I am still without a car, since last Thursday. Thankfully Tam and J took me grocery shopping in Llandod yesterday, so I am all stocked up again with perishable things. (Plenty of tins in and stuff in freezer). I phoned the garage again this morning and the part STILL hasn't been delivered. The Courier has really let them down, and they are apparently waiting for spares for other cars they have down there. Let's hope that they've given the Couriers hell and I will soon be mobile again. I need to go to Brecon soonest to sort out a bank card, amongst other things.
Tam brought me a goodly bag of crab apples yesterday, so I have been scrubbing them clean and cutting out any bad bits, and now my kitchen is smelling wonderful as I've been stewing them up for jelly, with whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in.
There are curtains up at the half landing window to deal with any draughts, as Tam couldn't get the traditional sash catch in brass that I wanted (will go to Hay for that). I was pleased to find the exact home for the lovely Dunelm curtains I had hanging in my office at Ynyswen. As they had cost £70 or so I didn't really want to charity shop them or have the bother of trying to sell them on Ebay.
The light fitting over the door has a problem (loose connection Keith reckons) so changing the bulb didn't help, but we do have a new functioning pull cord bathroom light. The old one was Bakelite and ancient and J said that the ends of the wiring were too short and had just been haphazardly jammed into the fittings and the whole thing was hanging in there by the skin of its teefs as the ancient plaster beneath it was breaking up. The joys of old houses.
I've just been watching an Escape to the Country from 2014, set in Shropshire, where a lady of mature years from Woking wanted to move and have her own concert hall and room for her grand piano. The 3rd property they looked at was one we knew. It was next door to Bryn-y-Cagley Hall, which we wanted to buy SO MUCH a few years ago. (The vendors of Bryn-y-Cagley had done this barn up to live in, as it was all on one level). Of course, we couldn't sell, and still couldn't sell when it came back on the market again a couple of years back. With the benefit of hindsight, it was probably for the best as it did have a very large garden, with over 70 David Austin roses, a very productive mixed orchard, masses of soft fruit bushes etc. It was also a long way away from our offspring, so perhaps we were meant to be here.
I have also found out today why Ghengis has been going out in the yard, and then lurking behind the Wheely Bin until I go and open the door, when he trots safely across. There is another young black and white tom about the place - Alfie has had a couple of set-to's with him this morning. He's well fed, so I think comes from the farm up the hill where they feed their cats but sadly don't appear to neuter the boys. Sigh. I have chased him off but he's been seen several times through the French windows.
Right, I had better go and put the crab apples in the jelly bag overnight. I may use the pulp again to cook up with blackberries and sloes to make Hedgepick Jelly too. Watch this space.
Handsome cats and aromatic crab apples. I do hope the squirrels leave my red sentinel crab apples alone this winter. Last year they had stripped the trees by Christmas which disgruntled me as the red shiny marble-sized fruit should be feeding the birds all through the cold winter months, as well as decorating the garden for Christmas. This morning I went to my 9.15am yoga class (the teacher is a Buddhist and plays brass bowls and chants during the relaxation period) and then I energised myself to go food shopping, home for a cup of tea in the sunny garden and it was so lovely I changed into my gardening togs and deadheaded and tied in roses, cut back the brown foliage from a dozen peonies and speed-weeded under the pergola. I picked a quatre saison lettuce for cold collation tonight, noted that all the garlic are through and picked a cheery bunch of dahlias for the kitchen table and three stems of scented acidanthera for the garden room. I thought about weeding the kitchen garden plot after lunch but my birthday book called to me instead. Hope you’ve had a good at home day too, I nearly wrote productive, but I know your days are always productive BB. Sarah x
ReplyDeleteThe kitchen still smells lovely, with the pulp in the jelly bag. Fingers x'd that the squirrels leave your Red Sentinel crab apples alone. Pam and I were admiring several trees laden with fruit, some for sale and some permanent plantings at the little nursery we go to. Your Yoga class sounds very relaxing. We used to all go to a class, as a family, and Tam still does Yoga, but the rest of us don't. G was once the model for a yoga workout in a teen magazine - she belonged to an acting group who also supplied children for filming adverts etc. I bet she wishes she was that slim again.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about my days always being productive - I have really had to force myself to do anything much recently. My garden desperately needs some tlc, but today I did at least pot on some extremely well-grown strawberries from runners (so well grown they are bearing fruit!) so that's one job done.
Your cats are doing what cats do best...relaxing. I do hope your car gets fixed very soon.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
You can tell when the weather has changed - they become sofa cats! Should get the car back today.
DeleteOooh, the kitchen in Bryn-n-cagley hall. How marvelous is that! My friend was just telling me about her neighbor who lets her dog run free...and has trained it to kill cats!
ReplyDeleteYes, there was no fitted kitchen. The people who had bought it after we hoped to did some not very good modifications in and around the fireplace. The house had roots in the 16th C I think, and there were the footings of another wing at right angles, so it was probably an L-shaped Hall House originally. The elderly couple who then lived next door had fallen in love with it, hook, line and sinker and would come up from the home counties every weekend to work on it, before finally being able to move in. They did some fancy additions (decorative plaster ceilings copied from a West Country property) in a couple of the rooms, which gave atmosphere too. We were pretty gutted at the time that we couldn't buy it as it was "us" through and through, on every level, inside and out.
ReplyDeleteHave utter contempt for your friend's neighbour.
Aww ... your gorgeous cats. I was just getting up to let a ginger cat in my door yesterday when I realised that MY ginger cat was actually sat next to me!! The cheeky little fella was almost an exact match to my Ginger ... who quickly chased off his imposter with a lot of growling and yowling.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get your car back soon, we are lost without them aren't we, especially when we live out in the countryside.
They're about to get a shock, when the young kittens arrive soon. Had to smile at you for going to let "your" ginger cat in!! I imagine the status quo was definitely upset!!
DeleteHave the car back now but it STILL needs extra work on it - have to get it re-gassed now. More expense.
The delay of 'parts' for vehicles is a frustrating thing! I worked for years 'back home' [Vermont] for a friend who had a used car sales and auto repair shop. Most parts had to be ordered through larger dealerships who if they didn't stock the item had to in turn order from the factory. We learned that surprisingly, parts for domestically manufactured vehicles often came from places as ridiculous as S. Africa. I recall one old gent [known for his cantankerousness] called twice a day to ask if his car was repaired. I patiently explained several times that we were awaiting shipment of parts and that his vehicle would be repaired as soon as we received them. Losing patience with him after several days, I told him in a very firm voice that his phone calls were not helping matters along. He was not used to being told off!
ReplyDeleteI have ever been 'stranded' without a vehicle at which point one thinks of several 'necessary errands!
Well, I am just a leetle suspicious (gut feeling) especially after seeing a car spares van delivering in Builth today . . . Was that their "courier"? Anyway, have the car back but it still needs more work as the replaced air con now needs regassing . . .
DeleteI was getting quite wound up at being without a car for so long. If anything happened with Keith, we are completely stranded here without a vehicle as Keith can't walk very far. Such a worry. Anyway, we survived, but I was very glad that Tam and Jon took me grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon.
I didn't know you could do anything nice with crab apples
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, there speaks a manwho has never drunk Crab Apple Wine!
DeleteThat not good especially as you live out in the sticks. I was watching that program in our caravan
ReplyDeleteHaha - we think we're on the edge of town! Bryn-y-Cagley was two miles from Clun, which had reasonable local amenities, but 17 miles from Ludlow for the Big Shop, so not ideal.
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