Wet.

Light rain has been falling steadily for most of the day. With worse conditions forecast for tomorrow I went up and checked the dam after the postman had made his delivery. The cats wisely settled in around the rayburn, Speedy taking advantage of my work gloves and sitting himself right on top of the hot surface.

I had a busy morning in town. First stop was to the doctors' for the drop in 'flu jab clinic. It's supposed to be for the over 65s but they gave me one last year. I'm prone to chesty coughs in the winter and who wants 'flu anyway. Rather safe than sorry is my motto. When I got there the queue stretched through the waiting room and out the front door. Luckily they had lots of people there to shepherd us elderly folk in the right direction. The system worked well and it took only a few minutes before I was in the room. One nurse took my name while the other poked me in the arm and I was out in about 30 seconds. Very efficient. 

Next stop was to the nearby garden centre where I bought this little succulent. I have a weakness for plants with grey foliage and love the sculptural qualities of succulents.

From there I drove back into town and dropped off more stuff at a charity shop before heading off to the music shop. There I bought myself a digital piano, 4 days without a piano was as long as I could last. I chose the most basic one that had the same sound and octave range as a traditional piano. The one thing I'd been concerned about was not having a sustain pedal. I'm very indulgent and like to play loudly with too much use of the sustain pedal, I'm only playing for my own enjoyment anyway. However the digital piano comes with a foot pedal that you plug in so I can continue to play in own style. I was chatting away to the shop owner(?) about moving house and when he saw that I had some boxes in the back of the car that I'd picked up at the garden centre he brought me out another large, strong box.

At home I packed another 3 boxes of books and just about cleared the shelves over my desk. Peter sorted out yet more books that can go on my next charity shop run. Now for an evening of Strictly, that is if Peter can stay awake for the whole 2 hours. 

Showers.

I was woken this morning by the sound of heavy rain. With the memory of a weather forecast mentioning flooding (which was actually for Sunday) I thought I had better get up and put the dam back in place. It was still dark, this was before 6.00, as I donned waterproofs, grabbed a torch and went out to put up the dam. That done I went back to bed but wasn't that sleepy any more so I got up, put my exercise mat where I could plug in my radio headphones and got my first set of exercises over and done with. Then I was even more awake and headed off for coffee at my PC. By that time the rain had cleared but we had a few showers during the day. I've been trying to get more out of my exercises including some high intensity work on the exercise bike which is supposed to be good for the heart and physiology in general. The BBC site suggested 10 sets of 1 minute flat out followed by 1 minute at a gentle pace done 3 times a week. I decided to begin with 5 sets every other day as part of my 30 mins/10K daily bike work. Sadly this is a bit too much for my knee so I'm just going to do 3 sets. I enjoy watching the tv as I pedal but for the hard minute I have to pause the programme  while I puff and pant with my head down.

The rest of my day has been spent packing. I'm concentrating on the stuff that will go into storage and right now there are two open boxes containing my many LOTR books and other items in the sitting room looking very messy. We have a number of very strong and large computer printer boxes we kept for this very purpose but if they were filled to the top with books they'd be too heavy. I've been putting in lighter things such as throws or towels in to use up the space but I need to sort out those first and air some of them as well. 

We had a few bursts of sun during the day. I tried to catch the sun for my photos but the first things I saw as I walked through the door were two enormous slugs stretched out in the hanging baskets eating the lobelia flowers. On went the rubber gloves and the slugs went for a swim down to the lake.

Sunny.

The morning mists were soon burnt away leaving a pleasantly sunny day. Nice enough to put a couple of crocheted throws out to air on the line. They've been stored in a wooden chest and were a bit musty. 

The recycling people came and collected most of the solid wood furniture which was a relief. They supply furniture to low income families and it's nice to think that the furniture was going to be of use. They didn't take the pine bed frame but instead they took the mattress as it was clean and had its safety label. I was glad they took the mattress firstly because it was a good memory foam one and secondly it would have been difficult to get into the car to take to the dump. Once they had left I loaded up the bed frame into my little car. It was a real struggle to get the large headboard in. I had to move both of the front seats as far forward as they would go and then lean the backs forward too. I had hardly any room to sit and it felt as if my knees were up by my ears. Changing gear wasn't easy either with some long wood coming up between the seats. I found that contrary to my fears I was able to slow down suddenly when a squirrel decided to run across the road in front of me. It was not the easiest of journeys and by the time I got to the dump my right leg was starting to ache. I left the bed next to the container with a note saying it was complete and only needed one piece replaced.

For once the dump  recycling centre was fairly empty and it didn't take long for me to unload the bed and other stuff I'd filled the car with. Afterwards I made a quick stop at Tesco's to pick up some shopping. Parked near me was the rustiest car I've ever seen and it was a BMW. Or maybe that was why somebody had decided to restore it. 

I had a look for the abandoned car when I went out. The car has gone but I could see the marks where it had gone off the road and into the hedge. Luckily the ditch there was wide and muddy which would have slowed the car down before it hit the hedge.

As it was dry in the afternoon I made a start on potting up plants to take to the new house. I'd bought 3 bags of compost the other day and so far have used up one. I won't be able to take as many plants as I would like but most of them can be split and repotted in Spring. The plan is to keep them in pots until we make the move after this one.

Some of the flowers from Monday's bouquet.

Wet.

The day began dry but with rain forecast and indeed arriving later in the day the first job of the morning was to drive my car up the hill and leave it by the field. This is because another van from a local charity is coming tomorrow, hopefully to take away the rest of our spare furniture. They said their van is smaller than the hospice's van which did manage to turn around in our yard but it would be somewhat awkward to have to go next door and ask for yet another tow out of our place. 

I took the opportunity to go right up to the road to collect the wooden crate I'm using for the recycling until they deliver a new plastic box. Tucked into the lid of the wheelie bin was a printed notice from the council. As our rubbish is collected by some men in a truck rather than a big dustcart which has a mechanism to tip in the contents of a wheelie bin they don't want the rubbish bags to be left in the wheelie bin. The alternatives they offer are; to place the rubbish bags next to the wheelie bin, leave the bags in standard size dustbins and if it is likely that the local wildlife will raid the bags then we should put an old blanket over the bags. That doesn't sound too helpful. Luckily they also suggest placing an upturned bucket in the wheelie bin so that the bags are nearer to the top. I think that's what I'll do.

While I was collecting the crate a car drew up. The couple in it told me that they had come across a car abandoned in the ditch just around the corner. They must have got out and checked because they said there wasn't anyone around but they were still going to report it to the police and wanted to know the exact location which I was able to give them. We've had a lot of traffic coming down our normally quiet road as the main road through Muddiford is closed for a couple of weeks while a fallen wall is repaired. It would be very easy for everyone to assume that somebody had already reported the car when in fact nobody had. A friend in the emergency services said they never mind if they get numerous calls about the same incident.

The next thing to do was to dismantle the pine double bed in one of the spare rooms. The centre bar is broken but only needs a replacement straight piece of wood for it to be fixed. I'll offer it to the people tomorrow and if they don't want it I'll take it down to the dump and leave it with all its fixings. 

Once the bed was dismantled I found this ring underneath. It could have been there for years. I sent the photo to friends and family who have slept in that room to see if anyone claims it.

For the rest of the day I've been sorting and packing. It was mostly books today some of which can be given away which is good. I've kept a few of my favourite children's books from when the boys were little and a few from my childhood too.

Dry.

The piano went yesterday evening but not without a few hair raising moments.  Tim, the guy having the piano, came down in a van and trailer with some strong friends. Unfortunately the chap driving the van had some difficulty reversing around the bend and felt that his van did not have enough power to get up our gravel track and around the bend with a piano on board. After much manly discussion Tim went next door and asked Paul if he wouldn't mind pulling the trailer up with his tractor. The next tense moment was, after wheeling the piano out via the conservatory, lifting the piano up onto the trailer. I couldn't bear to watch and had to go inside for a moment. From there it all went smoothly helped by proper wood battens being screwed in to stop the piano from sliding around. 

Today was bright and fairly sunny so I got some washing out on the line. Unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of a breeze to actually dry the washing.  I did sit outside and finish stitching a new sole on to the second slipper before going back in to wrap more pictures and fill another box.

I'm beginning to understand why selling your house is so stressful. We had a long document from our buyers' solicitors with 46 questions to answer. They're from a much less rural area so perhaps they're unused to old/new farmhouses. Even our solicitor said that it was an excessive amount of questions. Many of the questions refer to things we have no idea about ie certificates from work done five years before we moved in. We don't want to be taken to court over something we didn't really know but we also don't want to start making more problems, the old part is several hundred years old so it isn't going to be like a new built place. That's what they had the survey for and also why the price is what it is. 

Hot.

We've had a sunny day which at least when I was in town, felt distinctly hot. I was in town because a group of my ex-work colleagues invited me out to lunch at the Barnstaple Hotel. The whole business of my leaving work due to ill health had been handled badly at school and they wanted a chance to meet and say an unofficial goodbye. I've worked with some of these ladies for 17 years. We've had many laughs together and supported each other during difficult times. Not only did they take me out for lunch but they also presented me with flowers and chocolates. Most of them live or have connections in Pilton so we are bound to meet up again. 

After lunch they had to return to work and I went on into town. First stop was to donate the surfboard to one of the charity shops. It felt funny to be walking up the High Street with a large surfboard under my arm especially as I had sunglasses and flip-flops on. I got some smiles and a comment but it was all in a friendly manner. Then back to the car to deliver more stuff before going on to do some shopping. It was hot in town but as soon as I got out to the hills the breeze made it cooler. 

The chap is coming to collect the piano this evening so naturally I've been having a last piano session. I was almost tempted to stop by the music shop to buy the electric piano keyboard but just in case something goes awry I didn't. 

There were a lot of butterflies out in the garden when I had my walk around. I spotted these two comma butterflies sunning themselves on an apple tree. Somehow I don't think they were the apple thieves.

Wet.

It's been a warm but wet day. I went out to take photos during a lull in the rain and all around I could hear the dripping of water through the trees. The sound was magnified because many of the leaves have begun to dry out and as I look through the window I can see areas of yellow and orange amongst the green tree foliage. My red acer is a joy to see and the rain just made the leaves glisten even more. One blast of strong winds and all those leaves will be decorating the paving rather than the tree. 

Speedy will lose his favourite sleeping spot tomorrow as that box and a lot more will be going to the Oxfam shop tomorrow.

I also brought down Peter's old style Windjammer surfboard which will be going to a different charity shop. That is if I can fit it in my car. Romas' short board and assorted wetsuits will be going to the new house along with a couple of good  body boards as I expect our youngsters will still want to surf when they come down to stay. I might even be tempted into the water as my back strengthens. I enjoy body boarding but never got the hang of proper surfing and certainly wouldn't want to risk getting wiped out from a standing position. At least with a body board you just come to a halt lying on the board.

After packing up stuff to go tomorrow I carried on with packing more of the pictures from our walls. It is sad to see the place become less like a home and more like just a place but on the other hand it will be less of a wrench when we do go.

Warm.

With warm south-westerly winds and hardly a cloud in the sky this was far too nice a day to be spent indoors. 

Underfoot everything was very wet giving little incentive to do any gardening should I be so inclined. Instead, once the usual routine work had been done and some washing found to put in the machine I settled down at the garden table to make a start on replacing the soles on my winter sheepskin slipper/boots. This was not out of thriftiness but simply because so far I've been unable to find a replacement pair. With my large and extra wide feet I would have to try on before buying which rules out the internet so I shall just have to keep on looking.   

Speedy is a very sociable cat and no sooner had I gone to get my camera than he was there to keep me company. We were both enjoying the sun, though by this time there was some high cloud making it less warm but still nice. From next door I could hear the sounds of youngsters enjoying a large bouncy castle (I think it was a birthday party). Then I could hear a group of very excited teenagers up at the workshops and much revving of an engine. I was hoping it was only Jack's trail bike and not some more potentially lethal bit of equipment they were playing with. Before I could get too concerned they found something else to do. A little while later I heard some youngsters up in the rough ground near the scree garden. It's not our land so I wasn't worried but then I heard the tinkling of broken glass and all went quiet. When I went up and checked the outbuilding I found a wet and muddy stone inside and broken glass from an old already broken door that had been leaning against the unfinished window opening. I wasn't too happy to say the least especially as the cats wander around up there and could have been injured by the shards of broken glass. Peter phoned our neighbour and not long after the boys came over. They started by saying it wasn't them but they would clean it up anyway. I went into full teacher mode and gave them a thorough telling off explaining that though I understood that things happen at times I was very cross that they hadn't come and owned up. I explained the possible consequences to the cats and by the time I had finished all they could do was to say sorry. Peter happened to be watching out of his study window and he said he had never seen such a dejected group of teenagers as they walked up the drive with their heads down. The pair of us simply could not stop laughing but the boys had to be told. 

After all that I only got one slipper done but I'm now wearing a pair of very cosy slipper socks that were a present last Christmas.  

Each evening we've been watching old episodes of Bake Off, sheer torture for somebody like me who loves cakes and desserts. Once we move and have a controllable oven both of us have plans for more ambitious baking. With cake on my mind I thought I would bake an apple cake this evening. I went up to collect some of the red apples from the tree to find only one half eaten apple wedged between two branches. I have a photo from less than a week ago showing the apples and I'm sure they were there even more recently. Was it a squirrel or could the jackdaws or rooks have taken them? They were too high up for the culprits to have been deer or even boys so it's a mystery. Instead I used apples from the other tree which are a different variety, smaller and more green.

Autumn Equinox.

Now the nights will be longer than the days making the sun even more precious. I find it comforting to be able to observe nature's rhythms though I'm also grateful for a warm home that gives protection from the elements when needed. 

This morning the spider hammock webs stood out as they glistened with sparkling drops of dew. The day itself started with bright sunshine soon turning to mostly gentle rain.

After saying I wouldn't do any more gardening I was back out this morning trying to locate an electrical junction box which used to lie in some rough ground. The cables leading in and out are armoured electrical cable but I thought it would be helpful to the new people if I pinpointed exactly where the box was. I'm not even sure if our memories of the box are from before or after the bore hole was installed 20 years ago. I'm assuming that the pump in the bore hole gets its power from that cable so maybe it got buried to a safer depth at that time. I scraped off the turf in the area I thought it might be and even tried to use the metal and electrical detector but found no wires or junction box. I shall just mark out the whole of that area on a map of the garden on which I plan to show as much of the underground stuff as I can. 

All my life I've been an untidy person who aspires to be tidy. Having had the place in what I consider to be a quite tidy state for the last 18 months I now find that I'm uncomfortable with piles of 'stuff' in the process of being sorted. Have I become a genuine tidy person? Probably not. I've never liked any sort of change and it's hard enough to see bare spaces where furniture has already gone not to mention the utter quiet now Squeaky's not around in the evenings. I don't trust the other 2 cats not to bring in their prey for us to find in the morning but once we move they'll have a cat flap out into the garden. I suspect that with his lack of jumping ability Patch may not be able to get over the garden walls though no doubt Speedy will be out and about once I allow them out. 

This afternoon while rain fell steadily I packed up more of the extra kitchen stuff that will go into storage. Naturally the bone china tea set and the blue glass collection all had to be washed first before being carefully cocooned in bubble wrap. Packing away the books will be a lot quicker though I have to wait for Peter to make one more sort out of books to go to the charity shop.

Memories.

After a wet morning the day became bright and sunny. Perfect conditions for working outside but I'm not motivated to garden for somebody else and probably hurt my back at the same time.

I woke up very early, around 5.30 and because a solution to a problem was going through my head I ended up getting up and drinking coffee while checking things out on the internet. The particular problem was - What to do with our large but old chest freezer? It won't fit in the new house and our neighbours don't want it. Then I remembered that the bigger electrical stores have a 'take away' service when you buy large electrical items. I couldn't find anywhere that did it for free but a charge of £20 is not that much. As we will be in town and only a short bike or car ride away from the supermarket an upright fridge/freezer will be sufficient. First we have to eat our way through the freezer as it needs to be empty and dry before it can be removed.

The man from the removal company came around to give us a price for the removal. We may only use them for the house to house part of the move as hopefully Peter is organising taking the stuff to the storage place but the removal company will give us a price for that just in case. You can get them to do the whole job including packing stuff into boxes, taking down curtains etc. but I think we can manage that especially as we have time to do it. Today I continued packing away things for storage and putting more ceramic and glass ware in the charity shop pile.

I've now started on the contents of a large cupboard in the sitting room. Some things like my many photo albums which are so precious to me will not be going into storage just in case something dreadful happens. While I was going through the cupboard I came across some photos from the boys' primary school from 1994 and 1995. Note, they are not class photos but the whole school.  They come with all the names printed underneath and I spotted our surveyor's daughters in the photos. My other trip down memory lane was when I went through our record collection. (We do have a turntable to digitise them but most of them are a bit on the scratchy side.) My contribution to the collection included a lot of classical music, Dylan, Donovan, Leonard Cohen and The Incredible String Band, (Far Out!) to name a few while from Peter came Rock, Blues and Country and from both of us were bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Elton John and Wings so we have a few doubles of their albums. 

Clearing out the kitchen cupboard I came across this photo of Squeaky when she first came, I think she was about 12 weeks old. Below is the spot where she is now sleeping. I gathered moss from around the garden to grow over the mound and today the sun was shining just on that spot.

On FB I get posts from a local 'For Sale' group and this morning up pops an electric piano. Not only was it around the same price as the keyboard pianos I'm looking at but the seller was someone I know personally. However because it stands on solid legs it takes up the same amount of space as a real piano. I need something I can put on the kitchen table to play as it's the same height as my piano, and then put away when I'm not using it.

I'm trying to be very organised and every box is numbered and the contents written in a notebook. Better not lose the notebook! 

Wet.

The day was so bright and warm this morning I was planning to have some sitting out and reading in the sun time but quickly the sky became overcast. Then came the rain, lots of it making for a very wet day.

Packing seems to take so much longer than I imagined. Today I started on the contents of a large cupboard which held my 'good' china and glass. Some items only emerge once a year for Christmas and others have been sitting in the dark cupboard for 25 years. It was time to re-evaluate which things I really wanted to keep and which could be given away to the charity shop. A satisfying amount went in the 'to go' pile. My giant roll of bubble wrap came in handy for protecting the delicate glass and china. I've still got to go through the other side of that cupboard which mainly contains vases and candles. Only once, more than 20 years ago, did we have a power cut that lasted more than an hour but you know how I like to be prepared. (Oh the amount of food I put away when we were all scared the world would grind to a halt because of the millennium bug.)

Sunny.

I thought the weather men had got it wrong again when they forecast a sunny day and out of the window were dark clouds but it turned out they were right and the day brightened up as the hours went by.

This morning the Hospice shop people came in their large van which took a lot of manoeuvring to turn around in the yard. Disappointingly they didn't take all the chests of drawers, the wardrobe or the cupboard as they said that people coming into the shop preferred more modern items.  They did take a couple of chairs, the coffee table and the stripped pine dresser. I'd rather they made money out of them and not an antique dealer. However they gave me the phone number of another charity who also take furniture and they will be coming next week. Later a nice chap came round to look at the piano which he is going to have. He's a self taught guitarist who is now learning the violin and the piano. I'm only thankful that I'm not faced with having to break up the piano.

During the day I got on with a project that turned out well. Because Squeaky had been indoors at night she had her own extra large litter tray made from the blue storage box. While I was thinking what to do with the box and not wanting to use it for anything else I came up with making a litter box for the other cats. At the moment they have free access to the outside so haven't needed a tray but when we move I will need to keep them inside for a time. Also as the gardens are small and many are paved or have decking I thought it would be better if they used a litter box which I can keep outside by the cat flap in the kitchen wall. I had been looking on line for a large litter box when I thought 'Why not make my own?' I used a jig-saw to cut out the clip-on section of the blue lid and then used Gripfill to stick it to the upturned clear box. That way the top can be taken off for cleaning. I cut a piece out of the clear box to make a doorway and then cut down the waste piece, drilled some holes and used split rings to fix that as a swinging flap.

Here Patch has gone into the box after a piece of cheese. He was soon joined by Speedy proving that should they want both cats fit in the box together. Total cost of this litter box was £6.

With the sun came the butterflies. Today there were a lot of comma butterflies, usually I only see one alongside the red admirals and small tortoiseshells. 

The comma butterfly gets its name from the white mark on the underside of the wings. They are also called angle-wings because of the jagged shape of the wings. 

I've been trying to get some photos of this male southern hawker dragonfly for a few days and finally I found him sitting on the hydrangea bush.