Grey.

Today has been grey, cold, windy and at times wet.

Having done the tedious prep work yesterday today I painted all the woodwork in the kitchen. Only the door frame needed two coats as the rest had been white before. I had an early start as Peter went off rowing first thing. Today's other job was to make a start on sorting and tidying the cupboard by the front door. Before I got round to that I built another shelf, four legs and a top, as there was some wasted space at the bottom. A couple of trips to the garage cleared even more space. 

The tomato plants are doing well with the first flower trusses appearing. Time to start with the tomato food.  

Windy.

Lots of wind today and quite a bit of rain too. I took the photos during one of the brief  sunny and hot spells. I'm thrilled that the sweet peas are flowering. I've tried both seeds and plants before but they always got eaten by slugs. I am using slug pellets in the back garden as I doubt any hedgehogs could scale the 5-6ft walls.

Today I began work on the kitchen door frame and the skirting boards. First I scraped off any of the very thick cracked paint before wiping everything down. Then realised that as it was old gloss paint I needed to give it a key with some sandpaper and then wipe it down again. Later on I filled all the cracks and gaps with filler or builders' caulk reading for painting tomorrow. I've had to pull most of the furniture in the dinning area into the middle so that space looks like a bomb has hit it.

The wind has blown all the loose rose petal off so I had a dead heading session and also pruned back the rhododendron. 

Warm.

I've had a busy day and got another two decorating jobs done. I needed to get the ladder  from the garage for both of them so it made sense to push on. One job was to tidy up the bathroom ceiling. When the last owners put in downlighters they didn't make a good job of cutting holes in the ceiling and each light had an untidy gap at one side. I was just about able to manoeuvre the ladder in our tiny bathroom and use filler to fill in the holes.

The other job was to tidy up and paint the kitchen ceiling. Not only was there some flaking of the paint along one edge but a close up view showed many bits (sawdust?) in the painted surface as well as a few brush strands. I removed most of these by going over the surface gently with my paint  scraper. Then it was simply a matter of shrouding the kitchen with a vast number of dust sheets before using the roller to freshen up the white ceiling, oh and cutting in the edges took almost as long.

Meanwhile Peter spent the day putting up new shelves in the tool cupboard by the front door. 

These red and white snapdragons are the descendants of some plants I bought at the last day sell off at the Chelsea Flower Show back in the late 70's. At that time our outdoor space was a 5ft x 5ft balcony. The snapdragons came with us to our house in London and then on to Devon where they self seeded in the scree garden.

Windy.

No blog yesterday due to technical problems. I'd pressed the 'update and shut down' option before I went off to choir. Three hours later I returned home to find that my PC wouldn't turn on. Not being an IT expert instead I began the duffers version of fixing an IT problem. Step One - ask somebody else to fix it, Peter wasn't too pleased about being woken up to hear my problem so I waited until the morning. Next came the ever so useful Step Two - switch off the plug, wait and switch it back on but no joy or lights in the PC box thingy. Then came Step Three - jiggle any connections at the back of the box and hey presto the PC turned on. The back of the box is inaccessible to the cats so it must have been gravity messing up the connection.

Now for yesterday's news - In the morning I chipped away the cement blobs under the loose paving slabs on the steps. While Peter went off to get me some ready mix mortar I took myself out for a walk down to Manning's Pit.

After shimmying my way round the chained gate I found myself in a sloping meadow along with a herd of Jersey cross heifers. The path led down to a right of way gate and then to a bridge across the stream. 

While watching the flowing water my eye was caught by a flash of brilliant blue, a dragonfly that goes by the name of Beautiful Demoiselle.  

Emerging from the trees bordering the stream I found myself in another meadow. This time the flowering grasses were shoulder high. Looking northwards I could see the gap between the hills that used to be my way home.

I retraced my steps, back across the stream and into the heifers' meadow. My path led between the heifers some of whom were brave to put their noses on my outstretched hand.

Clambering through a tied back barbed wire fence I found myself back by the stream. I could see how this had been an ideal playground for generations of youngsters and continues to be so. There were a few spots where the water was 2 1/2 to 3 ft. deep but for most of the stream it was less than a foot.

I walked all the way along the stream to a ford where I crossed over and walked part way back along the grassy banks of the stream. It was so peaceful there. 

When I got home I found that Peter had gone out again leaving me a bag of cement by the front door. This I duly attempted to mix and use to fix all the slabs I taken up. I know I'm not an experienced cement mixer but I couldn't understand why the cement seemed to be almost setting before I could use it. It was only when I looked at the bag that I saw it wasn't mortar but something called Postcrete. This is for setting in posts and all you have to do is fill the post hole with one third water, hold the post in place and pour in the cement to the top of the water at which point it sets in 5-10 mins. (Peter says he got this because it would be stronger and it was a lot cheaper!) So as I attempted to mix it with water in a bucket it was setting almost before I could get through the house to the steps. I got the job done in the end but with much muttering.

We had some rain in the night and strong winds have been blowing all day. Today's job was to squeeze into the 14 inch gap between the conservatory and the garden wall, remove all the weeds and debris and then paint the grim looking concrete blocks. Keeping the spiders in mind I covered up before venturing into that space. I have to admit that it does look a lot better now.

Hot.

We're still enjoying the summer heat. I think that the weather here is better than it was up in the hills or maybe it's just because we're not in a valley. This evening I turned up to Pilates to find that our teacher had moved us out of the hall to a grassy spot outside shaded by trees. There was a refreshing breeze which more than made up for the occasional twig or the lumpy ground. It was also very relaxing to look up at the blue sky through the leaves of three very different trees. 

This morning my busy day became a little less busy when the surgery rang cancelling my appointment with the doctor as he was ill. I still had a dental check up to go to. Once again a different dentist who lowered the chair so much my feet were higher than my head. She's booked me in for a deep clean and informed me that she'll give me an injection as one tooth was a bit tender. Injections I don't mind but drilling still terrifies me as I've been hurt on more than one occasion even at that surgery. Remember the unfeeling Polish dentist? After the dentist I did some shopping taking advantage of the special offers on summer fruit. Plenty of apricots, peaches, nectarines and blueberries in the fruit basket now. 

Once I got home I went through some of the songs we'll be singing at our next concert and all too soon it was time to pedal on the exercise bike and do my floor exercises as a warm up for Pilates.

The farm I can see from the back garden has already cut one field for silage. A closer look at the photo shows a large number of birds feeding in that field. I wonder if they were Peter's favourites (not) rooks or if they were the 100 or more jackdaws which live in this area?

Getting Windy.

We've had yet another very hot day  and this evening strong winds have begun to blow. I've made sure that all trees in pots have extra stones in the pots and the chairs are positioned to hopefully stop the trees from blowing over.

This morning we went to look at another campervan. Peter's friend Larry is a campervan/caravan enthusiast who has been advising us on our search for a campervan. It just happened that at the farm where he keeps his caravan there was an elderly couple who he thought were selling their camper. We got in touch with them and sadly it turned out that the wife passed away recently and the 90 year old husband has a terminal diagnosis and has difficulty walking hence the sale. Mind you that man has some spirit, he's just come back from a coach trip to Italy and to help with country walking he's bought an all-terrain baby stroller. He puts his gear in the seat and uses the handles for support. The campervan is younger and has more extras in the fittings than the other one we looked at. It's got a full service history with some parts renewed so all that remains is for our garage chap to look at it and then to agree a price. We're not interested in beating him down over the price and will offer a fair price which will be more than he would get from a dealer.

We has a lovely drive out to the farm which is near Filleigh through Devon countryside at its summer best. 

Coming up to the farm we drove through a field of cattle who couldn't be bothered to get up from their  resting place half on the track while overhead swallows swooped and chirped.

The farm is up on an open hill with wonderful views which made me long to be back in the country but surprisingly I'm not hankering for Dingles. 

Once back home in our little town house I got on with painting the upstairs doors. I was able to do two coats and when the last one was  dry I put back all the handles which I'd taken off for a better finish.  I'm almost running out of things to do though I think the kitchen ceiling might be next as there's some flaking paint all along one edge.

Peter finally got to use his BBQ and cooked the most tender lamb fillets which he had marinating all day. I had mine with sweet potatoes and salad.

Warm.

While Peter was out doing publicity for the gig club at an event in Rock Park I gave the conservatory roof a good wash. Peter has been all for getting out the pressure washer but I found that an old cloth wrapped around the head of a deck broom (small head, full length handle) worked perfectly when wielded from the ladder. I also wiped down the sides and washed the windows of the conservatory. Spiders don't usually bother me but the possibility of a false widow spider and the presence of sheet webs unnerved me enough to don trousers, fleece and goggles before sliding into the narrow gap between the conservatory and the garden wall. Better extra hot than bitten.

This morning my mystery lilies burst into flower but when I went out to photograph them in the evening ….. disaster! The hanging basket had dropped down straight on top of the planter. Apart from the loss of the first lily flower and a squashed osteospermum there wasn't too much damage.

And the cause of the fallen basket was a break in the rope attaching it to the  bracket. Looking more closely I realised that the polypropylene  rope had melted due to the heat of black painted metal bracket in the hot sun. My neighbour is bringing home some bolt cutters for me to borrow so that I can cut off some of the extra length of the chain that the understairs rail hangs on to hang the basket from.

Dark clouds began appearing in the late afternoon but no sign of any rain yet. 

I also began painting the upstairs doors today banishing the last of the battleship grey from the house. Two coats today and a couple more should do the job.