The House Of Mirrors.

Today as usual we woke to rain. This at least was one of the better days when by late afternoon it was sunny and windy and the evening has been quite nice. But by the afternoon I was in the middle of yet more cleaning and didn't find time for more than a quick foray outside. Perhaps nature is telling me to stay in bed until mid-day? I like to start such days with time on the pc, looking out of the window is a great bird watching opportunity. The blackbird was collecting beakfulls of worms, small birds were collecting seeds that had blown into the conservatory gutter and the thrush was hopefully removing snails from the garden.One of today's jobs that I actually enjoyed was cleaning some of the many mirrors I have on the walls. I do it the old fashioned way, soap & water first and then polish with scrunched up newspaper. I have yet to try any commercial product that produces such a good result and why waste money on yet more chemicals. This house could almost be called a House of Mirrors there are so many of them on the walls. Wherever I can I've used mirrors to reflect the outside, bring in light and create an illusion of space. We went to an auction once where the contents of a hairdresser's was being sold and I bought a number of unframed wall mirrors. Peter was a bit embarrassed when I jokingly told a group of waiting farmers that they would look good on our bedroom ceiling. No, it was just a joke but our en-suite bathroom has 2 walls almost completely covered with mirrors. I did a quick count and I think there are 19 mirrors on the walls in the house. That's not counting the 3 full length mirrors in the shelter by the scree garden. The idea is to create the illusion of another garden on the other side of the building rather than just a dark space. I'm waiting to get 1 or 2 more long mirrors before I fix them to the wall.
The hanging baskets are still looking good and creating a nice splash of colour by the front door. Nothing much else happened today. Peter went in as usual to the gym. The idea is to strengthen the muscles so that his joints have more protection from strain or injury which can set off a P-arthritis attack. He's looking forward to the day he can begin rowing with the gig club. Perhaps one day we'll be rowing over to Lundy for a gig week-end.

Signs Of Autumn.

Right now I don't know whether to yell or cry, I'm so cross and upset at the same time. It's all to do with sorting out my back. It's a long saga which I won't bore you with but I thought I was going to cross the final hurdle today, instead I ( metaphorically ) fell flat on my face. Back in May, after 4 lots of day surgery I was told that I needed an operation on my spine. When I was finally told it would be happening in September it was the worst possible timing as I'm due to start some full-time work then and we can't afford for me to turn the work down. I spoke to a very sympathetic booking nurse explaining the situation and asking if there was any way I could have a cancellation anytime during the 6 weeks I'm home for the summer. The problem is that although one hospital doctor says I need the op his boss insists on seeing all patients for spinal ops before surgery can go ahead. The booking nurse managed to organise my pre-op visit over 2 weeks ago and I was given an appointment to see the chief consultant today. Then I would just have to keep my fingers crossed for a cancellation. I'm even prepared to go nil-by-mouth each evening so that I wouldn't miss a slot. But guess what? When I got to the hospital I found out that the chief consultant is on holiday and I can't see him for another 2 weeks. I was not pleased and asked to speak to his superior because it is ridiculous that there is no-one able to take these decisions. First I was told he doesn't have a boss so I asked for the hospital CEO, guess what? she's on holiday too and her deputy was in a meeting. I was directed to Patient Liaison and hopefully I'll be getting a phone call from a senior member of management on Monday. I hate to be making a fuss but if I hadn't expressed my views and made a nuisance of myself on several occasions with this treatment I would probably still be having the physiotherapy on my back that was offered by the very first doctor I saw. I was so upset by events that I felt like having a real chocolate binge this evening but then I would regret that so instead I made myself a prawn salad with tomatoes and onions and home-made dressing. As I walked (stomped) down the hill from the hospital I saw the first signs of autumn, horse chestnuts - conkers.
There are several of these trees along the main road into town and once conker season really starts you have to be aware of youngsters throwing sticks up into the tress to get the conkers. Don't want the car dented by child or stick!

When I was in town Peter had asked me to take a few pictures of our library for an OU assignment that he is doing. This is the ground floor where the fiction, children's section, cds and dvds are. (Books are free to borrow- unless they are overdue but cds and dvds cost).

Upstairs there are non-fiction and reference books as well as papers, journals and pcs for public use. The library building also holds archive materials - public records & that sort of thing.

To cheer myself up I wandered around the shops. I tried on some tops but didn't buy any as even I have to admit that I do have plenty of clothes. I went into Monsoon, a lovely shop where you can dream of weddings and summer parties, but very expensive. I only look in there when they are having a sale and I usually wait until, as today, many items are reduced by 70%. I was sorely tempted by a silver sequined (all over) top but resisted. What I did buy to cheer myself up was this totally pretty but impractical floral wreath.

I saw quite a few girls wearing similar at a music festival but unless I do get to Glastonbury I would never wear it in public. But is so pretty and less fattening than chocolate.

Back To The Dump.

It was such a good feeling to be driving down to the dump with the car packed to the roof with stuff to go. A lot of it was 'e-waste', old computer parts, cables, flat screen and even a printer which has been lurking on my desk for as long as I can remember. Some of it was still working but very old. Peter used to keep spares so that if he was called out for a problem with legacy equipment he could try a repair instead of simply advising replacement. Even though he will still do some pc repair work even he admitted that we had far too much in the way of spares. As it is I'm still looking at my other spare printer kept in case the printer I'm using stops working. Everybody must be staying at home and doing home improvements instead of going on holiday as the dump was full of people getting rid of DIY rubbish and I had to queue up before unloading my rubbish. The container for cardboard packaging (these are lorry sized containers) was overflowing and I had to place my cardboard in the heap on the ground. I had a few things for their re-sale area but didn't find anything that I needed today. The weather has been much the same as the last few days, sunny spells interspersed with black clouds. I had planned some 'sitting in the sun and reading' time but as the forecast for the next few days is for rain and more rain I thought I had better get on with some actual gardening. My hanging baskets took a long time to deadhead as the poor weather of the last week had put me off going outside to tidy up the baskets. Then I thought I had better get all the mowing done and after that I cleared a shed and moved in some logs. A little bit more room tidying and that was my day filled.
As I put the lawnmower away I could hear lots of chirping from the baby swallows in their nest but no signs of the actual birds yet.

More Rain And Tidying.

We woke this morning to heavy rain. Cue more indoor work. The piles for the dump and the charity shop are getting bigger and the rooms are getting tidier and emptier. Linas' room, so beautifully tidy has now been transformed into my sewing room. The big office desk is just perfect for my sewing machine. I do enjoy sewing by hand but some things are better on the machine. I turned up a pair of light curtains to fit the frame wardrobe that I made yesterday and I've got a couple of other projects on the go.

Sedum Strawberries/ Raspberries and Cream.

Later in the afternoon the weather changed dramatically with lots of sun and strong warm winds. It felt like being at the seaside as I sat up in the scree garden with a cushion cover to stitch back on. (When I make my own cushion covers I always make them with a flap like a pillow case so that the cushion can just be slipped in and out.) I also did a bit of reading in the sun before coming back indoors to yet more tidying. I made a short video this afternoon to show the scree garden which has to be my favourite part of the garden.

A 3-D Puzzle.

Last night I set myself the task of rebuilding Linas' wardrobe. It was one of those flimsy constructions made from aluminium poles slotted together and covered with a black paper/fabric cover. He had bought it several years ago to store all his outdoor gear in and it wasn't up to the job. For some time now it has been sitting dismantled in 2 boxes and I also knew that some of it was broken. Before throwing it out however, I wanted to see what sort of state it was in and whether it could be given away or simply chucked. It took all my skills of logic and memories of the days when we went camping with big old frame tents but eventually it was built. Very rickety but most of the frame was still there. I left it overnight, had a think and in the morning I reduced the size (the wire shelves were not much good anyway) and to increase the stability I converted some of the spare poles into diagonal cross braces fixed with good old gaffer tape. (Some of the engineering principles from Scrap Heap must have sunk in.) I've threaded some curtain rings on the top bars to hang light curtains from and now I have some extra hanging space which can be dismantled easily when no longer needed. And it cost me nothing but a morning's work. It has been raining all day, hence the indoor work which included a major clean up of Linas' room. This family seems intent on keeping every bit of packaging 'in case things have to sent back or are sold on', but I'm getting rid of stuff discretely. I can see another trip to the dump looming - good!
It has finally stopped raining so I nipped out into the garden to take a few pictures. Everything is so wet, that's a British summer for you!

More Shopping.

Woke up this morning to lovely blue skies, it really felt as if I was on holidays. Oh Yeah, I am. It's been a bit cooler today but slightly sunnier. This morning I took another load of stuff down to the dump and came home with another mirror for the garden. Good value at £1.Day Lily by the pond.

My afternoon was spent in town (after dropping off a couple of bags of clothes etc at a charity shop). No great bargains today though I did buy some very cheap fitted sheets (in sale) at Primark and then I went and bought the third saucepan to complete my set of stainless steel saucepans. I spent quite a while in Wilden's which is closing down so everything is half price. It's a shame as Wilden's is the old fashioned sort of hardware shop selling everything from tools to grass seed and where screws and nails could be bought by the small handful.

Yesterday's evening light highlighting the astilbes.

The diet is getting harder now. It was actually 1 1/2 lbs lost but I'll count the half next week. Nearly, nearly, nearly there - phew!

Pond Day.

This morning I had to drive Linas to Ilfracombe to collect some skateboard decks. I took this photo while I waited. This is the older part of Ilfracombe with narrow streets leading down to the harbour. As I looked down the road (which was sloping more steeply that it looks in the picture) my eyes could not quite reconcile the fact that, apparently level with my eyes, I could see waves splashing against the base of the cliffs.
The waves can just be seen between the scaffolding poles.

Back home there is still no change in the weather, lots of cloud and very brief spells of sunshine. I carried on with my work at the pond. I had thought today's task would be fairly easy - clearing out the weeds and extra growth in the pond. Boy was I wrong, the wild flag iris had almost taken over the whole pond and it was a major job to get in there and pull them all out and then dispose of them either on the compost pile near the pond or on the wild side of the bog garden. By the time I had finished clearing the pond I was aching and covered in smelly mud. But the pond has now changed from a green lump at the end of the garden into a formal pond with day lillies, montbretia, japanese iris and a water lily flowering in it. Next stage is to weed the planted edge and maybe get some more gravel for the path. After all that effort it was good to have a hot shower and sit outside with a book. Unfortunately the changeable weather means you are nice and warm for a second and then wondering if you can be bothered to go and get a fleece because the dark clouds have taken over once more.

The butterflies are all over the place and I got this shot of the common blue (was it the same one that visited yesterday?) feeding on the marjoram. It is interesting to see how different species prefer different plants.

The gatekeepers and meadow browns flit about a lot and can be found feeding on the marjoram while the lavender was being visited by bumble bees and large white butterflies. The honey bees, peacocks and red admirals were all on the buddlia. Linas has returned back to Plymouth this afternoon clutching his decks, a guitar and some food from Mum's cupboards.