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Tuesday 9th 50F, bright start. Cloud expected. Up at 5am after being stung/bitten by a gnat on the sole of my foot at 3am! I should sleep inside the duvet cover but I am far too restless. I'd probably end up unable to move as I spiralled into a tight knot. They'd find me eventually. Looking like an Egyptian mummy! I dabbed the wound with Witch Hazel and that helped to ease the burning pain.
08.30 64F/13C and sunny with lots of cloud and persistent vapour trails. Just a half hour walk to the lanes. My third lampshade has come in. So I can complete my kitchen worktop makeover. After years of a dim overhead light, in an antique glass shade, I am delighted with the new LED lights.
My poor old car should be tested and ready for collection today after the periodic safety test. I prefer the comfort of my 1996 Japanese hatchback to the small, modern car I was loaned by the garage. Though it was fine as a runabout for a day or two.
10.00 Overcast. I am waiting for the word on collecting the car from the garage. So I have been tidying the garden and pulling out the dandelions. Some of my wife's flower pots didn't produce anything. They have been emptied onto the lower garden. Behind the felled chestnut. This will help to bring up the level slightly. More compost will be added to smooth things out.
The pond in the corner continues to drop in level. I am presuming a leak in the liner. Which must be twenty years old. The pond's position is now very poor. Due to the trees which have shot up since I dug and installed it. I could fill the excavation with soil from my wife's vast, compost heap. Though it would be quite hard work and very time consuming. To barrow the soil between the heap in the opposite corner of the garden to the hole. Which is 3mx3m [ten feet square] and a meter [40"] deep. Over 45m from the compost heap.
Bringing compost from the recycling yard in the trailer. Would allow me to shovel, or rake it, straight into the hole. Though it still has to be shovelled into the trailer at the yard. The compost heap is poorly accessible. Impossible to reach with the trailer or car. Barrow only, narrow and uphill for the first ten meters.
I went to collect the car. It was mostly about the brakes. New lines, a bit of rust to be plated and a CV joint boot. Much more comfortable and quieter than the modern thing I borrowed. I also fetched the third lampshade for the kitchen. What a facelift compared to the decades with a vintage glass shade. Stuck up on the low [cottage] ceiling. My wife mostly relied on the cooker hood light after dark. She would never use the overhead light. Nor the two small glass shades I installed over the old counter top.
I heard a noise next door. So I went round to check. A contractor is clearing the garden of the recently left, neighbours' junk.
While I was shopping I looked into a charity shop. In the forlorn hope of finding something comfortable to sit on. I have no armchairs downstairs and nothing very useful upstairs. I spotted four wood framed, high backed, armchairs in tan leather. With elegantly sculpted frames and arms in what looks like laminated ply.
The removable leather cushions were clearly marked "Stouby" on the back. As made by a Danish, designer furniture maker. I could not believe how comfortable they were! I tried all four. Just in case. Pessimist! 🙄
The final two will be for the lounge/living room. Stouby furniture sells cheaply on the small ads websites. So I had paid the going price. I am still trying to identify the model. Some of this designer's chairs have names.
I had nowhere to photograph a chair which would not embarrass me with background clutter. Short range, flash, wide angle, the chair pushed against the unlit stove. This is the best I can do for the moment. Just look at those curves!
18.00 70F/21C. Needless to say I am delighted with my purchase. Having destroyed our 3-seater sofa from the 1970s. To make room for my wife's hospital bed in the lounge. There has been nothing to sit on except rickety, bodgers elm, dining chairs. Visitors had to be offered a sturdy coffee table to sit on!
Of course this means I have to do some more tidying. To make room for the chairs in the lounge. I have already carried the "TV chair" upstairs. It feels like it is easing the tiredness out of my back the moment I sit down. Wonderful! But how, on earth, will I stay awake? 😊
Dinner was chicken curry [again.] The second half of the large jar of Ben's Medium Curry sauce. I rinsed the rice and dropped it into the pan of boiling water. Giving it a full half hour of boiling/simmering this time.
First I diced the second chicken breast with toothed kitchen scissors. Then fried the pieces until they discoloured. "Brown" is not what I'd call it. I added the pieces of cleaned and washed mushroom to the pan. Then fried the whole lot together for 20 minutes. I used the rice simmering period as my clock. With a halfway setting on the hob ring to avoid splatter.
This time I added water to the sauce and shook it thoroughly in the jar. Before adding the diluted sauce to the pan and giving the mix a full ten minutes to bubble around boiling point. The result was a great improvement in the sauce. Though I couldn't taste the mushrooms. The rice remains stubbornly hard. Though better than last time.
The new "TV chair" was great. I had been sliding off the front of the smoker's chair for twenty five years! Despite having fitted carpet protection cups to the front legs. The designer chair was everything I could ask of it. It just feels absolutely right. I'm wondering if I could use one for the computer. Though I would need some support for the keyboard and mouse pad on my lap.
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