A Brand New Week

I have just hung seven white and natural cotton or linen shirts on the line. Now, I am not certain how many neutral shirts a body actually needs but I do think that perhaps seven is a little over the top.

The wardrobe rail having collapsed, I took the opportunity of weeding my clothes and tidying the cupboards. The repair has been effected and I now have far fewer clothes placing a strain on the fittings. This is mainly because most of them are in the wash. I spent much of my weekend doing excessive amounts of laundry. Yesterday was interesting as it was really too windy to hang clothes out and I think some of my knickers may now be on North Ron. It is not much better today – “fresh” might be the term applied – and so I need to keep one eye on the line at all times if my whites are not to end up covered in grass stains and chicken poo.

See this?

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What a mess!” you might cry – but you should have seen the “before” – this is “after” a lot of hard work that we put in yesterday and, believe me, things are looking much smarter. It’s an ongoing job of work and we shall likely be pressure washing after work.

That bank on the right of the shot was reasonably stable when we moved in here but the acquisition of chickens proved too much for it. They scratch around and have loosened the bank base until it spills over the concrete. Weeds and grass had set root and the whole thing was a mess. On the right hand side was where we stacked our scrap. Living on an island presents some challenges in the waste removal arena. Some folks fly tip, we just decorate the garden… Over time we determined that behind the garage was the best place to stack stuff and that it was most likely to remain unmoved by the gales if we plopped it there. Again, grass and weeds had grown up, through and beyond.

As this part of the garden receives very little light, the path becomes covered in algae and moss and turns into a death trap at this time of year. We pressure wash annually to make it safe but this year things were looking just far too messy to even attempt the job. We badly needed to cut back. Hack and slash.

The scrap is now piled tidily in front of the Land Rover. The car should hide the ugliness most of the time, until we can arrange a scrap collection. We are just a little worried that a strong Northerly might blow all the rubbish into the car.

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This is only a small part of what was effected yesterday. A general cutting back and edge-smartening went on and today neither of us is moving very freely, despite a good long soak in a hot bath last night.

Also yesterday – I took some photographs of the cotton and spindle that Laurie Schlitter brought for Gill and I – these were for the Sanday Spinners blog and one made it onto Blipfoto too. I also managed a few rounds on my doily – though not many, we were in need of an early night. I continued reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared on my Kindle. Mr L is reading one of my Gollancz paperbacks – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Film of the Book: Bladerunner). He has read it before – one of the few books that he has read that don’t involve computer languages and syntax. His logic in choosing this, rather than one of the other seven, was that he knew that he would enjoy it and it was also the thinnest! All the same, it is good to see him reading a real book instead of a magazine. Perhaps he’ll get the taste for it and then wade through a few more as the winter wears on.

I have a very long task list this week and must go to town too. I am not at all sure that I can fit everything in. I shall do my best.

Enjoy your shiny new week – don’t break it.

 

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