Struggling to stay awake

 

It was a long night.  I was still awake at gone 1 a.m. and then woke at 6.10 a.m. for the day.  In between I woke for the loo twice.  I think I should sleep tonight.

    Quite apart from the lack of sleep last night, I have worked hard all day (well, we all have).  I started the day by stripping, vacuuming and remaking our bed.  Then I made a tentative start on cleaning the oven.  I have done the floor of it with Bicarb. of Soda and vinegar.  Then soaked and scrubbed the drip tray and the shelving.  Whilst that was soaking I scrubbed the glass door, and left that damp for a while too.

    Upstairs next, where I went through some more drawers and various bits have been burned, put in the charity box or kept.  I stripped the single bed in the blue bedroom and put all the bedding to wash.  Then back down to carry on with the oven, then the drainer got a scrub, then the sink.

    

    In my office I then filled 3 big Banana boxes with archaeology books.  I will take most of my collection with me and sort them out at my leisure once we have moved.  Next week I will contact my old University and see if they want any good archaeology books for their Library - I am sure that the PSAS year books would be welcome.  (PSAS = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland - I am a lapsed Fellow.) 

    A dry day called me outside to help Tam and Keith to carry on taking wood and rubbish to yet another bonfire.  A sobering thought that we have - of necessity as our buyer wants it gone before he arrives - burned a winter's worth of wood.  I think he would be the sort of buy logs ready to use, unlike us, who cut our own home-grown wood.  

Whilst T & K moved wood, I got out all the cans of paint to go to the Tip next week.  Which reminds me, I must book a 2nd visit for the end of the week as there is still a lot of junk to go.  Heaven knows why we hung onto it so long.  I wish I didn't have to get rid of useful quantities of paint but I am sure they will want to change colour schemes when they get here, so no point in keeping cans of what we have used.

    I had a bung-it moment with some strawberry runner babies on the principle that I can't take everything I have in a pot and small things have to go.

    Then we had a nerve-wracking time getting the wood down from the mezzanine floor in the Cart Shed.  Tam has no head for heights and from the rung she was happy to stand on, couldn't reach to pull down the old floorboards that used to be in the attic.  I offered to go up, but no-one seems to trust me on a ladder (!) and despite our pleading to him NOT to go up there because his shin injury is still healing and just the wrong part of his leg for leaning against ladder rungs - Keith went up and then climbed ONTO the mezzanine.  I was NOT a happy bunny as his balance has been affected by the medication he's on.  Anyway, he coped perfectly well, although my nerves were shredded.

    I came indoors before them and Tam came in and said, "Dad's leg is running with blood".  Of course, I had an instant moment of panic, then saw her grin and Keith walked in grinning even more! Ragbags the pair of them!!

    Tam and I, after a long deliberation, decided to keep the dusty and unrestored top of a writing desk.  It must be mid-Victorian, ebonized solid mahogany, with inlaid brass boule work filigree (SO pretty) and little hand-made handles with terminals like ivy leaves.  Two handles are missing but I hope we can find something to suit.  I'll give it a wipe down tomorrow and take a photo.  Though it needs a bit of imagination in its current state!

    I have clocked up over 15,000 steps again - without even going out the front gate (except in the car to get the Saturday paper).  

    There is wine but I have the feeling I will have one glass and be out for the count . . .

Up in Smoke

 

This is our third bonfire in the past few days.  Lots of Keith's "useful bits of wood" going up in smoke, along with some collapsing chests of drawers which used to have other previously-considered-useful workshop contents.  About 8 of my big (empty) planters are now full of detritis to go to the Tip next week and I have booked our appt. already.

    I have just watched as partial rolls of left-over carpet from the house have been added to the fire, as well as a big bag of rags which had once been destined to make a rag rug.  If I decide to do that, I can always find more fabric at car boot sales, presuming we WILL safely be able to go to them again.  A bonfire is so satisfying, I have to say.  All this stuff should have gone years ago but we have been brought up to keep useful things - if you want 200 year old bits of oakto mend an antique, they just can't be bought at Jewson's!

    Now Fahly's stable which became Keith's main workshop is gradually being emptied and the collection of "stuff to go" (by man and van) is getting smaller, which is a big relief. 

     

    

Sam and Squeaker, who are great buddies, will not be coming with us to the new house.  Nor will Miffy, our mama cat.  She is feral and totally hefted to the farm and being fed here and is still nervy at times - then all over you the minute you have started stroking her.  Sam is a sweetheart BUT he is a problem here as he a bully towards our two tabby boys, and when I went into the kitchen the other evening, he was threatening Theo, having jumped up onto the white dresser, where Theo was snuggled into one corner (I had removed the china on there as he obviously felt safe there).  Sam also has it in for Ghengis, and so we are relieved that our buyers were happy to take them all on.  Our cats will be VERY happy not to have to contend with Sam at our new home.

    Today I am feeling a lot more relaxed than I was yesterday.  All sorts of things had gotten on top of me - one I can't share at the moment, but believe me it is the worst kind of worry at the present time.  By 5 p.m. my nerves were in shreds and I had to get Tam pour me a helpful Gin and Lemonade (Aldi's Spiced Plum and Clementine Gin is amazing).  I am not a spirits drinker but in recent weeks, having gotten so stressed, the occasional Gin has helped to calm me down again.  P.S.  One of the worries was Ghengis, who had become ill again and had to go back to the vet.  They took him inside and gave him a long-lasting antibiotic injection.  He's also back on the Loxicom.   Well, he had been using the litter tray, but still looked uncomfortable, and in the afternoon he was very sick (he is rarely sick).  He was sleeping a bit more but still not right.  This evening he did the most ENORMOUS wee in the hall - which is fortunately quarry tiles.  It took a whole newspaper to mop it up.  I think the waterworks are working again  now! 

    I am not in a cooking mood AT ALL at the moment, so tea will be sausages and mash.  Easy peasy.  I am starting to try and eat our way through the contents of the freezers as the Removal company we are using say that freezers must be empty . . .  NOT what I want in the run-up to Christmas and with Brexit looming on the horizon.

    Time to peel some spuds I reckon.  Have a good weekend all.

A Walk to Lift the Spirits

 

After a week of storms, the gales and rain left us with some sunshine and Tam and I took advantage and did my favourite walk (for the views).  

We are still going through our belongings, shedding more clothing to the charity shops when they open again, and sorting through fabrics (more to go for community patchwork), and yes, still a few more books.

Looking into the distance, the river Towy has burst its banks along the floodplain of the valley.

The mountains were looking beautiful as always.  We will miss that view when we leave but hey, there are ones nearly as good where we are going.

The lane ahead, and many trees stripped of their leaves already (Ash are the last to get them and the first to lose them).

    A different view of our "Canter Field" walk, which enters along the lane heading past the white house in the centre.  That is built on what used to be the Canter Field, and the one we had our hay bales from each summer when we had the horses.  Neighbours of ours used to live in the farm you can see, but after he died, his wife moved into a bungalow and I believe their son took over the farm.

    There is still more paperwork to be dealt with from the Vendor's Solicitors, and the Agent for the house we are buying has been in touch to see what we might want left with the house, so we have inherited a garden bench, plant pots, a big Buddha head and a roomy bookcase in the house.  

    I am feeling very tired and just want to sit and read.  Tea is going to be very straightforward - home made fish and chips.  Spuds are peeled already.  Whilst Tam does the meal I will quickly mix a Manderin Orange cake so that can go in the oven when the meal has come out.

    I've nearly finished Ted Baker's Blood Water and can recommend it, moreso if you know the Purbecks in Dorset, which are very familiar to me.  When we first moved here, we hadn't intended to stay longer than to do the house up, and head back to the West Country, but then our plans went completely awry, and now it seems we are destined to see out our days in Wales.  The West Country has always been pulled beyond our grasp, one way or another.  Wales is so beautiful, so we won't complain.

    

Monday

 Not a very exciting title, but my brain just wants to hibernate.  I had a blip with my asthma medications on Saturday night and it made my heart go at 3 times its normal (slow) rhythm, which was really quite scary at the time and I still don't feel relaxed.  One of my medications has the side-effect of heart arythmia - and the last time I had this effect, I was in hospital for 24 hours having it checked out . . .  

Anyway, after Storm Aiden and other Wet and Windy Events, our river has been up and stayed up.  It's like this again this morning, but the photos were taken last Thursday:

Apparently it's Saturday . . .

. . . but it doesn't feel like it.  Mind you, I don't know which day it DOES feel like, but that's what happens when you are in Lockdown and have no proper daily markers to get you through the week (apart from Wednesday, which is grocery delivery day).  

The view across the paddock  a couple of weeks ago.  Fewer apples on the tree now and the Polytunnel is taken down and ready for transport to its new home.

It's blowing more than half a gale out and the clouds are heading North-East at some speed.  In fact it was the wind that woke me up this morning.  Hmmm, any walk is going to be a bit brisk.  I shall go out for the paper first thing, and try and remember to put the last bag of books in the car ready for when our patchwork teacher comes over this morning to collect them for the community shop, along with plenty of patchwork magazines and some fabrics for her.  I am hoping she will want to take on a charity project with the applique blocks from many many years ago which had originally been destined to make a quilt for charity, but I got distracted and they got stowed away, and so now they will have a 2nd chance.  I always think I have more spare time than I actually have.

    

Up the valley by the swing bridge, with Banc-y-Daren in the background.

    I can see I am going to be picking up more fallen apples today.  I am only using the biggest to stew up and am still (trying to!!!) give away bags of windfalls to  unsuspecting victims . . .

    Torrential rain out now.  Looks like a good day to make a pan of soup.  If it carries on like this it will be another day for indoors exercise - the number of times I am going up and down stairs at the moment, sorting the attic rooms out.  Not difficult to clock up 12000 steps without going out the front gate.  Tea is already sorted - the other half of last night's tasty lasagne, totally home made of course, right down to the white sauce from scratch . . .  Well done Tam.

    Off for some breakfast now, and to read a few more pages of Blood Water by Ted Baker, which is a crime novel set in the Dorset Purbecks, an area I know well.

    Ghengis had his trip to the vet yesterday and is now on Loxicom for his cystitis (poor boy was on the litter tray every few minutes yesterday afternoon) and an eye ointment for his eye (Conjunctavitis).  Then in the afternoon I had to take Keith to the Dr's to have his barked shin checked out as it wasn't looking as if it was healing and there was redness around the edges of the wounds.  So he's now on anti-biotics.  Hope both my boys are better soon.

    

I Surrender

 

Hercules aircraft flying across our valley (as they regularly do).

Another busy day.  First thing Keith and I braved the weather and had a walk along by the river, which was speeding merrily towards Carmarthen Bay. The leaves were spinning off the beech trees, all the colour of good bay horses and shining with rain.  I noticed that the Betony was still in bloom on the riverbank - little purple notes of summer joy.

    I managed to delay my breakfast until gone 10.30 today (it helps with weight loss to eat in a restricted time period), then I cooked up more windfall apples and pears, and made a Lemon Drizzle Cake.  Then just when that came out of the oven I put the temperature up and 10 mins later put in a tray of Cheese scone wedges.  Oh my!  These are SO tasty.  I also baked an extra large loaf of Granary bread, but that was in the breadmaker so just a case of putting the ingredients on and setting the menu. 

     This afternoon Tam and I went back to the top of the house to finish sorting out what is to keep, what is for charity and what is rubbish.  From now on in I just have to surrender to whatever has to be gotten rid of (but I have squirrelled away the other half of my West Country books - Shhhhhhhhhh!)

     Danny's DVD's are all in a box for him to collect when he is able, and his books in a box on one side too.  Tam and I finished sorting in the sleepover room - there was a LOT more in there than I remember.  I went through another box of fabrics and have shed another black bin liner full which will be going to Alex, who teaches us patchwork, along with the patchwork magazines I am shedding, and several boxes of GOOD books for the charity shelf in our community-run shop/PO at Court Henry.  When I went out for the paper this morning (hoping to catch Alex) I dropped off two bags of patchwork and knitting books and another bag of apples to Mair, who is another patchwork group member and she was delighted.  She makes lots of jams, chutneys and cakes with the apples.

      So now we have two rooms done up there now, which is very pleasing.  Yet more things to go to the charity shop or bin, but we have an awful lot of bedding which we need to sort through.  There is a limit to how many duvets and pillows and bed quilts you need.  I stripped the spare bed, now that no-one is viewing, and downsizing the super kingsize duvet cover will be a job for when we have moved.

    Dusk seemed to come very early tonight - by 5 p.m. it was quite gloomy outside.  Ah well, another day nearer to the shortest day - let's think positive!

    Tomorrow morning first thing I have to take Ghengis to the vet's as he has cystitis again- I am finding it hard to get the specific Urinary care biscuits, so he has been on the Senior Cat ones instead.  I've just checked Amazon and ordered some from there to give me time to source them locally.  He also has a sore eye - it looked weepy this morning, then better this afternoon, and now worse again, so that will get sorted too.  Poor chap.

    

       .

An afternoon off

 I am breathing a huge sigh of relief this afternoon, having ironed out yesterday's problems, and had reassurances.  We had to dash into town to Bank and Solicitors this morning, and now await the delivery of the groceries, which will promptly be Chernobyled.