glass between!).

I'm so excited!!!



Newly decorated wall on the 'landing'
looking through to our bedroom

 So many things to be excited about . . . . . but, I have to admit, probably not that exciting for anyone else!

1.  I have been decorating - real decorating!  I know we've done the utility room and the bathroom, but they were plain, new walls.  In the last couple of days I have done the en-suite and the landing and they include old walls and ceilings with oak beams and purlins and it was so nice to see the way the new paint highlights the old, gnarly oak.  We do need to clean the oak up a bit to get rid of chalk and plaster marks, but it looks lovely already.

2.  Skimming phase one is coming on well - just a couple of panels in the kitchen ceiling, the long wall in the hall and a couple of little bits and pieces left to do.  We did the ceiling in the hall over the weekend.  I was dreading it, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought and looks fine.

3.  Forgot to tell you in my postcard from our 'olidays that we saw an adder on our walk.  It was sunbathing on the path and jittered away as we got close, but we had a good chance to watch it before it disappeared into the grass.

4.  Also forgot to tell you that one of the monks at Samye Ling let me bang the gong outside the temple for the evening service - what a priviledge.

5.  Tomorrow, the plumber is supposed to be coming to connect the wastes on the bath and the shower tray.  We moved the bath into the bathroom in readiness - now that is exciting!  Course, the plumber is a bit unreliable, so he may not turn up, but fingers crossed!

6.  The wren is sitting on the nest in the lounge.  We haven't seen them for a while and just this morning we had decided that they'd given up on that nest and were using a different one.  The next time Bob went in there the wren flew out right across his face!  When I went in a bit later I could see a little face looking out at me, but it didn't fly away and was still there later on.  We actually had a wren in the caravan this morning - must have flown in one of the open windows and Bob had to help it out.  Also had a chicken in the caravan who'd managed to get in through the lounge door and then flew out, over the wire mesh we'd put across the kitchen door to keep them out!  The woodpacker/nuthatch drama seems to have ended as a bit of a non-event - we haven't seen anyone on the beech tree for ages, but have heard/seen the greater spotteds across the lane in the woods.

7.  We were invited to join Bill, Maggie, three fairly grown-up children and a girlfriend from America for their Easter meal yesterday - delicious roast dinner eaten in the garden under a parasol - followed by an egg hunt.  Maggie and I hid over a hundred eggs of various sizes and then promptly forgot where we'd put the special bigger ones - think they found all but half a dozen little ones though, so not bad.  They'll be a bonus for whoever next does the gardening I think.  All good fun and lovely weather too.

8.  We have visitors imminent - Bob's dad (Arthur) and stepmum (Jan) are coming on Thursday afternoon.  They haven't been since last summer, before we'd even started putting up the oak-frame bit of the extension, so they should see a huge difference.  It'll be nice to show them around and have a chat.  Then mum and dad are coming for a few days from Sunday (staying in the local Travelodge) - a few changes since they were here too.

9.  Elvis laid her first real egg for about 10 days today - she had a few days of laying them, but forgetting the shells before we went away, then hasn't laid one for about a week, but managed one with a shell today!

10. Finally in my excitement list is that Carol (my sister) managed to get Bob a pair of Levi 501s for just £25 on her recent holiday in Florida, wow, Bob won't have to wear patched jeans anymore!

NOT on my excitement list is that the caravan is currently being bombarded by may bugs (or cockchafers - that name for them makes Bob squirm!).  They are huge, very solid and just fly constantly at the windows, banging quite relentlessly and loudly on them for about half an hour each evening from about 10 o'clock.  We have to make sure all the windows are closed by then because if they get inside they are horrible - really big and flappy/buzzy, a bit scary really!