3.05.2022 Playing at kitchen design.

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 Tuesday 3rd 44F, overcast start clearing to brightness. Breezy. Up at 6am. The "experts" agree on 7 hours of sleep being optimum for old farts like me.

 No walk so far. I was expecting another workman but they haven't turned up. 

 My next project/creative therapy is a complete redesign of the layout of the kitchen worktop. I shan't bore you with [all] the details. New, 3.63m long worktop. Laminate for practicality and cleanliness. Oak, wood grain is easy on the eye, low reflection and matches the existing one. Scrap the existing wooden worktop, the cooker, both inset sinks and the old extractor hood.

 I have ordered a new, ceramic hob to go in the middle of the new and longer worktop. By sheer coincidence the new board will extend exactly over the old cooker area. So I will gain a useful working surface beyond the sink. Yet to examine making shelving arrangement under that surface. Pans?

 A new and MUCH QUIETER extractor system will be going up through the ceiling above the new hob. The old one was like a jet engine and UNUSABLE! I have ordered a new, stainless steel sink with built in draining board. [No fuss practicality!] 

 Now I just have to rearrange the mixer tap, plumbing and drainage. Job done. 😏😊 

 I have just checked the temperatures. Outside in shade 60F. Indoors upstairs 72F. Downstairs kitchen 64F on the sunny side of the house. Greenhouse [sensor in shade] pro-quality shade netting over roof area only, 103F! With the hedge all but gone I now need to shade the front of the greenhouse. 

 I went to the city in the afternoon to collect the new kitchen worktop. It came back lying on top of the trailer and well strapped down. It was incredibly heavy. Just at about my limit to carry it across to the house. 

 Once inside I discovered that simple geometry is no answer to limited space. It would no go into the kitchen. Not even when I took the kitchen door off. Not even with one end in the bathroom and the other up in the corner of the kitchen ceiling! If I lifted it to go out of the window above the sink it would still not clear the corner. It is about 15cm too long. 

 By coincidence I have a plank of exactly the same length. I shall try that tomorrow to see what might work. It might just go out of the window. With the other end in the front hall. Without having to lift the dead weight of the worktop itself. I would much rather not cut the board any shorter. 

 It felt wrong today being in the city without my wife in the passenger seat. Though I had been there several times on my own since she gave up going out. It didn't feel wrong then. Because I knew I could come back to find her at home.

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2.05.2022 Ever onwards!

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 Monday 2nd 35F, light frost on the grass. Bright sunshine with patchy mist. Up at 5.30. I have a bad back.[Again.] 

6.00  No real plans yet. I need a fence post and a sturdier post for the post box. This needs a builder's merchant. I can deal with several topics while I am there. Including their quote for a smaller, bedroom window and the storage area, ceiling lining.

 I have just a little garden waste, some scrap metal and cardboard to get rid of. It would be pointless going further afield. It can all wait until Wednesday when the local recycling yard opens.  

 7.00 40F. I'm bored and depressed. I'm going for an early walk. 

 8.30 52F. I needed a change of scenery. So I detoured off the lanes along the wide and bare, spray tracks. Where I saw two deer. I was able to cut through a hedge to reach the next field. Then completed the full circle. The promised, distant views of the sea were spoiled by low, grey mist. So it was back to the lanes and the long plod home. Lots of birdsong in the hedges. Gone for just over an hour. Bright sunshine throughout. 

 I have decided to go to the builder's merchants. I'll take the trailer and collect some rockwool. As well as the posts I need. Assuming they have any stock. They did and I brought it all home. The window is now on order and should be delivered within a month. 

12.30 59F. Prior to planting the post box post I have tidied back the overgrown hedge outside the gates. I didn't want to risk the postman reversing into the hedge just to reach the post box. It is a hundred meter/yard reverse with nothing very solid to guide the driver. 

 After a chat with the postman it was decided I'd place the box on the left. This in the hope that they won't need to get out of the van. Just to deliver a letter. Which will save them some time. The law was changed some years ago, in Denmark, to have the post box on the property boundary. Which can save a great deal of time where there are lots of front gardens. 

 The postman can often deliver letters from the open window of their van. They seem to be settling on using larger vans with higher windows. This is probably due to the number of parcels they now deliver. In comparison with the shrinking number of letters.

 To that end I now have a tall post and some post concrete. I shall wait until the sun goes down rather than digging in the hottest part of the day.

 Once the separate storage area insulation and vapour barrier have been competed. I shall cover it with wood [wool] fibre-cement boards. Names vary by location. If that goes well I may completely cover the sloping, bedroom ceilings. 

 These boards are popular in libraries, offices and big shed outlets. For their excellent sound absorption and low toxicity. They are available in fine surface structure. Useful where they will be in closer proximity to the eye. Rather than high overhead.

  It cooled off as the sun sank. So I dug a hole for the post box post. I half back filled it with rocks around the post and then added 30kg of ready-mixed post concrete in two lots with appropriate water. I did plenty of poking with a steel bar to get the mix to sink in around the post and rocks. I just hope the postman is satisfied with the position and height. 

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1st May 2022 Another busy day.

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 Sunday 1st May. 42F, bright overcast with glimpses of sunshine. One month since my wife died. Up at 6.30 after an 11pm bed time. I'm trying to confuse the odd old fellow into getting up at a civilised hour. My back hurts! [Again.]

 May 1st is a Sunday and a "special day." The shops may be doubly shut. Will he starve? Or go on to achieve greater things?  I am reliably informed that both the nearest supermarkets will be open. I feel a short, trike ride coming on.

 Being a Sunday the recycling yards are all closed. Except for the garden waste areas. Quantities of such, suitable materials, I now seem to sorely lack. So keen was I to be rid of all evidence of my crimes against gardening. Will he find something else to do? Perhaps something [slightly] less destructive? 

 There are still two layers of net fencing inside the beech hedge. Erected to keep cats out of the front garden. With both ends now wide open the cats have already entered their former "No Cat's Land." 

 The strangely splodged, ginger and black cat came back for cream yesterday. I happened to have some. So it had a lucky day. Though not a great appetite. I left the remains for other cats to pass on their germs.

 I was just treated to an aerial display by assorted small birds. They were foraging for insects in my wife's "pencil" conifer. A colourful male Bullfinch and male Goldfinches were amongst them. Does one capitalise the names of bird species? I haven't a clue. [About most things.] 

 Still, it was lucky I saved the tree from harm. It would have been too bare without it. The two trees I left in place are offset, to left and right, from the dormer window. So go unseen unless I go close to the window. Nor do they block the view to anything of vital importance. Like the post van. Which reminds me: I need a new post for the post box. Confused? 

 7.45 Time for a walk!  

 My wife's cowslips are still hanging on.

 9.30 52F. A 75 minute walk this morning. Up to the woods, a dog leg through the trees and then the final descent by the direct route. I saw a hare and two deer. The wind wasn't quite so cold today. 

 11.30 58F. I have just returned from a shopping trip on the trike. Despite being heavily loaded with tinned goods I took the long, hilly way home. About ten miles in total. Against a headwind on the way back once I had escaped the forest.  

 Going remarkably well considering my very low mileage over the last year or more. I was maintaining low to mid 90s cadence. Several groups and pairs of cyclists were enjoying the sunshine. Though it was still rather cool. 

 15.30 59F. With the front, beech hedge cut back so drastically. The fence lower down was completely out of line. Our hero set about lifting the posts and netting. Then cutting the intermediate hedge back. Before moving the fence back into line. More or less. It needs a proper post on the end to allow some serious tension. 

 Some pretty and Daffs my wife had planted in the deep shade of a large Hazel. The tulips are yet to open on the right.

 I raked the beech leaf litter into the drainage trench to avoid anyone tripping. I may have to import some compost to do it safely. Provided (occasional) heavy rainfall runs onto the field, then there is no real need for a trench.

 The drought is ongoing. So I watered my wife's plants [still in dozens of pots] out on the back garden. It has been dry for so long I have little hope of their survival. 

None are labelled. There is precious little sign of any green leaves or shoots. I don't even now if they had anything planted in them.

I went over the underside of the huge Horse Chestnut with the chainsaw. Removing everything anywhere near head height. For years I have been walking into low hanging branches.

 Despite all the exercise and weight lifting I am getting noticeably thinner. I was quite surprised to see the change in my arms and legs in the bath. It's certainly not a lack of food. 

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