Oof, this lady was hanging around this morning and yes, her legs span the size of a brick.
Autumn is here, cold nights not only mean I can finally sleep again, but also beautiful misty morning walks in the woods.
It is time to replace this lovely but rather massive iron bed as it is just too big for my bedroom. It’s really high so the proportions don’t work in a small cottage. I am replacing it with my (much missed) oak bed that I left in the house in London when I moved out 3 years ago. With the help of Colin, and Cat’s LandRover, we collected a new second hand oak bed I had purchased online to replace mine in London, brought it home and swapped it over with the iron bed.
It is a much better fit for the room, the iron bed made the room look quite small!
Thanks for all the heavy lifting as always, Colin!
Since I moved out of London 3 years ago I have had 2 big suitcases full of clothes that I haven’t opened (mainly office clothes and posh dresses, both things I have little use for now), so I’ve had a massive clear out and created a great deal more space in my bedroom.
7 days after planting the grass seed it is beginning to shoot!
I have also had a huge clear out in the study, boxes of files and paper work, and this filing cabinet that was stuffed full of shit I no longer need, mainly defunct tech equipment and a lot of software on CD’s (showing just how old these drawers are!) The office has been packed full of boxes since we moved in and it was not a pleasant place to be because of it. I have been ruthless and it felt really good! I have burnt masses of old paperwork and the filing cabinet has been donated to Colin for his workshop (there is no place for fake wood furniture in this house!)
The study had been full since we moved in and I couldn’t walk across the floor.
The next room I attack is Cat’s old bedroom where there were so many boxes and bags piled up that we haven’t seen the carpet since we moved in. This is where we dumped all our ‘shit for sorting’ and it had remained that way ever since.
Getting there!
I can see the carpet now!
I made 2 trips to the tip, donated a car load to the local charity shop and have a ton of things to sell on eBay. Also we can now use the table here to paint things like the cupboard doors.
Cat can now get to her wardrobe and find things.
Jasper has a new toy fox which he loves.
Colin is on the back garden again, scarifying and digging up more weeds before cutting the grass. This lawn is almost unrecognisable to the muddy trench it was a couple of months ago and Colin is fast becoming obsessed with his lawns…
A neon orange slug. Yuk and wow all in one breath.
19 days after planting the grass seed in the front. I have been watering it every day, sometimes twice if it is particularly warm. It’s almost a lawn again!
A local cat was using it as their toilet for the first couple of weeks as we had essentially created a giant litter tray for them, but thankfully they stopped soon after they came face to face with Jasper the dog one dark evening…
Jet washing time! This is the area in the back garden outside our kitchen door and has been green and slimy since we moved in 4 years ago, and is also now covered in builder’s dust. I have jet washed the patio in the back garden but never managed to get to this. It suddenly became very necessary as a mouse had died here and was rotting. I thought it was a large seed head at first as it was fluffy and white, but then I looked closely after a few days and saw a tail and then the maggots…
We knew these pathways were built out of old stone (we suspect old flagstones from inside which someone butchered circa 1980 into crazy paving – bloody sacrilege), but when I cleaned them up I was stunned by the colours!
Before.
After.
Before.
After.
I got carried away and everything (within reach of the hose) got jet washed including the bins, my bike, the walls, the water butts and the BBQ.
It’s a messy business, I was covered head to toe in mud.
Literally the next morning, and very sadly, I found another mouse that had died in exactly the same spot as the previous one… I am hoping these weren’t Mallory and Mickey Mouse who used to live in our house before we did all the renovation work 🙁