16.09.2023 Whoops! There go my stairs!

 ~o~

 Saturday 16th. Bright. Another warm and sunny day is promised. Last [late] summer weekend before the weather turns to autumn settings. Up at 7am after a 5.45 start seemed a bit silly.

 09.30 Still mostly bright sunshine but I have run out of laundry. I made it to my usual turning point in the lanes today. I have been rather slacking of late. Most of the fields have been smoothed and replanted for the next harvest. The speed with which new crops rise from the bare soil is terrifying!

 A lot of the earthworks now looks complete. With the northern half of the field raised to match the parallel drives to perfection. Excellent work and no doubt a serious visual upgrade for those who live on the original drive. Compensation perhaps, for the noise and disturbance of all the building and earthworks over the last couple of years.

 My side of the new drive is much less positive. With piles of soil yet to be distributed and plans for the marshy, adjoining field unknown. All I can see, beyond my intervening trees, is a raised, packed earth dam.  

This view is from the north, looking south. Over the newly landscaped field.

 I am slightly surprised they aren't taking advantage of the sunken field. By raising this too. For greatly expanded and level grazing. Not to mention the improved, cosmetic appearance for their own [new build] home. Plus a much refined approach along their "posh" new drive.

 Morning coffee over. Time to consider using my day more seriously. Than waffling on the computer. I have immediate grocery needs and the require the wares of a DIY outlet. There's a beautiful, undulating ride. Of about 10 miles each way. To another builder's merchant. With the usual shops on an equally gorgeous, return detour. Good choice!

 13.15 Returned from shopping. I managed to find venetian blind, cropping scissors. 35km at an average of 25km/hr.

 15.15. I have been struggling with the new carpet at the entrance to the lounge. It had to go under the stairs. Which meant lifting the bottom of the stairs with a long lever. The moment I did this the top of the stairs slid a foot [30cm] down the wall! 

 So I brought in a car jack and length of timber. To lift the top of the stairs back up again. Each time I gained a couple of inches in height I'd use another long lever. To push the stairs towards the wall.

 Eventually The stairs were back in place. To avoid any future surprises I ran a 12mm drill through. Then bolted the top of the stairs to the adjoining floor joist of the raised stage. I even slipped a vicious star washer over the coach bolt, between the timbers, before tightening. To increase the grip of the bolt and reduce the risk of the stairs slipping downwards. Needless to say I was very careful in climbing the stairs. To do the work up at the top!

 The new carpet is not a perfect match but is in keeping with the overall colour theme of the adjoining carpet. There are alcoves and chimneys at the edges but I have no plans to cut the carpets to fit. So the carpets lie midway between the various obstructions and look the part. The phone camera is distorting the view. I tried to fix this with image handling software but was not completely successful.

 19.00. I have been doing some gardening! Mainly pulling out 6' high weeds and thistles. The trailer is now almost full of garden waste. 

 Time to think about making dinner.  I am going with sliced chicken and mushrooms. With mashed potato and baked beans.

 Thirty five minutes later a dinner was born to the coffee table. 

 While I watched a B&W, Netflix film where Margaret Thatcher was a vampire. It seemed so perfectly apt that I was driven to believe it.

~o~

15.09.2023 A rewarding chat.

 ~o~

 Friday 15th. Bright. Up at 5.45. A sunny day is promised. No walk today.

 The bereavement councillor will he here at 10.30. I have been cleaning, vacuuming and tidying frantically as usual. I like to make a good impression. Show that I am making progress. That I am coping. Though god knows what it looks like to fresh eyes! 

 Which is why I keep taking pictures. The camera doesn't lie. It exposes the hideous reality of my hovel's interiors. Even to myself. Or, perhaps most importantly, to myself. There is potential, but it will demand willpower and investment in time and money. Which means endless DIY into the far future.

 9.30 Full sunshine. I have even been cleaning windows. Some of them once completely inaccessible. Hidden behind yellowed, once translucent tarpaulins on the outside. Windowsills full of ornaments denying all access. With many of the double glazing units blown. At least I know they are reasonably clean now. The view beyond not quite as obscured. It only took a couple of decades to finally reach them.

 The sun is shining through the eastern window and the greenhouse. Lighting up the whole ground floor. Unobstructed now that the shade nets have been taken down. I can see the stars through the window above my bed at night. Up through the clear glass of the greenhouse roof. The sun falls on my bed for hours each day. So I have been having my afternoon naps upstairs. I still need to do some homework on trimming Venetian blinds for the lounge windows.

 The front hedge has been lowered even further. To let the winter sun reach places where it hasn't been seen for years and years. There are still the stumps of conifers and some ornamental shrubs in the front garden. Which badly need attention. As do so many other things.

 11.45 Another fruitful conversation with my visitor.  I only cried once. Though there was lots of laughter too. The sun shone almost continuously. Bringing light to the many improvements since her last visit. She will be back at the end of January.

  14.00 I have some vital grocery shopping to do. Specific supermarket chains, all at a slightly greater distance, demand I make a choice of venue. 

 I went by car into town. Where I bought a number of venetian blinds. It was warm and sunny. I found a carpet which will fit the space beside the stairs. The stairs will have to be lifted. To allow me to slide the carpet under the stringer. Some items of furniture and the grandfather clock will have to me moved away too.

 Dinner was mackerel on toast. With tomatoes.

~o~

14.09.2023 Keep on bailing!

 ~o~

 Thursday 14th. Veiled sunshine.  Up at 6am. I am struggling to dry a backlog of washing. The sudden plunge in temperatures is not helping. I have a washing line full under the greenhouse roof. One clothes airer outside and another in the lounge. The greenhouse should rise in temperature if the sun breaks through. The lounge has dropped to 65F overnight with all interior doors closed.

 It should be a cooking day but I have an appointment at the doctors. Almost mid-morning. So reaching the cooking class by bike would probably be after 12.00 and rather pointless. IMO. I have a shoulder of reduced mobility. Which causes me excruciating pain when I put on a jacket. I have a sick note for the museum. No more weight lifting!

 I went for a short walk. Where I had a chance to speak to the excavator driver at the major earthworks. The field had been mowed on my side of the newly raised drive. Suggesting preparation for the importation of soil. To raise the level to match the new field on the other side. 

 It seems the shorn area nearest my home will not be increased in height. It has always been rather marshy and lies at the foot of a large, sloping field. Which extends [uphill] right up to the forest over a kilometre away. 

 My concern remains that their new drive will act as a huge dam in heavy rainfall. Increasing the risk of flooding. This was already evident when their earlier earthworks caused a flood in a neighbouring garden. Possibly even into the house. It looked deep enough from the viewpoint I could reach.

 There is a new drain pipe under the new drive to carry away the minor stream just as before. Whether this will be sufficient to avoid flooding is a complete unknown. Two decades ago there were always large puddles out on this field in winter. My wife and I joked that we should start a boat hire business. 

 Now the rain collection area remains much the same but the pooling area is drastically reduced. With little or no chance to increase drainage across the dam in an emergency. The official data map shows the field as a low point. With a high, potential flooding risk to my own property after heavy rain. This is prior to the new earthworks.

 Raising the near field "might" provide an improved run off into the existing stream. Albeit with its rather limited, drainage system. Perhaps a lake outside my boundary would provide a deeper emergency storage area. Or sump. Forming a much increased capacity for run-off from the hillside to the east. 

 It is not unusual for there to be standing water just beyond my boundary in winter. The reeds attest to the marshy conditions in the field. As does the natural pond. The water table isn't far down on my own ground.

Fleeting sunshine is raising temperatures and speeding the drying of my laundry. After three days disconnected, the car battery was down to 12.15V. It started instantly. I am just going to have to remove the earth clamp after every use.  

 Warts and all! It has taken me 17 months to reach this peak of unadorned ugliness!

17.00 All the laundry is dry and brought in. No more [valid] excuses for nudity! 😏

 I am tidying in readiness for the council visitor tomorrow. The image above shows the awful truth. The more I get rid of. The more the cosmetic flaws stand out! Most of this wall was covered in furniture, picture and calendars for the last 27 years. 

 The ugly, TV furniture "stand" will soon be gone. I now have the correct fixings for the TV wall mounting plate. Plasterboard has little strength beyond that provided by the paper coverings. The usual arrangement, for weight bearing fixings, is a load spreading device, or form. Which expands when a bolt or screw is tightened. Hopefully preventing the load from tearing out the fixings. 

 There are some very weak fixing devices sold at ridiculously inflated prices. Buyer beware! Do your homework first. If you must fix anything to plaster-boarded, hollow walls. 

 Dinner was fish fingers, pasta, peas and tinned, chopped tomatoes. There was too much pasta and not enough tomato. I had used up the pasta and only used exactly half a tin of tomatoes as usual. I should have gone back and cooked more tomatoes. I was too lazy. 

 I am watching a Netflix series on living to be 100. I can tick off very few of the essentials. So there's hope for me yet.

~o~