Lashings of ginger beer

Once again, we haven't really done much house-wise because of family socialising.  Funny isn'r it, you go for months not seeing anyone and then we see just about everyone in a fortnight.  We went over to Peterborough after I finished work on the Sunday and stayed at Jan's (Bob's stepmum).  The Monday was Bob's Dad's birthday and so it seemed an appropriate time to sort out the rest of his ashes and they are now in the churchyard of the village where he spent the first 60 years of his life.  We took the opportunity of good weather to help Jan with lots of little jobs around the house and garden and we also caught up with my sister and her family. 

The day after we got back from Peterborough Ben and Lucy and Lucy came to stay for a few days on their way up to Scotland to see Laura.  The weather was absolutely fantastic and we spent most of the time pottering around outside.  They live in a flat and so really enjoyed the opportunity to be out in the sun having a barbeque and working on their tans in prep for a week in Tunisia next month.  Lucy even enjoyed doing some weeding - she can come again!

While they were here we went round to our Peregrine-spotting spot and were lucky enough to get a really good view of one of them.  It just sat posing on a jutting rock in the cliff-face while Ben took photos.  Ben was so pleased because it is a standing family joke that whenever he's around, the rare birds stay away.  We then tracked down the Greater Spotted Woodpecker nest in the woods across the lane and could watch the baby leaning out of the nest waiting for food.  Again, Ben took some photos but it was a little dark and with leaves in the way they may not be too clear.  If he sends me a copy of either I'll show them to you.

Look, we have our first rose . . . . well, we now have lots more, but this was the first one to open.  They are a bit obscured by the rabbit wire, but what can you do?  They are such a lovely colour and will look amazing in a few years when they've grown up the sides of the door.  We have also planted some tomatoes in a hanging basket.  Trouble is, the chickens got to one of the plants before I put them in the basket and did a bit of pruning so I'm not sure how well that one will do.

Ben and Lucy bought me a ginger beer plant - it's basically yeast and ginger and you mix them with warm water and then keep feeding it sugar and more ginger for a week before adding more water and sugar and bottling it.  We did that bit yesterday and we now have to wait a week before we can try it.  You can then re-use the sludge from the first lot to make another batch.  Should be interesting - it'll either be delicious or disgusting, but it's good fun trying these things.  We once had a go at making dandelion and burdock after seeing it on River Cottage . . . . it was like drinking river sludge!   Maybe we should try that one again sometime because Hugh FW certainly didn't think it was like river water.

Yesterday was a momentous occasion in Oswestry as the Olympic torch came through.  We decided we ought to go along and have a look and were amazed at the crowds, never seen so many people in Oswestry.  As we walked down the alley to the main street the crowd started cheering - didn't realise they'd be so glad to see us!  We actually thought we had missed the torch, but needn't have worried this was just preparatory cheering.  What they don't show you on TV is all the flotsam and jetsam that goes along the street before the torch itself - endless minibuses, coaches, police bikes, people jumping around blowing whistles and trying to get the crowd worked up into a frenzy.  There was about 10 minutes of that before the torch itself and to my mind it spoiled it a little  not quite so poignant as a lone runner carrying the flame and hopes of our nation through our streets.  Still, I'm gald we went and it did raise a bit of patriotism in us.  It also worked well for us as we had to post a parcel and managed to sprint for the Post Office as soon as the torch went past and get there while it was empty and before all the people wanting car tax got there!

Yesterday was also quite exciting as Bob got a new toy. We went to look at chainsaws and unexpectedly bought one!  It is more powerful and has a bigger blade than the one I broke last week.  We had debated whether to get the parts and repair the other one and get a new chain and bar for it, but it does struggle with anything too meaty and we eventually decided that we'd be better to put that money towards a bigger one that should last us.  This huge beech trunk has been lying around since before we moved here, but we haven't been able to do more than chip bits off it.  Bob tried the new saw on it though and it went through like butter.  It is probably past being much good for furniture, but there's plenty of firewood there and we may get a chopping board or two out of it.

OK, once again it's time to go to work and I need to get changed.  The stairs are at the stage where I'll have to go up the first few stairs then swing round onto the ladder for the last bit and then do the opposite coming down again - makes life interesting.  Bob's getting a bit fed-up with these stairs I think as they're taking much longer that he thought they would.  It'll all be worth it in the end though as they do look lovely.



A tale of two potters

We've had our holidays and had a good time in both places.  On Friday Mum and Dad nipped up to Samye Ling from the Lake District to see Laura and we met them all in Moffat which is a really nice little town.  The weather really was horrid so we had a rather long lunch in one of the hotels finished off by rather large but delicious local icecream - yum!  We then dashed from shop to shop including a brilliant old-fashioned sweet shop.  You know, the sort where everyone is looking at the jars saying 'Oooh look, do you remember sweet peanuts/cherry lips/sweet baccy', etc, etc. 

We also did a bit of impulse buying (past birthday/christmas money) in the form of a very quirky clock.  It is apparently based on a 17th century design and really is quite hypnotic.  When it's wound up the little horizontal bar at the top swings round from side to side swinging the chain with a ball on the end.  That wraps itself round  one of the upright brass bars, unwinds itself, winds itself round the opposite way, unwinds again and then swings the horizontal bar round to the other side where it does it all over again.  Got it?  Simple really!  The clock itself only has one hand so it is good for telling you that it is lunch time, bedtime etc, but not that it's 7 minutes to 10, so that all fits in quite well with our lifestyle - we never really need to know the exact time.

Before we met the others, Bob and I went into a nice looking pottery shop.  Laura had said that the owner has banned anyone from Samye Ling from going in (he is a born again christian I think), but that really didn't prepare us for the experience!  The potter started off telling us about his former life as an opera singer (quite interesting), then went on to the tragedy of his wife's death and then his daughter's death (very sad and you can't interupt and walk out when someone's telling you all this) gradually, and without drawing breath, he moved onto finding The Lord, etc, etc.  He ended up being quite forceful in his view that we must be saved.  We were there for nearly half an hour.  Trouble is we were just too polite, but by the end I was really getting quite cross at being 'trapped' in that way.  Thinking back, we should just have said early on that we had only come in to look at mugs and jugs, not for a lecture and walked out.  We finally did escape though and I felt quite drained at the experience!  Luckily, our faith in potters was restored later in our holiday when we visited a Lake District pottery with a lovely lady potter who chattered away about normal things and where we bought two stoneware mugs and a jug.

At Samye Ling, we did get to do some painting.  Saturday's weather was reasonably good so Laura and I got to paint a silver dragon which is climbing into the pond in which the statue we were supposed to paint sits.  Bob and the tree planting party got on really well and planted about 600 trees!  That is all the trees they have for this year's planting so Claire, who is in charge of the gardening, is going to have to think of something else for the people booked onto the next two tree-planting weekends to do!

In the Lake District, we were again quite lucky with the weather.  We did a reasonably long walk (by our standards) and the weather was fine until we got back to the car when it tipped down and we had a hail storm!  Good timing.  The same happened on Tuesday when we walked up to the Osprey viewing point and, once again, it poured down as we got back to the car.

When we got back on Wednesday lunchtime, we unpacked the car and Bob plonked the bags down in the hall.  There was a very nasty sound and further investigation revealed that every piece of pottery we'd bought was broken into several pieces!  What a real shame . . . . Bob was not very pleased with himself to say the least!  Oh well, these things happen.  In the afternoon we went wood gathering and I broke the chainsaw!  So, we're evens now!

The next few stairs are nearly done.  We can't leave the next step in because then you can't get the ladder in, but it is cut and fits.  After this is the winders  which could be more complicated!

Oooh, just seen the time and I need to get ready to go to work!  Suppose sometimes we do actually need to know the time!                     

Stairs progress report

Just look at that!  The first stairs are in and I've actually been up them!  These ones are screwed down onto some blocks of wood Bob incorporated when he was building the steps.  In a few weeks, once the wood has acclimatised itself to the surroundings, we can tighten the screws and then plug the holes to cover the screw heads.  We're going to use bog oak which is almost black so contrasts the pale ash of the step.  You either make the plugs out of the same wood, line the grain up and try to hide the plugs or you make a feature of them which is what we decided to do (so much easier).

Now, here's where it all gets tricky - how do you suspend/support the ends of the steps which turn a corner and so have no wall to be attached to?  This chunky oak bracket is our solution.  We got the local blacksmith to make some chunky brackets to hang the chunky oak bracket from.  They are bolted to a joist behind the old beam you see in the picture.  Again you have to decide whether to try and hide the fixings or make a feature of them - I think these metal brackets actually look pretty good.  Just hope the joist is man enough for all this!  At the moment this all looks a bit odd because there is just this chunk of oak hanging down in the middle of nowhere with no obvious purpose in life.  Once the stairs are attached there'll be a reason for it and so it should look better.

 I finished tiling round the fireplace.  We realised that the old tiles were 6" and the new ones are 5" - oops!  5" is a really silly size as nearly everwhere sells standard 4" or 6", but Fired Earth obviously think its funny to trip people up like this!  We made up the difference with some tiny square slate tiles which actually looks fine.  We have them as a splashback behind the sink in the bathroom and also around the sink and on the window ledge in the ensuite.  They are the same (just a different shape) as the tiles on the hall and bathroom floor too, so Country Living Magazine would say they provide continuity and flow throughout the house . . . . like we planned it!! 

Well, we're off on our holidays again tomorrow.  First we are going to Scotland to see Laura at the Buddhist monastry.  I was supposed to be on a painting party with her re-painting one of the outside Buddha statues which would have been quite good fun.  In preparation for this weekend they had rubbed down the old paint, sealed it and put an acrylic base on ready to take the fresh colours.  Trouble is, the frost got to it and 'blew' all the base coat taking bits of the old paint with it.  So they are now having to strip it all back again and start over.  In some places it is back to bare concrete and so they will have to wait for that to dry out.  Oh, if only someone had thought to wrap it up to stop the frost getting to it.  Bob is booked on the tree-planting work party (they have about 2,000 deciduous trees to plant which I think is part of the programme to replace the pine trees that were planted in their millions, but have now been cut down).  So, I think I might be doing tree planting too.  On Sunday afternoon we are joining Mum and Dad who are on holiday in the Lake District for a couple of days.  I'm not holding out much hope for the weather in either place, so any dry or sun we get will be a bonus.  Last time we were in Scotland (April last year) we got sunburnt . . . . don't think there's much chance of that this time do you?

I have to report that my triangulation problems are still ongoing (Bob's are sorted).  On Wednesday Jan, Bob's stepmum, said she was coming to stay on Thursday.  So I thought I'd better try and get the blind finished in that room.  I didn't get around to looking at it until after lunch on Thursday, so the pressure was on a little.  I managed to alter the angle of the top to match the window better and then sewed the velcro on to attach it to the batten on the wall (you get velcro which is stick-on on one side and sew on on the other).  Trouble is, because I was sewing diagonally across the material, it stretched quite a bit and the top edge was almost frilly!  We tried putting up, but it just looked such a mess.  So, it got shoved in a carrier bag and the piece of cardboard came out again to cover the window.  On the positive side, the mechanics of the blind worked which is good, I just need to start again with the material, measure it properly and iron something onto the top to stiffen it while I sew on the velcro.


We had a good time with Jan.  It was the first time she had visited since Bob's Dad died and I think she was worried about how she'd feel because Arthur would have loved to come and stay (and I really wish we'd got far enough for him to do that).  As it was she was fine and we had a good laugh looking through old photos, ate too much and drank plenty.  In a way, Arthur did come to stay too.  He wanted some of his ashes to go in our wood among the wild flowers and so we sorted that out on Friday morning and he is now resting at the base of a cherry tree covered in wood sorrel and wild strawberries and we planted some bluebells and a cowslip nearby.  The birds were singing their little hearts out while we were doing all that and we all felt happy that he'd be happy with what we'd done.

I have now painted the panelling in the end bedroom and it's looking quite bright and cheery in there now.  This will have a top made from oak cut to fit the wiggles and dips of the stones in the walls which should look really good.  There will be a double bed in here with the headboard against this panelling so the white sockets won't show!



I have had quite a varied day today.  I started off by making some ginger cake and then while that was cooking I ripped out the old tiles surrounding the little fireplace in the kitchen.  They were horrible marroon tiles - you can see the only one to come out whole in the corner of the picture.  I wasn't at all sad that I had to smash them to get them out!  We have some cream tiles to replace them - some of them have hand-drawn chicken pictures on them, just line drawings in a tasteful slatey sort of colour.  I can't wait to put them in, I think it'll just look so different.  But I have to wait because first I had to make good the sides where they'll go, which I have done with lime mortar.  Once that's gone off I'll be able to put the tiles in then Bob'll cobble together some wooden bits to replace the iron that has rusted away and we can paint that black to blend in.  We're deliberating what to use the space for - wine rack or cookery book case are favourites at the moment.  Either way the back will be blocked off with more black wood.  Without it really being our intention, we realised the other day that we have not actually done all that much to this cottage that couldn't be removed to put it back to its original state.  Even the extension could be taken away.  Can't really imagine that anyone would want to put it back to how it used to be, but it feels right to be working with it rather than knocking it all about too much.

Anyway, back to my varied day.  Once the ginger cake was out of the oven I made some seeded soda bread for lunch - very tasty with homemade chutney and cheese (not homemade cheese, silly, I haven't tried that yet!).  Then I translocated some little wild plants from the woods into some gaps in the steps Bob built the other week.  I pointed them with lime mortar yesterday (making the most of a rare bit of sunshine!).  At the moment the plants look a bit deliberate, but hopefully they'll make themselves at home and sprawl a bit.  Wild strawberry, wood sorrel, violet and some sort of coppery leaved sorrel thing that has little yellow flowers should look OK and as they grow everywhere round here I assume the rabbits aren't bothered about them.

Bob has finished tiling the kitchen floor!  We had to leave the last few in the stairs corner until the oakwork for the stairs was in, but we shared yesterday's batch of mortar and Bob got this done.  Today he had to force himself to spend some time in the caravan - yuk!!!  That is where the Ash for the stairs themselves is stored so he was measuring up and working out what needs cutting out of what for that.  There will, I'm sure, come a point where the stairs will be at a point where the ladder won't go in, but we won't actually be able to go up the stairs . . . . mmmmm?  Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!  Talking of ladders, it did make me laugh at work the other day when the Health and Safety chap asked me if I'd done my ladder training.  All we use is a one step step ladder just so you can check dates on the stuff on the top shelves - it raises you about 8" off the floor.  He did see the funny side when I told him about slating a roof, standing astride the ridge to do something to the chimney and going to bed up a ladder.  Anyway, I'm now ladder-competant!

We're off in a minute to see if we can see the Peregrines that we spotted on a cliff a couple of miles away.  We've seen them twice in the same place and are trying to find out if that is a regular spot so that Ben can take some photos with his good camera when he comes in a couple of weeks.  So, better grab some tea first.

Triangulation problems

Oh, don't talk to me about triangles - they've been causing us major headaches in one way or another.  On Sunday I decided to finally make the blind for the triangle window in the oak room.  This has taken an awful lot of thinking about, we even spent a whole morning with Dad a few months ago brainstorming solutions to the problem of curtains/blinds for a triangle-shaped window with a sloping roof above.  We went through all sorts of wacky ideas.  We finally decided on a roman blind which opens with a sort of fan action.  This, of course, means that you have to pull the strings different amounts to make the blind pull up different amounts at each side.  For now we will just have two separate strings and you do just that - pull them different amounts.  Eventually though and when Bob had his lathe set up, we will conjur up a system where each string winds round a different size wheel.  You turn both wheels together, but the different sizes compensate for the different lenghts of string.  Anyway, I measured up each side of the window and cut the material to fit (or so I thought).  I worked out how the stiffening struts fit to do the fan bit and where the strings need to be attached to each strut so the strings pull up properly.  Bob made a batten to attach it to and we held it in place only to find that I'd gone wrong somewhere (probably because I couldn't be bothered to get anything to stand on to measure the long side and so couldn't really see what I was doing properly).  The slope of the material doesn't match the slope of the window!  I think I'll be able to sort it though.

The other triangle problem related to the stairs.  Bob has attached all the triangles to the diagonal supports under the stairs and attached them to the wall.  He then spent an afternoon puzzling why the steps don't fit as we'd expected them to.  It seems he overcompensated (or undercompensated) when adding (or taking away) thicknesses of the wood of the stairs themselves.  So, there's nothing for it but to take them off the wall and cut all the triangle bits off and do them again.  Before we do that though, we need to go and buy some more wood.  Ho hum!

Oh, to add to our misery yesterday morning we broke one of our precious pices of glass that are to go into the draft holes!  We had them made by a local glass artist and they survived three years in the caravan falling off their perches, etc. But when we were attaching the batten for the triangle blind, one got knocked off and broke in half, unfortunately not cleanly so we can't really just glue it back together.  Oh, we were a bit miserable and cross at that point yesterday I can tell you!  So, an early cup of coffee and clear the heads was needed before we could get on and think about anything else.  After the dodgy start though, we got on and had a really good productive day.

On Monday before I went to work we quickly plasterboarded
and skimmed both sides of the new bit of wall in the kitchen

Then yesterday I tiled and painted it.  Not really sure if you're
supposed to do all that in 24 hours, but it all seems fine!

While I was doing that, Bob built two of the steps
that go through the wall for the bottom of the stairs.
It just looks so much more solid now.  He's going
to do the bottom one today (if it ever stops raining
long enough to get the cement mixer out!).  Oh, those are
the offending triangle bit which have got to come off!

I got the end bedroom decorated over the last few days
which I really enjoyed doing (good job because Bob
doesn't really like decorating).  We're not sure the colour
is quite as we remember it, but we like it anyway
which is the main thing.

and here it is done, with the shades on the light and the
black window frames re-touched.  You can't see it on this picture,
but the glass shades have little bubbles in them which makes
a lovely soft pattern on the walls when the light's on.  Aahh, can
you see poor Bob mixing mortar in the rain!

Last night we went to a film-showing at the neighbouring farm all about becoming less dependent on oil and promoting local.  That all sounds a bit boring doesn't it, but it was actually quite interesting and positive - all about doing things ourselves and in our communities instead of relying on big Govt initiatives.  There was beer from down the road and bacon butties made with their own bacon and bread made on the premises - yum, yummy, yum yum!  On Monday evening I had to go to an M&S team brief on plans for the year ahead - oh, what a contrast, it was all about money, money, money.  Tonight we have a talk on ducks and geese at smallholders.  Then on Thursday Jan (Bob's step-mum) may be coming to stay - busy, busy, busy.

Friday was Bob's birthday and we had a lovely day doing not very much.  Lie-in, breakfast in bed, lunch at a canal-side pub and then a walk along the towpath, lazy afternoon then fillet steak and good wine by candlelight.  A nice break.

Morning!

Morning!  I'm back from my sickbed, thank goodness.  I had a fortnight of feeling absolutely rubbish - mainly a sore throat and cough and then of course no sleep because coughs always get so much worse at night, why is that?  I had to have Easter Saturday off work because I got conjunctivitus too.  Luckily the shop was closed on Easter Sunday and I only had to do 4 hours on the Monday and then nothing until Thursday, so it gave me a bit of time to recover.  I still have a bit of a throat, but it's on its way out.  Oh, a chunk fell off a back tooth on Easter Monday as well to add to my misery!

So, I haven't been doing much in the way of 'housework' (as in the building type not the dusting type, mind you, I haven't done much of that either!).  I did do major freezer-filling cooking though - 8 x chilli, 12 x chicken pie, 6 x sausage and mushroom plait, 1 x pastry flan case, so time wasn't wasted.  It's such a good feeling to have a freezer full of homemade 'ready meals'.

Bob has been doing major housework though . . . . . . wait for it  . . . . . . he's started the STAIRS!!!!!!!!!  First is the oakwork - a sole plate (on the floor) with the newel post coming up off it and a post next to the wall which is really only decorative.  The bit between the oak posts will be plasterboarded and on the cooker side there will be tiles like the wall behind the cooker.  The work surface will go around the cooker (not the front of course) and will come this way a bit to make a useful little surface.  Where Bob is will be an understairs cupboard (so useful for hiding junk) with a door on a slight diagonal to the edge of the fireplace.  It will only be half-height because above that the stairs will turn to meet the landing.  Not quite sure what will happen with the underneath of the stairs there - I think we will finish them as though we'll see them and then we have the option to leave them visible or hide them.  Can't plan this bit ahead, it'll be one of our 'decide when we get there' bits.



So now when we go up the ladder there is a post sticking

up in the middle of the bit where you get off, just to make

things more interesting! We've got used to that now though

and it doesn't really cause a problem.

Those flippin' rabbits have been at it again!  We thought the roses we planted by the kitchen door would be safe because they were covered in thorns and have actually been sat there in pots since October without being touched.  But within a couple of days of being planted they'd been 'rabbitted'.  So now they look lovely with emergency rabbit-proofing in place.  So, we now have two jointed rabbits in the freezer!


At long last M&S have made a decision about jobs and have offered me a permanent post.  That is good news and actually quite a relief, but I couldn't help thinking it sounded a bit depressing - a permanent fixture, part of the furniture, I'll be there for the rest of my life!  That said, I'm hoping that the things that wind me up about it were all related to being temporary, the way they dealt with that and the uncertainty it caused and that now I'm permanent everything will be lovely.  I'm contracted to do 22.5 hours a week over three days with a strong possibility of extra shifts if I want them and I'll get every other Sunday off.  I did try to get one whole weekend a month off instead, but they wouldn't go for that.  So, I'm going to think positive and get on with that and enjoy getting on with house things on my four days off a week.

Just had to go out in the pouring rain as Bob spotted a rat going into the lean-to.  That's the very first rat we've seen since we've been here which is absolutely amazing I think.  It hid behind the tumble dryer and Bob tried to get the air rifle to it, but it scurried off too quickly.  So, we've blocked up all the holes round the door and checked the whole of the lean-to.  No sign that it's been in there much which is good.  Hopefully we won't see it again, but maybe we'll get a bait trap just in case. 

Right, I've got to get going.  I'm doing decorating today which is really exciting.  I'm going to start on the end bedroom and it's actually going to be a colour instead of the cream we've used everywhere else.  Our local decorators merchants managed to track down the recipe for and mix a colour we used to have in our bedroom at our old house and which has been discontinued - Natural Saffron.  Ooooo, so exciting, I'm itching to get going so that's all for now.  Bye.

Just look at what we woke up to this morning . .

Just look at what we woke up to this morning . . . . . .

         . . . . . . . after 25 degrees last week, this is a bit of a change!  It carried on snowing quite heavily all morning before it turned to slushy rain.  This wasn't nice fluffy white snow, it was wet, cold, horrible snow.  I think it's supposed to be quite cold tonight too, so it'll be ice tomorrow.  It's a real shame because all the blossom has just come out on the trees and bushes and this could well do for it.  We have a lot of bushes that were cut down to the ground before we moved here which we think are damsons, but they have only just got big enough to have blossom and, therefore, fruit.  They were covered, so we thought we'd know for sure what they are before long, but maybe we'll have to wait until next year now.  Our bit of woodland is also carpetted with violets, primroses and cowslips with wood anemones and sorrel coming through, just lovely.  They should be alright I think as they are sheltered by the trees.

We got our new energy certificate and the new scores on it, taking into account the solar panels, are 100% of this building's potential - pretty good, eh?  I'm actually not too sure what the potential score really means, because we could, obviously, improve our score by installing photovoltaic panels which would mean we exceed the potential . . . should that be possible?