It rained heavily in the morning but then the afternoon turned out sunny and windy. Perfect drying weather if I had thought to run a wash. Once the rain stopped I was able to get out and use sealant to fill the gaps between the lead flashing on the porch roof and the uneven stone wall. As I climbed up and down the ladder I got rather wet squeezing past the wet winter flowering jasmine that had filled most of that corner. So out came the secateurs and I gave jasmine a good trim. Not in revenge but just as part of my general tidying up campaign. I stuck some of the cuttings in a bank that is bare in winter as they seem to take root very easily. While I was wielding the secateurs I cleared the steps leading down to the stream and part way along the bank.
The rest of the day was spent sorting out the big curtains before hanging them from the new curtain pole. Apart from changing the length they needed a good shake out and quite a few repairs to the lining. When I laid the first curtain on the paving (as you do) to pin the new hem Speedy thought I had put it there for him and went to sleep in the middle of it. I was only doing rough hand sewing but the size of the curtains and the thickness of the material made it a long job. The first curtain is now hanging up with a rustic rope tie-back but the second curtain was in worse condition. I've done all the repairs and pinned the hem ready to sew tomorrow. I worked outside at the big table to the background sound of children's riding lessons in the indoor school next door.
These almost black ringlet butterflies skip and dance around the garden and hardly ever stop, real flutterbys.
In case you were wondering.
Nearly forgot to mention my best idea of the day. Over the porch door was a metal spike, a sort of giant nail sticking out of the arch. Impossible to remove I could see that it would damage the curtain which now would be over it. My solution? I found an old tennis ball with our beach stuff, cut a slit in it and pushed it over the spike. No chance of damage to the curtain.
3 comments:
I love the entrance to your home. : )
We had a great day for hanging out the wash. Sunny and just a bit of a breeze.
Thank you for answering my question Ruta. Your very creative finding solutions to "little" problems. My brother-in-law used the tennis ball technique on chair legs so the floor wouldn't be marked. When watching British TV shows, primarily on our Public Broadcasting Station, I see that in many homes each room has a door. I figure this is to conserve heat. Are new homes similar with each room having a door? I have, unfortunately, found Japanese Beetles in my garden. I inspect several times a day and crush those that I find. Nasty, hungry little things. Does Britain have Japanese Beetles?
Here it is pretty standard for every room to have a door and it probably originated in the need to conserve heat. Central heating was unusual a couple of generations ago and many people in my parents time had unheated rooms. Open plan style living is either seen in flats (apartments) that are so small the individual rooms would be tiny or in very modern designer type homes. Quite often in older properties two rooms are made into one by having the whole wall taken out though in the 60's it was fashionable to put in an archway to join 2 rooms.
No Japanese beetles here, my worst garden pests are the slugs and snails that eat most things you try and grow from seed.
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