Sunday

Since we have guests coming we’re up pretty early to get the house tidied. It hasn’t looked this good in ages! Matt made some fresh bread and some of Muma Camp’s sausage rolls while I did a quick pasta lunch.

Cressida and Johnny came over with their lovely dogs, Basil and Archie. It was a surprisingly long time before the cat ventured out but she seemed to take some joy in taunting Basil. I mean I know the cat is fast but I don’t fancy her chances in a straight up race. Thankfully Cressida had a good hold of him as you could see him shaking at the sight of her, so desperate for the chase. If the garden was better fenced I’d quite have enjoyed pitting them against one another. The cat can climb trees, she’ll be fine, the dog however might escape into the road so not a good idea.

We had a wonderful time chatting, looking at the garden, drinking and playing Kube. I have only played this once before with Drew and some other friends but it was great fun. All good things come to an end eventually but great to hang out again. We didn’t quite get to the end of the match so we went to a sudden death. The boys folded first. Cressida and I got three sticks each. All even. Three sticks each again. Cressida’s got two. The heat is on. One, down; two, down; can Chaney make the final hit? Nobody really remembers through the rosé haze, but the picture suggests she did!

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Well that’s plenty of excitement for one day. Time to allow our lovely guests to make their way home before the 9pm curfew.

[30 May 2021]

Monday

Relaxing day today. Caught up on quite a bit of Doctors, Holby and Casualty. Eventually had to take Matt to the dentist. Of course with the current regulations you can’t go in with someone unless, it appears, that they have no idea what you are saying. Within a couple of minutes the dentist was back at the door to call me in. Wasn’t particularly straightforward either. She couldn’t see a hole on the x-rays and spent a long time trying to work out what the problem was with somewhat limited success. She’s cleaned it, put some filling in and provided a prescription but not certain that it’s fixed so we have a follow up but will need to call if it still hurts and he’s getting up in the night. Still, nearly an hours work trying to fix a difficult problem and the bill was about £20 (which will all be refunded once we have fully been signed up to the health system)

Finally back at home, one of the lilies on the front steps has opened, the Nigella is looking great, and the cat is making the most of the “water fountain”.

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Before we can get the planning request in for the pool we are going to need to do some detailed plans so did a rough sketch of the area and then took a whole heap of measurements. Ms. Meow was keen to help and kept grabbing the end of the tape, the chewing wasn’t quite so helpful however as she does have a tendency to get over excited and chew right through things. The plans may look like a bit of a mess but hopefully it’s clear enough for Matt to work up on the computer.

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Matt found a bee in the rain water collection but it seems that he managed to get to it in time. Next up a nice classic UK staple for dinner, beans and cheese on toast. Yummy! Time to start the new season of Lucifer before bed.

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[31 May 2021]

Tuesday

Another busy day as we need to get back to work but what a storm it was that went through this afternoon. Howling winds, thunder, lightening, rains lashing down. Of course, I was obliged to play James’ ‘Sometimes’. For those that don’t know your 90’s classics, shame on you.

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In the evening Matt wants a bit of help trying to work out what is going on with the fuse boxes upstairs. The one in the blue room will have to be removed as it’s against regulations to have them in bedrooms but be good to know what we are disconnecting in advance. Despite the writing on it, which to the best of my ability reads ‘ground floor, dining room’ neither the lights nor power in those rooms go off when we turn these off. The only one we can locate is the “bathroom” which includes both the first and second floor bathrooms.

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Seems all that wiring is dodgy though and the upstairs plugs aren’t earthed so we are going to need to replace them. The big question will be whether we can use the existing gaines or have to run new ones and destroy the walls in the process. Thankfully, yours truly came up with the idea of just destroying the end rooms (which is already done) and sticking the new ones through to Tonia’s room from so we don’t destroy the wallpaper. Yes, I’m a genius!

That’s enough for one day. Back to drafting responses for me. Finally give up and time for a few episodes of Lucifer before bed.

[1 June 2021]

Wednesday

Despite how busy work was I managed to ear mark some time for a spot of gardening. Matt gave me a quick hand to put the first of the boards in to edge up the beds, to hopefully make the paths easier to strim. If the veg plots don’t work out could make a good first hole for a mini golf course…

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It seems you have to have your ‘Three Sisters’ planted by the 1st June, nearly made it. Well not really. Turns out that despite knowing better, I left my beans on the windowsills next to one another far too long and they wound around each other. I spent half the time I had trying my best to untangle them without damaging them, with limited success. Eventually unwound them and managed to get the beans and sweetcorn in. Looked rather like the gardeners version of the end of Glastonbury with empty plastic pots scattered as far as the eye can see. I’m not actually growing squash though so not sure what ground cover we might use, this is going to need a bit more research about what to use as the third sister.

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While all this was going on and I returned to work, Matt was in the basement working on the wall to hang the new electricity and data boards. He seems to be making good progress.

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Eventually found time for a quick walk around the garden and spotted a couple of bee orchids. That was pretty exciting as I’d heard of them but never seen one. Pretty obvious what they are even if you’ve only heard the name. The first peony is also opening. Wow, it’s got some fragrance to it. Matt has also taken the time to pick the red currants, any ideas what to do with them?

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[2 June 2021]

Thursday

Vicky, this one’s for you. I know you like a post work de-brief rant! Everyone else, feel free to gloss over it till the pictures.

What a crazy busy! Matt was up early to go to Lidl before starting work and pick up something to hopefully help clear the basement drain. I was up early to strip the bed. I checked the new plants, washed up a couple of things, got ready for work and popped on the kettle and sat down to start work. All before Matt was home. Yes, he was shocked too!

Back to back day of meetings and it seems some idiot put a provisional deadline for first drafts of today, what an arse… oh, yeah… that was me. I was clearly overly optimistic and thought there might be other people helping. All hail half-term, two meetings cancelled, should have plenty of time to do loads of work and maybe even some gardening.

God, I’m such an optimist. No such chance, more meetings waiting in the wings and those drafts aren’t writing themselves either. Weird that. I’d been sat outside from my first call at 9am to 4:30pm before I could get up with 2.5 mins to make some pasta. This was a) due to the cat refusing to move off my lap, b) never ending Teams calls, c) all of the above…?

No prizes for this one, as anyone working during covid knows, it was obviously c, whether or not you have a cat (which we don’t). Lots more work, lots more meetings, all generally overly busy and looks as though I need to also work through the weekend – yay!

Matt forced me into a brief reprieve to help him hang the new telecoms rack. It seems he’s making great progress in the basement. Not the first room I thought we’d be focusing on but in all fairness we do need to have the power and data boards done so it does make sense, and he’s finally gotten pissed off enough at the random piles of tools and materials in almost every room around the house to put it all in one (hopefully) more organised place. It also means we can actually get the new electric board installed and fully start to run in some of the electrics for the other floors, which has all been a bit temporary up until now.

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Back to work. Suddenly Matt dashes out very flustered with the French phone. Seems it’s the ever illusive ‘Bruno’, the mason! He was very kind although seemed like he was in a rush. The long and short of it was that he should be able to come on the 24th and will take about a week. Not ideal when we fly out on the 28th but let’s not worry about the details and just get him in to start the work. Hopefully. He’s going to call 2-3 days before to confirm. Sounds solid!?! Probably not but it is progress, and I will take what I can get.

While I’ve been pinned to the computer by business cat, Matt has been making strides forward with the other wall in the workshop.

No time really for dinner so quick pizza, a brief turn about the grounds (finally) and it’s back to work, again. Even business cat thinks it needs doing but is too tired to help so just makes me hang my arms in a way that is even more exhausting. Thanks business cat!

10pm and work done so I’m allowed one episode of Lucifer before bed, even the boss has had enough.

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As Matt prepares for bed, I start on the blog… Oops! That reminds me, sheets are still in the dryer.. 3..2..1.. Yep, Matt’s just got to the bedroom and realised the same thing. Being the benevolent and wonderful girl I am I go to help him before coming to back down to satisfy your insatiable lust to know what we are doing. But now you are all caught up I am off to bed for a well deserved sleep. Night all x

[3 June 2021]