For some while now I have been looking for an extra bookcase. In my daydreams, I saw a practical storage unit which had plenty of room for books on the bottom, and craft things/material neatly put in the shallower top shelves. In my crafting magazines, dedicated crafters all had one - though usually the sort you bought as a flat-pack and built in situ.
I went to auction yesterday, ostensibly to bid on two other lots, but I had spotted, in the dim recesses of the sale room, JUST the bookcase I wanted. It was solid mahogany, and had an auction estimate within our means. Anyway, off I went to auction, but didn't get the earlier lots I was interested in. Only one other blardy bidder at the end too, and he had more moolah than me. But I did leave a sensible bid on the bookcase. And I got it. BUT then I discovered that they didn't deliver, and since the bookcase was about 6 feet square, there was no way I was going to fit it in the back of the car. . . My husband was Not Amused, as you can imagine. I tried to have a conversation with a neighbour to see if he could help me out, but his mobile was in a poor reception area, and I was left not knowing whether he could fetch it or not. Out of desperation, I tried a Man and a Van link on the internet, and had quotes from £29 to £50 to fetch it the 10 miles . . . Anyway, the neighbour turned up after all and fetched it today, and I am delighted. HE thought I was barking mad, (he would buy new from a shop) but hey-ho, horses for courses!
It will have to live in the hall for the moment, as it's too heavy to take upstairs and my sewing room has a sort of hobbit-hole entrance (only square) which allows nothing bigger than a carefully-managed bed through. I hate to tell my husband that perhaps he could bring all my craft books DOWNSTAIRS again now . . . In the pic, the books are only there temporarily, being ones my OH sorted out today to rehome, and the few bits of material were to show him what I meant about storing material in the top bits . . .
Meanwhile, it has been raining all afternoon. As I came back from dropping our son at the bus stop, I saw quite a few fields had been cut for haylage and just needed a few more hours to get it baled in perfect condition. However, the rain came in early. One farmer was desperately baling as his tractor driver went a row ahead of him fluffing up the windrows with the tedder. It was a smallish field, so I hope they got it all baled in time. It isn't often you see small bales being made these days, but here in Wales some of the fields are pretty small and the old die-hards stick with tradition.
Our boy-cats have returned from their nights-out on the tiles. Little Whale returned absolutely sopping at tea-time and then went and laid on the sofa to dry out. I have just heard growls and yowls in the top hall as he and his brother Alfie (aka Wild Thing) play-fight. Well, perhaps not so much play at times as it soon descends into a free-for-all. Then they calm down, and one will lick the other, until all of a sudden one has the other by the throat and it's no holds barred again! They do make me laugh.
