Blooming hard work!

 I have just mostly loaded the car - all the heaviest things have gone in anyway.  I will put in more boxes and what I can fit in the front seat and well tomorrow.  The tables are always so difficult to manhandle.  Keith never had a problem of course, but he had muscles!  He could carry two boxes together . . .

I have taken the mansion dollshouse to Pam's for her to fit 3 doors on (pin gone at top) and babysit until Christmas.  

On my railwayline walk, I picked some more Elderberries so will strig those after tea and freeze them.

I need to beg help from Ed & co as the hinge has dropped on the main stable door (bottom door) and it needs lifting off so a big washer can go on.   I think I have to source a washer in the morning though as they are meant to be a fairly exact fit and the sort of washer I found would be a bit loose and needs to be steel and not brass as this one is.

A little scratch built stool in oak and elm, made from oddments - chap had a pile of them he's made.  Just polishing it up each day now.  It had delightfully wonky legs.

A little bit of produce from the garden.  I've had a few of the lemon cucumbers - now it has cooled down a load of them have suddenly started appearing on the plants in the greenhouse.  I have some more Telegraph cucumbers very slowly filling out and lengthening up in the polytunnel.  The Red Zebra tomatoes are a delight to eat and I will grow those next year but won't bother with the plum tomatoes which all split, each and every one.  The heat just overwhelmed them.  Should have grown them outside this year.

Oh, how lovely, I have just had what I think is a Garden Warbler land on the fence just outside of the kitchen door (the Georgian one nailed shut).  So pretty.  No, just checked it and it's a Chiff Chaff!  Always heard them, never seen one until today.

Well, the way my shoulders are aching now, it was a good move to give myself 48 hrs off before I have to unload it and shift it again!  Glad it's done.

Tea is leftover chicken curry (a portion from the freezer).  It pays to cook extra and freeze.

Right, time to eat and read my book.

Tired is better than shattered

 I slept for 11 hours last night, which gives me some sort of idea that I had overdone things or had a bug.  I have done little today.  Read a chunk more of my book (and still angry because they are lambing OUT - his mother pursuing reluctant giving-birth ewes round a pitch black mountainous field with just a torch and on her own when they first arrived).  It must have been bliss later when they had students helping at lambing. I sat on the sofa and strigged the Elderberries and froze them (1lb).  I can cook them up into Syrup another day and may wander out and try and find some to join them tomorrow, though I don't recall seeing any on recent walks.  Perhaps the old railway line . . .

I managed to persuade Ebay to let me have the money for the scooter, so that is in my account now.  However, whilst checking my bank account I noticed that Plusnet had taken £49 from my bank in payment for my broadband this past month.  I don't think so!  Just gone out of contract, so I have renewed it for 24 months much more cheaply.  

I've done some more of my x-stitch but have made an error, so must do some unpicking.  Sod's Law.

Then I made a big decision this morning, something I have been thinking about for a while, and I took the lovely willow basket with Keith's ashes in up to my bedroom, and put it on his big chest of drawers, a tall Carmarthenshire-made one we bought at an early auction in Wales.  It cost £180 I remember.  Anyway, downstairs there was a little scattering of ashy dust where the basket had been so I rubbed my hand over it and went out to his workshop and rubbed it across his old workbench, where he had always been happy.  A bit of him will be with it always now.  There were tears, of course.

Then there was a timely arrival - the Just X-Stitch magazine I had bought on Ebay.  Some really lovely designs in it.

I have twice taken this photo, the right way up and twice the computer had decided it needs to be viewed sideways.  Apologies.

And a sideways cat, which I am going to make for "I".  

Tea tonight is a cheating one - boughten Scampi, with a potato cut up for home made chips, and left-over veg.  

Yesterday's long-haul Podcasts were great - The Rest is History's in depth discussion about Jack the Ripper and his victims.  I have 3/4 one left to listen to.

Isn't this copper dipper lovely?  I gave it a polish up, to go with my kitchenalia at the weekend. Tempted to keep it but don't need it.

A little German lemon squeezer.  SO cute.

Well, I need to get the veg out now, so will leave you contemplating an autumn calendar now that September has arrived.