Sun and Rain.

Yesterday's fierce winds have eased back to more normal levels though there have been frequent showers. In the brief sunny spells the air became weirdly hot bringing out the butterflies and bees. 

I think I'm finally feeling the benefit of my restful week and I've been more motivated to get things done. As well as drawing up plans for the tv stand I sanded the corner of a big pine cupboard that had been badly damaged by the cats. Actually it was mostly Elwen who liked to dig her claws into the soft pine. I didn't wax the wood afterwards as I've decided that when we move I'll sand and wax all our bigger wood furniture. It's about time to give the furniture a make-over and I'm sure there'll be plenty of time between moving in and unpacking all the boxes after the decorating has been done. Talking of decorating I don't intend to do the painting myself as the ceilings are really high and it was hard enough painting this place. I'll stick to ripping off as much of the wallpaper as I can.

In the meantime it's just a matter of keeping the place ready for viewing and sorting out the things we need to take on our next visit to Borth. 

Stormy.

Very wild weather today. For most of the morning it was as if buckets of water were being thrown at the windows. In the back garden things remained relatively calm but out at the front it was wild indeed. A few bins were clattering and some plant pots blown over. According to one site we've had gusts of up to 37mph.

I had some answers to my wood request yesterday and I've now know of two local sawmills, one at Chivenor and the other in the old quarry at Muddiford where I should be able to get the wood I need for the tv stand. That's my task for next week.

Apart from the usual routine I've had fun working on kitchen layout plans. From a work surface point of view a U-shaped layout is good but I can't bear the lost cupboard space in the corners. We had those carousel trays in one cupboard at Dingles and I don't think much of them in terms of space utilisation. Also it's quite tricky fitting in the things that can't change such as a tall fridge/freezer and a sink in front of the window. From the point of future proofing I think we should have an eye level oven so that we're not bending down to take hot, heavy dishes out of the oven. I've had fun rearranging scaled cupboard pieces on my kitchen plan and have come up with a possible layout though I find the best ideas usually happen when I'm actually looking at the space. 

Stormy.

It's been a day of extremes, sometimes very hot and often torrentially wet. The heavy rain began yesterday evening and once again I was glad I wasn't having to go out and divert water flowing down the drive. 

The wet morning made having a lie-in a good idea so that is what we did. I have to say that both of us have needed plenty of recovery time after our work in Borth. It's very strange coming back to Pilton. It feels like we are in a sort of limbo. All our social ties here have stopped, Pilates and choir  stop at the start of the holidays anyway and Peter didn't renew his gig club membership when it came up. Instead our minds are occupied with planning for Borth. This morning I had some fun looking through kitchen and bathroom catalogues for ideas. 

Below is the kind of TV stand I would like to make. My plan is to have it in three sections that sit together otherwise it will be very heavy. I went and measured the large piece of wood we have in the garage. There is enough to make the top and bottom of the stand but I will have to buy more wood to make the middle section. I think there are a couple of saw mills still around that might have what I want. I'll put out a call on FB to for ideas. 

Muggy.

Today has been overcast and very muggy. I went out to do some shopping and managed to break the self-checkout in Tesco's. I find it very convenient to use the hand scanner as I go round  and put the shopping straight into my bags. However once I'd zapped the spot to say I'd finished shopping and told it that I didn't have any goods I hadn't been able to scan somehow I managed to knock the card reader from its stand. That disconnected the card reader and although the assistant tried to set it up again it wouldn't. The assistant took my shopping over to her check-out but something went wrong with that one and we had to go to a third check-out so that I could pay. Oops. I called in to B&Q for new face masks and had a browse around their kitchen and bathroom fittings. I'm thinking that I should measure up the floor and walls of the separate toilet in Borth as I may be able to pick up sufficient tiles in the reduced section.

I also called in at Sports Direct, not somewhere I really want to go as the owner/management's practices are so unethical both to their employees and suppliers but there isn't anywhere else that has such a variety of shorts which is what I was after. I've noticed that my 'good' shorts though comfortable are swamping my legs and needed to find some that were a better fit but still comfortable. That you can't do without trying them on. The cheapest ones I tried on were the most suitable and I bought two pairs as they were on a buy two get 2nd pair half price offer. 

Finally I called in at BJ's for some plants to brighten up the hanging basket by the front door. My neighbour bought hers ready planted and they are such a blaze of colour mine looked very sparse. There wasn't much of a choice especially as I wanted to stay in the orange/yellow range but I got some orange violas, a red verbena and a yellow bidens.

Wet.

The day began with a lot of rain and wind and ended much sunnier though looking to the east this evening I saw extremely dark rain clouds. Although to me August means summer time it is noticeable that the evenings are drawing in. Suddenly it's dark by 9.30.

Today was the first time since coming back from Wales that I got all my exercise sessions done though this stupid cough is still hanging on. Luckily Peter's cold didn't get worse but I've always had a tendency to be a bit 'chesty'.

I sent some photos of my mother's sketches to the Tate archivist and as requested sent a couple of my mother. The one above was taken in her gallery, that's a Bryan Pearce painting on the wall behind her. I haven't been able to find the one that shows her standing outside the gallery (yet) but I was pleased to see from Google Street View that most of the name and possibly even the same doors remain.

Over the last few days I've been getting on with admin including making a new list of things to take to Borth on our next visit. I also made a scale plan of the living room, kitchen and dining area so that I can position our furniture also cut to scale. It's amazing how much a room shrinks when you put furniture in it. I measured the rooms one evening after Peter had fallen asleep, creeping around and trying not to make too much noise with the metal tape measure. I think I must have measured the bay window in cms not inches as I'm sure it's not 72 inches deep.

Windy.

Stormy winds have been blowing all day with a few sunny spells but no significant rain until the evening. We're still taking things quite gently to ease out all the aches and pains acquired in Borth. Peter had a meeting with the estate agent to see if there's anything we can do to improve our chances of selling. Apparently all the feedback has been good but the garden wasn't suitable for a dog (we guessed that one), too many steps in the garden (they must have known about the stairs indoors) or they're still waiting to sell their own place. We've dropped the price slightly and will have to hope for the best.

Saturday in Borth...…….. My goal was to clear the plants blocking the passageway along the side of the bungalow.

Before - above and after - below. On the left hand side is the utility room which was an addition to the original bungalow. Later a wall was built next to the neighbour's fence on the right and a roof added to create yet another room with a wall and door closing off the side path that leads to the front garden. 

A better view of the side passage. The green stuff leaning in is a plastic windbreak but we think it was more likely put up to prevent a dog from scrambling over the wall onto the neighbour's roof as the metal gate at the far end has an extra grill at the bottom to block up the gaps. Taking the green stuff down is on the agenda for our next visit and then I'll be able to hack away at the elder bush that also leans into the path. 

The utility room from the inside after all the fittings and floor to wall cupboards had been taken out by Peter. That's the above lean-to on the left which will be removed and on the right hand side is the double length garage. We're keeping the garage though we may reduce its length but will be removing the roof that covers the passage that runs between the garage and the house. Apart from making the utility room very dark it also stops any air flow around the back of the house. The back garden is at right angles to the rest of the bungalow behind the end of the garage. 

At the front are steps leading down to the gate that is at the end of the side passage. Now that all the branches have been cut back it is possible to go down the steps and into the front garden on the left. As there was still room in the skip I chopped up a lot of my prunings, bagged them and threw them on top of the skip.

I've also made a start on taking the wall paper off the inner walls. There at least I'm only dealing with several layers of thick textured paper.

We've been planning to get down to St Ives this summer to visit the place I grew up before we move further up country. We've also been in touch with the Tate St Ives Gallery regarding some of the art work we have which resulted in a number of phone calls from their archivist who is very interested in my mother's work and the gallery she ran in St Ives. I spoke to the lady on the phone tonight and she's very keen to exhibit some of my mother's work from that time in an exhibition in October.

Windy.

It was strange this morning to look out of the window and see a blue sky with occasional puffs of cloud and at the same time hear the wind whistling around the house. It has stayed windy through the day with even stormier conditions in other parts of the country. We've both been taking things quietly today. The problem with getting older is that although you can still get lots done it takes much longer to recover. I have sent an email to John Lewis about the poor quality mattresses and asking for either replacement mattresses or a refund equivalent to the difference between a similar wooden bedframe that came without mattresses. Lets see what happens with that.

Friday in Borth.

We woke around 6.00 which gave time for tea and then for me to do my exercises before we started working. (I didn't bring my weights, just my oldest camping mat but I was able to do lots of stretching exercises.) Porridge came later in the morning once we were ready for a break. The skip arrived at 8.30 and Peter spent the next two days filling it with dismantled cupboards from the large utility room not to mention the hob and the kitchen sink from there. The fridges and freezers have to be taken by the council for which there will be a charge.

The neighbourhood Red Kite made its usual appearance this time spinning gently in a thermal. Later on we looked down into the front garden 5ft below the terrace and saw this fledgling blackbird sunbathing on a patch of mind-your-own-business. This was the same youngster I saw last time begging and getting food from its mother. 

Friday was the day of the Borth Carnival so we walked down to see the fun. It's the start of the holiday season and with so many holiday parks the population quadruples in the summer and there were plenty of people out to watch. The carnival was led by a samba band and included a lone bagpiper whose outfit didn't include a sporran or long socks. (This was pointed out by Peter whose TA regiment, the London Scottish wore a kilt for their dress uniform.)  

The followed various floats including a GOT themed Walesteros float. I particularly liked the Burrells from Borfu based on the tv series The Durrells which was set in Corfu. 

Afterward that bit of fun it was back to Red Roofs for more work. My task was to clean out and thoroughly bleach all the kitchen cupboards and eliminate all traces of the little mice visitors. But now I'm thinking about the space under the cupboards. The plinth boards will have to be removed so that those spaces can also be thoroughly cleaned. We will be getting a new kitchen but that won't be until after we move when I've worked out what I want. I've already decided that although the breakfast bar looks good nobody is going to sit with their back to the view when there will be a table in front of the window.

This is the Celtic long boat belonging to the rowing club that Peter hopes to join. Coincidentally last week we watched a program about rowing clubs in Wales taking part in a race rowing from Ireland back to Aberystwyth.

Peter was able to meet up with the builder while we were in Borth and it looks like he will be finishing his current job in a few weeks so hopefully he'll be starting on the roofs soon.

For a break from working on the kitchen I would go outside and carry on pruning and weeding my way into the front garden and building up piles of stuff to go. And of course there was plenty of time spent sitting on the terrace watching the sky, sea, wildlife and the world in general. On the last evening we overheard somebody saying "What a beautiful place to live," and we couldn't agree more.