~o~
Saturday 2nd 33F/1C. Bright and clear. A light frost on the lawn. Now expected to reach only 8C/46F today. For only a couple of hours around lunch time. Dropping to 4C/39F after 19.00. All day sunshine is promised. Light winds swinging around a westerly direction. A good day for a ride? Both batteries fully charged. Some loss of range is to be expected at these lower temperatures.
Up at 7.20 after a quiet night. The living room is at 65F/18C this morning after reaching 70F/21C last night. I let the stove go out early, at 21.00, to avoid overheating. The stove continues to give out heat from the soapstone cladding. The greenhouse is at 7C/44F after the cold night. The sunshine will raise that temperature during the day.
10.30 41F/5C. I decided to do some furniture rearrangements while the outside temperature slowly climbed. The tallboy is now upstairs. Which, I admit, made me a little breathless! I took all the drawers out first but the solid oak construction is no lightweight.
Now the display cabinet looks awful in the middle of the living room wall! It needs to be glass sided but isn't. Even with the pointed front the side are big slabs of cream. I may have to move it between the table and the TV. Then it will be seen face on and provide a TV light. So the sides should shrink visually.
The Scottish grandfather clock and the cabinet looked absurdly at odds with each other too. Like nails grating on a blackboard. Back to the kitchen with the cabinet? There is nowhere else for it in the living room. As a last resort I'll try moving it beside the TV. If not there, then it's back to the kitchen with it.
Oh dear! Now the cabinet looks like a cross between an undersized shower cubicle and a glass topped coffin! Trapped uncomfortably between the flat screen TV and the disheveled dining table. The cabinet is completely out of context with the hovel theme of interior decoration. I even inserted an E14 LED candle bulb in the hidden holder. Distinctly old fashioned illumination. Almost comically Halloween! All it needs is one of those fake skeletons and the picture would be complete.
An hour of messing about has achieved nothing very worthwhile. Except in the negative. One trapped dining chair has found new freedom. I can now seat three at the table. Albeit following an hour of clearing. Of what could easily pass as landfill on the table top.
Do I bring the tallboy back downstairs? Everything it once held is now in the huge, oak chest of drawers on the opposite wall. So arguably the tallboy is a waste of valuable space down here. No problem at all upstairs. The Scottish clock looks unhappy standing there now. There's nowhere else for it. My hovel[ling] theme is turning back to the hoarding look! There is nowhere for the eye to peacefully rest amidst this overburden.
I am still glad I bought the cabinet. I have learned far more than I care to mention here. Scale, depth, setting, styling, transparency, finish, colouration, privacy and illumination are all vitally important. Even in a messy hovel. I don't want any potential burglar seeing anything worth stealing from the most easily accessible windows. So a display cabinet standing against the north wall makes the most sense.
11.30 43F/6C. 78F/26C in the greenhouse. So I have opened the inside door to warm the house. I have moved the mirror, with the ornate, retro frame over. To beside the Scottish longcase clock. Now I have a view of the stairs from my computer chair. To what end? Who knows? It makes the clock look less self-conscious and the table less trapped between the furniture than before.
I have hidden the lower half of the cabinet behind one of my [charity shop bought] designer chairs. That, and moving the table away by a few centimeters helps. I saw the same chair at another charity shop yesterday. It was in black leather and looked hideous to my eyes! I much prefer the light tan and neutral cushions of my own precious hoard.
The ugly, dark oak, chest of drawers under the TV needs to be moved or removed. Though it has useful capacity and is being used. It could go under the easterly window. Though that would leave the computer printer exposed to morning sunshine. The printer could easily be moved. Or the legs on the chest of drawers reduced.
Then the 55" TV would have to be raised and hung from the substantial wall bracket. Which I bought ages ago and never used. The placing of the TV is remarkably limited. I cannot sit any closer to the hot stove than at present. Which makes the TV's placement absolutely critical if I am to sit square onto the screen.
Without the absurd display cabinet I could move the TV a foot [30cm] to the left on the wall. This would free it up to look more like a deliberate furnishing choice. Rather than hemmed in by circumstance, an unsightly cabinet and a foolishly large fish tank. Right. It's back to the kitchen with the cabinet! It can go in the corner. To house my wife's ornamental china and glass vegetables. Where they won't collect so much dust.
No doubt this is all very boring but at least I found something to do. Instead of running away on my e-bike. I'll have a tootle on it after lunch. So as not to completely waste the day and the pleasant sunshine. It should be warmer then too. I can shop in the next village where the choice of outlet is wider.
Is it my job to entertain the masses with my blog? Or is it just more of my thinking aloud? A personal journal of my daily existence. Which would otherwise go unnoticed by humanity. And probably still does. Should I feel guilty that I still post under the presumption of cycling in the title? When the cycling has become a smaller fraction of my output and input.
13.10 44F/6.7C. Lunch over. I have brought the dry towels in from the greenhouse. I'll get ready and go for a ride. The furnishing arrangements can wait until later.
There was an outbreak of gunfire from the hunters. The lack of prey meant the racket was very short lived.
14.30 Back from a 20km shopping ride. It felt much cooler and my eyes were watering behind the wraparound sunglasses. The winter GripGrab gloves were fine. No need for the mitts. I never even noticed the Contec saddle. I was feeling strong again and kept to higher gears to give myself some exercise. Reinforcing my gains at physiotherapy.
After putting all the shopping away I moved the display cabinet into the far corner of the kitchen. Now the bottom of the airing cupboard needs to be rearranged. To make room for more boxes of tiles from the corner of the kitchen. Now that's done as well. I moved the TV to the left but it remains on the chest of drawers. Until I make a final decision for wall mounting.
~o~
