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Sunday 22nd 52F, rather overcast but quite bright in the NE. A mixed day but dry is on offer. Up at 6.30 after waking much earlier. Managed to doze on. 7 weeks today since my wife died.
The remaining chestnut tree needs attention to drastically tidy the more open garden.
No, not my hovel. This immaculate half-timbered house is superbly well maintained. The doors and windows are traditional. The colour scheme slightly more adventurous.
The airing cupboard needs shelves to be returned. Stand-off pipe clamps to be installed first. To avoid obstructions.
Fit magnets to the mock drawer fronts in the kitchen. Drawers can't go where there are sinks and other downward intrusions into their path. So I made up pretend drawer fronts to match the real ones. That must have been twenty years ago.
The bedroom still has furniture and boxes which need exploration. Involving inevitable sorting, tidying and probable disposal. This area lies beyond my late wife's bed and I am not ready for that. Not yet.
The balcony [former] storage area needs the insulation to be completed. New ceiling battens, a damp proof membrane and fibre-cement ceiling panels to be fitted. All jobs for cooler days.
Though it could do with some serious tidying out there. It is mostly stuff I don't know how to dispose of. Collections from a distant past with completely different interests. With no real monetary value. Boxes of mixed, compact, aneroid barometers, for example.
The lounge still has mixed boxes of "her stuff" on the floor. More stuff I don't know what to do with. Several old food mixers. Do I just dump it at all the recycling yard? How would I know if they function, are electrically safe, or are even complete?
There are several boxes of electrical fittings. Sockets, switches, plugs and bulb holders. Some even from the UK. Why am I even holding onto them? Because my wife did the same for so many, many years? They have no interest in the charity shop system. Their only value is the severe psychological vice of acute nostalgia. I really need to break their hold on me. Or I will be surrounded in these things until my own, dying day.
8.00: Stop typing and go for a walk! A brisk one it was too. Setting a new record for reaching the lanes and returning unscathed. Passed a very tame Hooded crow. It carried on foraging in the verge. With only the width of the lane between us. Lots of new flowers in the verges.
8.50 56F. I have decided to attack the remaining tree branches. The recycling yard is open on Sundays for garden waste.
11.30 61F. Stopped for a rest. I have already delivered one, heaped trailer full of twigs and leaves to the yard. Collected, sawn, lopped and snapped two more trailer's worth. Sawn dozens of logs up to 8"Ø until the 9Ah DW battery went flat. Cleared and prepared all the branches between the tree and the boundary fence. Endless walking back and forth. It feels much warmer, working in the sunshine, than the thermometer suggests.
12.20 Oh dear. I'd gone back out and sawn more large branches until the battery died. Then I felt light headed and had to come in. I have been drinking water, orange and apple juice. So I am not dehydrated. I am dripping with sweat though. Probably just too hot. Working without shade. Ironic. Eh?
12.50. I have made a rapid recovery indoors. Several glasses of water and an apple must have helped.
13.00. 65F. Lunch over. Stay out of the sun!
17.00 64F. Afternoon tea. Just returned from my third trip of the day to the recycling yard. The last of the prepared twigs and leaves are gone. I had a good rake around to bulk up the third load.
There are a few more long branches over on the left. Which need reducing to much smaller pieces. The very biggest branches will take time to saw into manageable sizes. They are a heavy drain on the DW chainsaw battery. While I could buy a spare 9Ah battery. The high retail price does not match my [normally] rather infrequent use.
A neighbour came round to share her condolences for the loss of Shirley. Which was incredibly kind of her. I stood there talking with tears running down my cheeks. I still can't talk about my late wife without crying. She brought me some chocolates too. They were superb! I ate the whole lot.
I decided on salad for dinner this evening. The problem was that I haven't found any decent cherry tomatoes. Those on display were squidgy or actually rotten. Which is typical in Danish supermarkets recently in my experience. Even those which aren't actually rotting in the packaging taste as if they are.
So I added a few things to the basic [crinkly] crisp lettuce. Sliced cucumber, grated mature Cheddar cheese, grated carrots, tuna, boiled eggs and salad cream. I could have made boiled potatoes too but I'm still building up the nerve to try again. My last and only attempt was a disaster. They took so long to cook that the water boiled dry. So they burnt in the pan and tasted awful. 😖
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