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.
I am tired out, worried sick and frustrated. There are yet more demands from our buyer for things to be checked - he clearly is Very Organized BUT the stress is affecting my health - yet another day when I thought I was about to have a heart attack, and spent half the night awake fretting. I do not WANT any more people going into every room in my house - there is a Pandemic and we are in a LOCKDOWN here. Our home is the only place we feel safe and yet we are being constantly invaded by people asked to verify its integrity and being robbed of that security. (Update: everything now sorted and going ahead according to plan. Relieved is an understatement).
It is pouring with rain, so no chance of a walk to unwind. It's back to the master suite today I think. We made good progress going through the under-eaves storage in the sleepover room yesterday and I found two lots of different 1977 Laura Ashley fabric which I will list for sale on eBay, if I find the time. A basket full of fabrics destined for a rag rug are now destined for the bonfire (and I have a spare basket again!) and more books from the long bedroom (craft room) have been gone through and are destined for the Sally Army when we are out of Lockdown.
When I was going through my collection of vintage pony books yesterday, I was in tears when I came across Ponies and Caravans and The Ponies of Bunts (Oliver & Ducat, authors). They were written in the 1930s and had photos from the time to illustrate the pony adventures. Children and ponies and a gypsy vardo caravan travelling for a holiday (and naughty Petronella had to learn some lessons!) Another world. I remember buying them at the Jumble Sale in Testwood Village Hall nearly 60 years ago. They weren't worth much and I can't part with them, but gosh, being transported back in time so clearly to a happy carefree time just overwhelmed me. Those happy carefree days of childhood.
Right, this won't do. Work calls me.
Yesterday the Surveyor employed by our buyer arrived to carry out the Survey. He seemed a nice chap, who arrived promptly at 9 a.m. - I had "12ish" written down on the calendar from his e-mail . . . I was still in the middle of breakfast and Tam was still in bed! Action stations! He asked lots of questions and got me to show him round the house before he did his survey, so now we have to wait and see. He did say that we had done a good job on the house . . . and he did understand old houses and how lime worked . . .
I am glad that is done and dusted and hopefully there will be no further potential "blockages" to our move. I am allowing myself tentative imaginings of us in our new home, but I don't want to tempt fate and won't believe it's really happening until we get the key to our new front door.
Anyway, by the time he had gone, Tam and I had missed the PO but I had bought postage on line for my little parcel to a friend and was able to pop it in the box. So we went on into town, despite the Lockdown, as we had to get Keith's prescription, and then braved Lidl, which was fairly quiet, as were the roads.
Driving home, our lane was very busy with walkers and a family out enjoying the sunshine. From the forecast, it looks "very unsettled" for the rest of the week. We didn't have any chance for a walk as whilst it was dry, we needed to move some more bits of "useful wood" along to our neighbour's. Keith's main workshop is going to be a real challenge to clear!
I shall go downstairs and read for a bit now. I have finished the Eleanor trilogy and now I am reading a crime novel set in the Purbeck Hills of Dorset, which I know well. It is Blood Water by Ted Baker. I will go back to bed later (have the electric blanket on) but not sure if I will get back to sleep . . .
Update - I didn't drop off again - I was chilled and glad to get up at 7.30. I have even had soup for breakfast to warm me up! Grey and drizzly out there, so another day of going through bookcases and cupboards is likely here.
An "Atkinson Grimshaw" moon tonight . . . behind mucky-looking clouds.
For once, I didn't wake at the crack of dawn when the clocks went back and in fact, slept in until 8.40 p.m. which is unheard of for me. I obviously needed the sleep. I have been keeping busy all day, but turned some jobs into Sitting Down jobs. One of these, this afternoon, when there was something I wanted to watch on tv, was the Quilting Magazine Cull. I was Ruthless again, and went through them asking myself, was there anything I wanted to make that I didn't already have in a book (or could find on line, come to that?) Very few quilting magazines passed the test, and in fact the ones that stayed were some Period Home magazines, a Homes and Antiques magazine, and a couple of Christmas magazines for the ideas in them. Now someone will benefit from me shedding more "stuff". I have earmarked some sewing books to go to a friend from my patchwork group who I know is always looking out for fresh ideas. I will donate the magazines to Alex, who runs the patchwork group, along with two bin liners full of fabrics. I am not giving up making quilts, but being very specific with what I make in future.
We took another load for storage at a friend's, along with some apples, pears and some culled country cookery books for her. I know she will enjoy all.
I picked up 3 grocery shopping bags full of windfall apples and will give the remaining two bags to other (unsuspecting!) neighbours.
I caught up with the ironing too, changed the office curtains for some new ones I bought (think I did that yesterday actually), and have vacuumed the house from top to bottom (another survey being done tomorrow - hopefully one which won't condemn our house as unfit to live in . . .) I shall be glad when tomorrow is over though.
Hoping that Pat is comfortable in Hospital and is already mending. Thinking of you my dear. I hope you have a good book to read whilst you are laid up.
Looking across to Llanfynydd on a recent walk.
In my corner of Blogland, blogging friends have mentioned that one of my favourite Bloggers Pat (Weaver of Grass) has had a fall and broken her hip. She is now in Hospital, but I hope will be on the mend again soon and back home.
These things happen so easily - Keith has a barked shin from tripping over the sack truck yesterday and we have to go out this morning to Llandeilo to get dressings and tape . . .
Keep safe all.
Another long long working day again today. Down to the Tip this morning, and another lot of junk gotten rid of. Then home via Dunelm so I could get some cheap-but-nice curtains to go up here in my office to replace the £65 ones I would really rather take with me. Then Tam and I helped Keith go through the cart shed workshop (he has two workshops), and consign lots of formerly "useful bits of wood" to the woodshed for burning on the fire. I took a break from that to do some weeding in the bed in the stable yard, and then as it was fine, Tam and I set to and took the Polytunnel down. It took a lot longer than we had expected, and we were very glad to have all the matching pieces held together in bundles with sticky tape, and all the screws appropriately bagged. Now it is in a box in the cart shed, and the cover is drying off in Fahly's old stable - there was mud around the bottom apron where it had been held down with boulders.
The title for today's post is something Tam taught me today. She said she knew it from Scrubs - which the girls used to watch back in their teens. It refers to loosening and tightening screws . . . Gormless here happened to mention, "This screw seems to be getting tighter". Tam came to check and said that didn't surprise her as I was actually tightening it and then she said,"Loosey lefty, righty tighty" and that tickled my funny bone! Never heard it before.
After we had tidied everything polytunnelish away, I was beyond cooking a meal, so it was bung a pizza from the freezer in the oven time. However, I still had to bake a cake as we have a friend coming tomorrow to collect some of our stuff for storage. I had promised him Socially Distanced cake.
I rather think that a couple of wine glasses of Cider wouldn't go amiss tonight and may even help me sleep through - I have had two nights where I have been awake half the night, plus having my Flu Jab yesterday and every time I rolled over in bed my jabbed arm said ouch. Better today and no ill-effects from the injection that I can see.
Banc-y-Daren, just above the "swing bridge".
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and on my hunkers this afternoon. Yet another long busy day, making decisions about books which I can bear to part with (but would rather not if given a choice), taking 5 boxes of books to a charity shop this morning, along with craft things and odds and sods. Another 6 are going tomorrow, so that will be over 30 now.
This morning we took rubber stable mats along to give to our smallholding friend, along with Tam's grooming kit in its purple box (happy horsey memories), and also gave her some windfall Pears, and a huge bag of apples and some pears to the lass who milks for Next Door. Both were delighted.
There are more phone calls, another chap came to quote on something and now with the added looming Welsh Lockdown to put a complete spanner in the works. At least during Lockdown we can get on and sort more stuff out and hopefully get on top of it. I have booked another Tip Trip for Thursday, so after we have our flu jabs, and a short rest tomorrow, we will sort out what is going to the Tip from the pony stables.
Tam is cooking our tea tonight - we got an M&S meal deal yesterday and ate the Tart au Citron part of it with lunch! Yummy it was too. Tea is a Chicken, Leek and Bacon Pie and Tenderstem Broccoli. There is a bottle of Rose for later.
Whilst we were in town yesterday, I treated Keith and I to a magazine each, and mine was Homes and Antiques which had some lovely ideas in for decorating possibilities in our new home. Then we went Christmas shopping (!!!) briefly in TK Maxx and I got Keith and I bamboo socks (his are to go towards his birthday present) and some edible presents for a very aged aunty (96 now, what do you buy a 96 year old?) We were very careful and wore our masks of course, tried not to touch anything and had hand gel on multiple times.
When we went into M&S as Tam had a voucher to spend, there was a father in front of us (on his mobile), not social distancing, and allowing his 6 or 7 yr old son to touch everything - he must have touched just about EVERY leaf and flower of every plant offered for sale there. I said, loud enough to be heard, "Remind me not to buy flowers in here" to Tam. Yeesh. Much hand gel and hand washing when we got home, and clothes into quarantine (jacket) or wash (sweatshirt). I will be glad when we aren't going out again, tbh . . .
Right, I am being called for my evening meal so will leave you with this photo from a recent walk - it used to be called the "swing bridge" and we still call it that, although as you can see, it is very solid now!!
