8.04.2023 Chaos reigns!

 ~o~

 Saturday 8th 5C/41F. Overcast but sunshine expected from 10am onwards. Possibly reaching 13C/55C this afternoon. I have to shop if I am to survive on anything more than porridge and water. The shops will be closed again on Sunday and Monday for Easter.

 8.00 I am trying to organize the laundry system to better suit my desperate lack of motivation. The big willow basket just doesn't work for me. Besides it is often too dark to see anything when I need to select used clothing for laundering. 

 My wife left me lots of buckets and larger plastic baskets. She often liked the colours so I would bring them home. The baskets would allow me to separate the washing into five, easily identifiable categories. They were clean but a bit dusty. So I have given them a good scrub and will leave them to drain off in the bath. 

 I really need to get on top of the chaos which constantly surrounds me. It is exhausting as well as depressing. I keep tripping over stuff and banging my toes. Trying to tidy anything always involves moving something else first. This is usually because there is only one layer of overfull boxes on the floor. The boxes often can't be stacked safely.

 The shelving units I bought are hardly any better. Not unless I can stack things higher without creating wasted volume. Often I am limited by the sloping ceilings of the attic. Once on a shelf, a box or tray is usually impossible to identify as to its contents. Which needs much greater spacing between the shelves. The shelving units can't be any higher or they quickly reach the 45º ceilings! Having shelving units downstairs looks really awful. Like the flea market, or charity shop, nobody ever visits! The story of our lives together! It was our standing joke for years!

 Time for a walk! 

 09.20. My familiar walk to the lanes and morning coffee completed. Traffic was light. Lots of birdsong and alarms in the hedges. Shopping next. 

 11.00 49F. Still overcast. Shopping successful. I have "wasted" half an hour tidying the fallen branches in front of the abandoned neighbour's house. It just looked so unkempt and miserable. I have to pass it every time I come home. Now it looks a bit better. 

 I suppose that if it makes me feel better then the labour has value. I should do more to make my own hovel look tidier too. It is frozen in time. Because I haven't found the energy to make any real progress.  

  12.30 12C/53F. Bright sunshine for the last half hour. Though not cloud free. I split the last of the oversized logs in the trailer. Then I barrowed four loads into the greenhouse and stacked them against the house wall. 

 It was hot work in/out there! All internal doors are open again. To share the sun's warmth. I usually keep these doors closed in the colder months. To avoid heat loss to the two small halls and the bathroom. As I don't spend much time there they don't need to be warm. I use a fan heater during my showers.

 16.30 14C/57F. Bright sunshine and the first, proper spring day. The house is up to 72F/22C indoors. The last of the split firewood is stacked in the greenhouse. There is no room for more unless I stack two deep. Which would hinder movement. Nor do I want to cover the windows. A stop board at the house door would help. Instead of using a small step-up as a stop for the logs. I only lose a couple of feet of wall space for logs but it could be expanded. I don't use the old step-up any more and it looks the part.

I am using the outside rotary airer for the T-shirts and underwear. Using separate laundry baskets seems to work well. I no longer have to search for a container to take the dirty clothing downstairs. Then, after its tour in the washing machine, I still have the container. To take the clean but damp laundry to the airer[s.] Then finally, back upstairs to storage when it is dry. The baskets have two handles, are soft, but strong plastic and nest perfectly when not needed. They are a low key, sage green.

 In an ideal world, there would be chests of drawers, with a 45º back. Which would allow longer and deeper drawers at the bottom. For the bulkier stuff. With progressively shorter and shallower drawers towards the top. The front face would be conventionally vertical. There must surely be a demand for such specialized, attic furniture? Do I need a patent? 

 The better weather has me searching for an ideal spot for a formal round pond. I feel the need for the birds. To have somewhere safe to drink and splash about. The old pond in the SW corner of the garden is in constant shade. It also suffers from heavy leaf fall.

 I plan to use a large, fiberglass, parabolic dish as my pond. It is dirty white. So I will pretend it is marble and who can argue with me? Algae will soon add a nice coat of green. 

 But is it art? 😊

 The exact location for new pond/bird bath depends on an overview from the balcony room. Perhaps placed centrally would be best. I shall excavate the ground [lawn] to sink it to the rim. It will be safely shallow for the birds to bathe and drink at the edge. 

 It is 1.8m [6'] in diameter and 28cm [11"] deep in the centre. Not ideal for remaining ice free to the bottom for fish. There are too many herons to allow goldfish to survive for long. Not even with pond plants to hide amongst. We once had to rescue a heron. Which got caught under a covering net on the old pond in the corner. Herons have incredibly sharp beaks! Ask me how I know! And it ate every goldfish!

 I shall have to level the pond carefully. Then build up the soil slightly on the lower side. Where the ground slopes away. It wants to be easy to mow around. An odd combination of formal and informal. 

 Originally, I was going to place the dish on top of the chestnut tree trunk! As a giant bird bath. But that would look silly. Wouldn't it? 😂 I'd need something like an old car tire to support it evenly. Once the dish was full of water it would far too heavy for the wind to topple it.

 Getting and keeping it level is another matter. I can't drill holes and fix it down with long wood screws. It would leak! If I have the dish in/on the ground I can lead the house, gutter down pipes temporarily to the pond. To fill/refill it as necessary. I imagine evaporation will require frequent topping up in summer.

 A spot nearer the tree trunk makes better sense. It would give the birds a safe, half way perch to check if conditions are safe. Further from the house too. So less likely to intimidate some of them. I rather like it there. 

 I have moved the large logs on the right further away. Their usefulness as a natural decoration has been under consideration for some months now. Still undecided. The large log on the left is too heavy to move without levers. I think it could be brought nearer the pond to give a greater sense of encirclement or enclosure.

19.00 52F. It's that time again. I had better start thinking about dinner. Again. Curry? 😋 Or one of my infamously ugly omelettes? 😁 It was an omelette. Pride denied me the strength to share a photo.

 

~o~