Green Man Day.

Look closely and you can see me reflected in this owl's eyes.

Yesterday was St Swithin's Day and as it rained all morning folklore says we will have rain for the next 40 days. And yes it poured with rain this morning. I do hope we aren't in for another wet summer. The rain was especially unwelcome today as it was Green Man Day which is celebrated as a big street festival in Pilton. Peter went down early in the morning to help bring one of the gigs from the boat shed to Pilton High Street and everyone was setting up their stalls in the pouring rain. By the time we got there in the afternoon the rain had died away and it was quite hot in the sunny spells.

Green Man Day is always well attended and I saw many of our school children and their families.

Talking to potential new members for the gig club was thirsty work or so Peter assured me. With 2 pubs in the High Street , one of them having its own brewery there was no shortage of liquid refreshment. I left Peter to continue his arduous task and wandered up the High Street enjoying the atmosphere and listening to the music from the 3 stages.

The owl man was there again with his display of rescued birds of prey so I took the opportunity to take some decent shots of a buzzard. The wild birds, of which there are plenty around here, fly away the minute a camera is pointed in their direction.

The festivities include a procession and many of the weirdly dressed characters could be seen wandering around during the rest of the day.

Here an aquaintance of ours is talking to a couple of pirates.

Before going to the festival I had called in at the Barnstaple dump with some bags of plasterboard and old plaster. I was shocked to find that they now charge £2 a bag to get rid of plasterboard. Because I can't lift too much my bags were about 1/3 of a normal amount and anyway I objected on principle. There always used to be a charge for people ie builders bringing rubble etc in vans but we already pay a local for tax which includes services such as sewage drains which we don't have. So I left the dump and instead bought some heavier duty bin bags. I've now repacked the plaster waste into smaller amounts and will go to the Ilfracombe dump tomorrow and throw it all into the compactor instead. The whole system is ridiculous and will only encourage people to fly tip in quiet country laybys.

Now that Fred has finished plastering I will have to paint the kitchen walls as he only used the pink plaster. 18 years ago our builder used white plaster and we took that as an excuse not to paint the walls as it would have been white paint anyway. But first I need to do the ceiling, having most of the furniture out of the room makes it the perfect time even if I hadn't decided it was time to cover up some old water stains and sort out the crumbling surface in one corner. If only it was just a matter of picking up a brush and slapping on some paint. But first there was the flaking surface to be scraped off, then the whole (large) area to be washed with sugar soap followed by application of filler to the places where the swirly artex coating had fallen off. That's the stage I've got to now. Tomorrow I'll paint the stained places with special stain cover paint and then finally I can paint it all nice fresh white. I like wallpaper in decorating magazines and catalogues but when it comes to my own home which is always full of clutter I prefer plain painted walls, usually white. Before I can paint the kitchen walls I'll have to fill in the many chips and small holes that have resulted from having 3 boys growing up in the house.