Dry.

It was sunny all morning, then turned overcast with one extremely heavy shower in the afternoon. 

The oil man came this afternoon. As usual he reversed down but he misjudged the turn at the top and ended up stuck with his wheels jammed against the blocks that run along the drive. With a full load of oil he didn't have enough power to go forwards and so was thoroughly stuck. He had to walk over to our neighbour and ask him to pull him out with his tractor. I didn't go outside with my camera because the oil man was probably embarrassed enough. Afterwards I was able to see how the ornamental grasses on that side of the drive had been rather squashed. I'll give them a tidy and they'll soon grow back. 

While all that was going on I carried on with my task of emptying out the contents of this pedestal desk and sorting them into some storage boxes. One is full of cards; Christmas cards I bought in the January sales, birthday and  other cards, envelopes and materials for making cards. The middle box is full of art materials; inks, pens, pencils, crayons etc. The final box is full of drawing materials; sketch pads, paper, pencils etc. I sorted through all the pens and pencils checking that they still worked and -gulp, even threw out worn down colouring pencils. When we move to town I may well have more time for creative work so all this lot is coming to the new house rather than into storage.

Earlier in the day I had been down at the stream scrubbing out some grubby plastic trays and boxes. It will be strange not to be able to do that especially as the new house has such a tiny sink.

Mostly Sunny.

Gazing out of the window this morning, admiring the green of the trees against the bright blue sky I could see a solitary swallow flying overhead. Surely it hasn't been left behind? There are still some swallows flying above the dairy farm so maybe it will join up with them. A cold wind was blowing in from the north-east so I was able to get more washing out on the line. When the wind died down later in the afternoon it felt quite warm in the sun.

Yesterday I had cleared some silt which had been left when the stream rose, off the bottom steps leading down to the stream. While I was there I also shovelled the silt off part of the path and very foolishly decided to dig more gravel out of the stream to raise the level of the path there. You'd think I would know better than to be shovelling but it seemed alright at the time. Not so when it came to the night when my back let me know what a fool I had been and stopped me from getting much sleep. Now that the sale is going ahead I shall refrain from doing anything that is not directly part of packing up to go. Well, I did cut back the alchemilla but that was the job I'd been about to do when I saw how bad Squeaky was.

In the mornings the other cats always wait outside the front door waiting for the moment I let them in to finish off Squeaky's food. This morning as I opened the door they skidded round the corner as usual and if cats can look disappointed that was them. There were a few looks at the empty space where the food bowls should have been and a quick check in case I'd moved them before they gave up their hunt for tasty snacks.

This squirrel was chittering so loudly up in his tree just now that I could hear him through the double-glazed window and across the garden.

Bye Bye Squeaky.

It has been an eventful day. The saddest event was the loss of Squeaky our 17 year old ginger cat. After sleeping in the conservatory for most of the day she came round to the front of the house where I saw straight away something was very wrong. She's been a bit tottery for a while but today her back legs were hardly holding her up. Thinking she might have had a stroke I quickly checked out the vets' hours to find that the nearest branches closed at 3.00 and it was already 3.30 but the veterinary hospital was open until 4.00. Peter was sorting out another emergency with the rayburn so as I left I asked him to ring the vet as I hadn't been able to get through, and let them know I was on my way. I got there at 4.00 only to find the sign on the door said they were open until 3.30. They were expecting me but of course I had to pay the out of hours fee. On looking at Squeaky the vet said her sight had gone completely as a result of her poor kidneys. At that point, although the vet talked about options I knew it was kindest to have her put to sleep. I warned the vet that I'm a weeper but I stayed and stroked her as she slipped easily away. We've had her since she was about 3 months old so naturally it was very sad to lose her but that is the price you pay for having pets. I didn't want to bury her in the garden so she's now buried in the corner of the plantation across the stream but still under the branches of the big beech tree. 

Rain was forecast for today but didn't arrive until 4.30 so I was able to get washing out and dried on the line. Standing in the garden I could smell the scent of the sedums. No wonder they were covered with butterflies, mainly red admirals and small peacocks with the occasional speckled wood also honey bees, white tailed bumble bees and assorted other flies and bees. 

I was hanging around in the garden trying to catch sight of a southern hawker dragonfly which has been patrolling the garden when instead I saw this newly emerged red admiral butterfly. I stood there watching for a while as its wings slowly unfurled. It seemed to be taking a long time so I went inside for a moment and when I came out again it was just flying off. 

One of the other things that happened today was that we came down to find the rayburn cooling down. Upon investigation it turned out that we were almost out of oil. That shouldn't happen as we are supposed to get regular top ups from the oil company. They're not open until Monday but Peter was able to get 25 L from our neighbour to keep the rayburn going. He gets his oil from the same company and they had been down 3 days ago and filled his tank so they should have come to us as well.

Finally - the house sale. We had given the buyers a deadline and at the very last moment they contacted our estate agent and will be paying the agreed price after all. I suppose they thought it was worth trying to get us to drop the price but it did make us cross. Now it's full speed ahead again.

More Sun and Rain.

I woke up quite early this morning and after doing my exercises I went downstairs to have my morning coffee at the pc. Although it was light outside I could barely see the garden because the rain was coming down in sheets. I was 'not amused' to hear the weather person on the radio exclaiming how lovely the morning was ....... for most of the country, just not here. 

The showers continued on all day though their intensity decreased so that by the afternoon it was more of a light sprinkling rather than the morning's deluge. In between the showers the sun shone and the air was warm. 

The first job I got on with today was to photograph and catalogue my mother's sculptures, some of which can be seen here (not the small bronze figure on the left). Continuing with the photographic theme I also backed up my photos on to an external hard drive. I haven't got into a regular routine with that but would hate to lose my photos either through an IT malfunction or the dreaded ransomware.  

Squeaky spends the night in the kitchen so that she can eat her food away from the other greedy cats but she waits to be let out so that she can snooze in the sun in the garden if there is any or else in the conservatory which still gets nice and warm. 

I also emptied out the last of the cupboards hopefully going to the Hospice shop and gave them a good clean and polish. It would be a bit embarrassing if they were rejected for being too scruffy.

Sun and Rain.

Yet another day of heavy showers between spells of bright sun. We had to go and sign some papers at the solicitors this morning which would have been a good thing if our buyer hadn't started to reduce the amount he wants to pay for this place. As we've already dropped the price considerably to take into account the things that need doing I fear we shall be walking away from this sale. If we don't hear anything by the end of the week that's what will be happening. Apart from the money we've spent on the survey and legal work and the overall disappointment I feel sorry for the people whose house we were hoping to buy. Still, all the sorting, packing and clearing would have to be done whenever we sell so I don't feel my efforts have been wasted.

Not wanting to miss the spells of fine weather I set to with the secateurs and cut back the clumps of giant crocosmia that guard the entrance to the yard. Even if we had been moving in a month they needed dealing with as they had begun to flop over and turn brown and nasty.

Yesterday evening it was cold enough for us to put the central heating on for a while. It doesn't feel so cold this evening without yesterday's strong winds blowing around the house.

PS In keeping with my 'planning ahead' persona I managed to find another Hobbit Journal at less than £5 for when I finish the next one. It's the same as my first journal (the second is a different version) because although I can see there is a third version possibly with more colour the only ones I've seen on eBay are really expensive.

Lots of Rain.

We've had a breezy day with plenty of blustery showers exactly as predicted by this morning's forecast. The winds have been blowing from the south keeping things fairly warm. The garden is littered with small branches blown off the trees by last night's fierce winds. 

After overdoing things yesterday today I managed to find enough to do today that didn't involve bending. That is apart from clearing up the leaves in the yard that I were bothering me as I looked out of the kitchen window. I baked some chocolate cookies to replenish our stock and after taking delivery of another giant roll of bubble wrap I packed up some paintings that had been hanging on the spare room wall. I figure it will be better to do a smaller number at a time though I have worked out a way of placing the roll of bubble wrap on a chair and unrolling it out over the kitchen table. 

I also finished writing up this summer's events in my Hobbit Journal. That's 11 years of my life summarised in way to help me remember significant events. I've got a terrible memory at the best of times and one year tends to blend with another when each year follows a similar pattern. I've only one page left so hopefully the new journal will herald a new phase in our lives.

Sun, Rain, Wind.

We had lots of showers today interspersed by bouts of bright sunshine. 

I needed to take things easy today so I thought I would  go through a large art folder filled with other artists' work, mainly etchings and prints, and at least write down the names of the artists. That was tough as the signatures were often written in a flowing script and I was generally unfamiliar with the surnames. I found it was better to glance at whole words and try to get a sense of what they might be. Deciphering letter by letter was not so easy when s/n/I/u/m/r a were all roughly similar. Having gone through over 130 pieces of work I tried to find the artists on the web with very limited success. I had to laugh when one of the non-Lithuanian names turned out to be famous for SM art work. A bit of a niche market I think. I do remember this person well and it all fits but luckily the pictures I have are all quite abstract. However kneeling on the floor to do this job didn't exactly help my back.

For the rest of the afternoon I made a start on this summer's notes for my 'journal'. Sitting at the table was a much more sensible idea. I've made the task a lot easier by daily jotting down any relevant information at the same time as I record the subject of each photo taken that day.