3.07.2025 Tidying continues.

 ~o~

  Thursday 3rd 55F/13C [7.00] Bright sunshine again but much cooler than yesterday. Peaking at around 18C/64F and windy. Gusting to over 13m/s [30mph] from the WNW for most of the day.

 Up at 6.15 after a busy night at the fire bucket. 

 My beautiful, dappled willow collapsed to universal brown. Before new green growth unexpectedly pushed through. The combination of heat and strong winds kept blowing it over. The latter was solved by a sturdy, ceramic pot. 

 Now I try to keep a centimeter of standing water in the bottom of the blue pot. I am waiting to see if pruning is necessary. It is also badly root bound. I am waiting before I re-pot it. As I don't want to stress it any more than necessary. While it still clings to life.

 7.30 Clouded over. Time for a walk. 

 8.10 59F/15C. Back from my walk. Sunny periods and a gusty wind. It was like stepping into an oven coming back indoors. [74F/23C] A goldfinch was singing at the top of a tree. As I was standing watching it from below. It was joined by another, colourful male. 

  I might drive into town to buy some more steel shelving. I desperately need to start tidying upstairs. Lots of random containers with tools and assorted other stuff. Is spread over a wide area of floor space. Think about it in terms of a blast radius! 

 The balcony room is no tidier than it has ever been. The 45º sloping ceilings don't easily lend themselves to shelving. I could do with more IKEA storage trays too. They are tough enough to take tools. Without forcing me to search below the visible surface. 

 When you own over 100 different screwdrivers and half as many assorted pairs of pliers this is important. Having immediate and effortless access to specific tools. Is vital to avoiding serial roundtoits. There is no mental hurdle too low. Not to cause a complete standstill.

 12.20 Back from town. With two sets of steel shelving. Which are separated, as standard, into two 90cm [3'] high, vertical halves. Allowing four useful units to stand under sloping ceilings. The shelves are 45cm deep x 90cm wide. 

 Which perfectly suits the sturdy IKEA storage trays. I have two further half, shelving units in the bedroom. Which will soon be moved to the balcony room. Or onto the stage.

 I also bought a lot of cheap, storage, plastic baskets. On special offer in two different heights. The translucent tubs all had locking lids. Which are a pain in use. The tubs are also far more fragile than the baskets. I bought white baskets. Which are far more useful in poor light conditions and do not readily absorb heat from the sun. 

 I spent the afternoon sweating as I tidied upstairs.  

 Dinner was cheese on toast with halved tomatoes. 

 ~o~