Sparkling Seas.

It was sunny enough today for us to take our usual walk along the coast at Morte Point. There were lots of holidaymakers out and there were some red faces and shoulders from those who had underestimated yesterday's sun.

Last week's walk had prove a bit too long for Peter's knee so we stuck to the shorter walk going down by the well and then round Morte Point. The thistles in the coombe seem to have sprung up overnight, I'm sure they weren't anywhere near this tall last week.

Once again the sea was beautifully blue with sparkling white waves. A pleasure to watch as we drank our cup of coffee.

There were a pair of sparrowhawks flying overhead and I finally a got a few shots of one of them as it hovered looking for food. They are not much liked by gardeners as they prey mainly on small birds unlike the much bigger buzzards which eat furry things, beetles and worms.

Our kitchen is looking bare and huge as I've cleared a lot of things out ready for our builder, Fred, to start replastering one corner where the damp has caused the plaster to come away. Being an old building built straight onto the damp clay this is something we would have to do every 10-15 years and now seems a good time to get it done. He's also going to tidy up the walls in the hallway and stairs which are in a much worse state. It will be so nice to have all that done.

A Warm Afternoon.

Much better weather today unlike yesterday when 6-8ft waves and 35mph gusts of wind (not ideal sea going conditions) caused the Ilfracombe Regatta to be cancelled. This morning Peter went out rowing on the Taw nice and early to catch the tide. He was full of energy when he got home and cut up the leylandii trees with his new chainsaw while I did the carrying. There were a few showers in the morning but it was dry enough when Fred came round so that he and Peter could finally put the oil tank on some concrete slabs. The wooden supports were getting rather soggy and the oil delivery man was rather unhappy the last time he brought oil. The tank is too close to the stream, it was put in before the regulations were brought in but if we were to pollute the water we would be liable for massive fines so we have to make sure it is secure.

The sun came out in force in the afternoon and after a week of wet days I was able to get out and mow all the grass. Later we had a pleasant meal outside and I basked in the sun for an hour before bottling a dozen bottles of elderflower champagne. The hardest part of making the champagne was taking off the labels from the wine bottles I had been given. (I don't drink myself but elderflower champagne is only mildly alcoholic just very fizzy.)

Number 1000.

This is post 1000! That's nearly 3 years of putting my thoughts out into the blog sphere. A lot has happened in those 3 years. Our plans to move to New Zealand sadly came to naught but new plans for our future are emerging. Our health has been up and down though Peter's arthritis is now under control and I am waiting to be seen again by a back specialist 5 months after first seeing him. Peter retired from his job with the NHS and is happily working for an engineering firm. I went from teaching full-time, to part-time, back to full-time and will be back to part-time after the summer, all at the same school. Our boys have moved on with their own lives and for the moment we live a contented peaceful life here in sunny Devon.

Did I say sunny Devon? As the forecasters predicted the heavy rain arrived making for a day to be spent indoors. I've used the day to get on with writing the personal comments for my reports. That's the hardest part as I want to be positive but also truthful. If I write too many in one go they all start to look the same. I woke this morning with a sore throat and a runny nose. Oh joy, another cold starting up. Peter went into town to go rowing so he brought me back some throat sweets and ice cream to soothe my poor throat. My throat wasn't helped by my joining in with Songs of Praise which was featuring hymns and songs to celebrate Pentecost.

Here's to the next 1000 posts ....... and onwards.

Ouch!

It rained a bit this morning and although it cleared up it was quite cold and windy which probably accounted for all the traffic heading into town. I had various places to visit ending up at the dentists' to repair the tooth that broke on the Nightwalk (the filling fell out a few days later). I had gone in quite calmly expecting a quick clean up of the tooth and a new filling put in. Oh No! the missing filling was right down to the nerve so the first thing the dentist did was to give me 3 injections. I don't normally mind injections but one of them really hurt and still didn't deaden everything so that every now and then the drill hit a sensitive spot. One bonus was that because too much of the tooth had gone I had a white composite filling instead of the horrible grey amalgam fillings the NHS makes you have. Bad point is that should this filling fall out the only option is to have a crown. Even worse, because it goes right down to the nerve I might have to have a root canal filling. I mumbled through my numb lips that I hoped there wouldn't be a problem getting a root canal filling on the NHS. The dentist thought I had seen a recent Dispatches program about this and when I mumbled that it had happened to me at that dentists and I had lost the tooth because of it he was sure it was another dentist who had denied me treatment. I think it was him but you don't argue with someone who is about to wield a drill in your mouth. One cheerful moment, when I went to pay, because it was a repair of a previous repair there was no charge. Thank goodness for small mercies.

When I went into town I saved myself a parking charge and parked in the Lidls free car park and walked over the old bridge. The tide was low and there were a group of swans sitting on the sand banks.

When I finally got home I spent time working in the garden. My school work in the morning had ground to a halt as my PC can't read my documents that were written in Windows 2007. I had hoped Peter's PC used 2007 but he has stuck to 2003 as this was the requirement for the Open University. I'll have to resave my documents at work to make them compatible to 2003. I thought computers were supposed to make life easier!

Too Wet.

                      

It has been rainy for most of the day and together with a few aches and pains the result has been very little done. The only constructive thing I have done has been a little bit of sewing, repairing my favourite jeans. The rain even seems to be affecting the Internet which is running at a speed that would make a snail seem super charged.

In With The New And Out With The Old.

It was much cooler today but the rain held off long enough for us to go for an hour's walk around Morte Point. Not so many people out today and we did get to see a couple of seals bobbing about in the water and people watching. The pink of the sea thrift made a good contrast against the grey rocks, sea and sky.
Back home my time was spent sanding and oiling a garden table and chairs that I had bought on eBay which was delivered in the morning. I had started thinking last year that my home made pallet table had had its time as not only was the rough surface quite splintery it was also getting very wobbly. I began looking for a second hand table (new being way out of our price range) some time ago and last week I found and bought just what I had been looking for. I wanted a large round, or possibly octagonal, table with good steady legs. So many of the new tables that I looked at had spindly or rickety looking legs which I thought would be a waste of time. I wasn't too worried about the chairs but these ones, though folding are surprisingly sturdy. The set also came with a parasol and the top part of a lazy Susan which I may convert into a small table if I can find a suitable stool down at the dump.

The set after sanding and oiling. While not looking brand new I am still very happy with my buy, the total price of which including delivery and furniture oil though still making it a big purchase for us was at least 1/4 of the price it would have been if we had bought it new. I organised delivery through Anyvan, a site which lets you post your removal requirements and then people give their details and make bids for the job. That worked well for us and it was cheaper and more convenient than hiring a van.

With the parasol and only 1 chair oiled before the rain started. I'm not sure how much we will need the parasol in this climate but it is fun to have. The old plastic chairs can go back to the dump and Romas can chop up the old table for next winter's firewood.

Polling Day.

The rain finally arrived this afternoon. For the last week the local farmers have had the contractors in their fields, cutting, turning and taking away silage. The cut fields are a pale lime green which contrasts with the emerald green of the new grass and the deep terracotta of the newly ploughed fields. Today is voting day so I did my civic duty (voting is optional in this country) and went to the village hall to cast my votes for a local council election and also for the national referendum on changing the voting system. At the moment we have a single non-transferable vote which results in the power always being with one of the 2 major parties though currently the 3rd smaller party did a sneaky deal with the conservatives to form a coalition government. Today's referendum was to change to a system where you list the candidates in order of preference so that the least popular gets knocked out and recounts done until the candidate who is more popular overall is picked. The current government is terrified of this system and along with big business has poured money and lies into publicity aimed at persuading people that change would not be a good thing. I wonder why? The village of East Down lies nestled in a valley and voting was at the village Hall which lies at the heart of community life such as it is. It was absolutely pouring with rain so I took these pictures from the shelter of the porch.

I was rewarded for being a good citizen by spotting a notice for the annual plant sale in a few weeks time. Since I have been working full-time I haven't had the time to go to the WI meetings in the Hall so haven't had the chance to see the village notices or to buy the village magazine. I will definitely be going to the plant sale as the village is full of dedicated gardeners and I should be able to get some vegetable seedlings. I keep peering at my seed trays in the conservatory but nothing has happened yet. I feel like a little child wanting to dig up the seeds to see if they have germinated. The rain put me off doing any gardening this evening so I did a little on my puzzle instead.

A Garden Day.

Another almost perfect day. Not quite as hot as recent days but 20C is fine by me. Yesterday had been very peaceful and quiet here in the valley which felt right for Good Friday but today there were the usual cars going to and from the stables next door and everything felt busier. Peter went off to row with the gig club which he loves doing and I spent my time out in the garden. I daren't try rowing until my back is sorted and although it has been offered I don't fancy just sitting in the cox's position. On his return Peter cooked up another barbecue, home-made sausages (Fred's not Peter's) which were very garlicky (good thing I'm not back to work for a few days) but tasty. Fred is our builder who also has an interest in cooking. His partner works at the same place as Peter so she car shares with him which is 'greener' and helps with his petrol costs and there is another lady who travels with them 3 times a week. The company encourages car sharing, it probably ticks some government environmental requirement. Before we had children we rode bikes in London avoiding the horrendous overcrowding on public transport or the high cost of running and parking a car. Here in Devon though the very hilly terrain and the frequently wet weather do not make going to work on a bike very appealing even though it is only 6 miles to work which was the same as my bike journey in London. It is a shame because when you think about it bikes are fantastic, minimal running costs and you keep yourself fit at the same time. Perhaps I'll get my bike sorted out for the summer ......... maybe.

Furniture.

This is the chest of drawers that I painted yesterday. It was only today that I remembered its history. We've had this chest of drawers all our married life. In our rented flat it lived in our wardrobe alcove behind a white curtain. Then we bought a house and started a family. The chest was painted white and put in the baby's room as it was the perfect size for a changing unit. The top is exactly the same size as a baby changing mat, it was nice and steady and the drawers were very useful. Funny to think that all 3 of my big strapping lads have lain there waving their little legs in the air! When we moved here 18 years ago the drawers went back into another wardrobe alcove this time behind a cream curtain. That is until I decided to keep my clothes in large clear plastic boxes with lids. Then it was time to send the drawers to the spare room and this good weather gave me the chance to spruce them up with a lick of paint. The chest of drawers would have originally come from a London junk shop (second-hand furniture and household items often from house clearances).

In this house, apart from the beds, none of the furniture has ever been bought new. In London my mother had a route that she often walked that took in at least half a dozen junk shops. She greatly enjoyed looking for furniture that could be restored and for antiques hidden amongst the dross. This is where the 'antique shop' dealers would come and look for treasure too. Many specialised in buying old pine furniture which they stripped and waxed and resold. Some of my mother's better pieces of furniture, which we now have, came from these shops. When we moved here we would go to farm auctions and the local weekly auction in town for furniture that we needed and then of course came the Internet and eBay. The only other furniture we bought new was a set of chrome and glass coffee tables which have long since fallen apart and been thrown out.

Today I finally came to the end of stone scrubbing, well almost. This is a 'before' view of the raised bed under the sitting room window.......

...and this is the 'after' view. There are still some big stones left to clean and really the brick wall could do with a going over by a pressure washer. In this damp climate the stones get covered not only with green algae but with black and grey algae/lichen ? that makes them look very dirty and unattractive. It was worth all the hard work to see the stones in their natural colours once more.

And then even when it is wet I will have this view to look at through the kitchen window.

PS We didn't get any rain but the sun did not appear until the afternoon where it dodged in and out of the clouds so that one moment it was roasting and the next quite cool.

WARNING Anyone with an i-phone that uses Apple software is being tracked 24 hours a day. Apple are storing this data and refusing to say exactly what they are doing with it - selling it seems the likeliest option. Thank goodness I only have the cheapest most basic pay-as-you-go phone.

A Cleaning Day.

I woke to grey skies and wet and colder weather. Hooray! said my back which was protesting mightily at the unaccustomed garden work. Instead I spent the morning spring cleaning in the kitchen, mainly the window over the sink. It is amazing how much work there is in cleaning one small area, blue glass washed, junk cleared, curtains washed, dried over the Rayburn, ironed and hung back up and of course the window itself. I prefer the frugal method of soap and water and polishing off with crumpled newspaper. I have tried 'proper' window cleaners but have never found them as good as newspaper. We don't buy any papers but there are always some around left by friends or the free ones that come through the door. And of course you have to clean the outside of the window, and the door windows and the other window and in fact I could spend the rest of my holiday simply working my way round all the windows and mirrors in the house but I shall resist. Every now and again my peace was interrupted by a hollow banging coming from the fireplace. Those jackdaws must be truly imprinted on the chimney and loft as they are still hanging around and spend a lot of time sitting on the 'hat' banging at the bars and hoping they will break or simply disappear as suddenly as they appeared. My reward to myself was to spend the afternoon getting started on my 3,000 piece jigsaw puzzle in the semi-tidy conservatory. It was very soothing listening to the rain on the roof and hunting for those elusive edge pieces (even after I thought I had sorted through all the pieces first.) Peter always buys me a puzzle for Christmas but this year I did not have the time or the space to do it during the Christmas holidays and have been saving it for now. Jigsaw puzzles are so pointless with nothing created (mine go straight back to the charity shop once done), but they are very soothing and give a ridiculous amount of satisfaction when you find that missing piece. Oh and I never look at the picture and this time I got Peter to put it in a bag so I haven't even seen the box. So far it looks to be tulips and trees.

Sun !

The sun was shinning today making even this bunch of fading tulips look special. The wind was blowing strongly and it would have been a good day for a walk. Unfortunately Peter had to take his car into the garage so we'll keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow.On the weekends I like to start the day at my PC to see what's happening in the world. I looked up to see this pheasant peering in at the window checking me out ! By the time I got my camera he had moved away but soon he was back,

this time checking out what was in the conservatory. ( A mess as usual.)

I couldn't stay in on a day like today so I wrapped up against the wind and did some garden work. The other day when I'd been out on the cliffs my wrap around sunglasses had been great at keeping the wind out of my eyes but were a little too dark for the conditions. A quick browse on eBay and I now have some very similar in shape but clear safety specs which do the job brilliantly. First job of the day was to rake up the drive after all yesterday's rain and then I was able to take things easy picking out leaves and moss from the stones in the scree garden. It's not hard work but even kneeling down eventually my back seizes up. I also baked a chestnut cake making up my own recipe with a tin of chestnut puree that was sitting in the cupboard. It came out quite well though a cream cheese topping would have finished it off perfectly. Peter is crashing about in the kitchen making some steak and kidney pies (how do I tell him I don't really like steak and kidney let alone pie, which is why we have no pie dishes let alone a pie funnel.)

Plip Plop.

As forecast it has been raining all day. I haven't done very much at all today, mainly pottering around, tidying up and a bit of reading. I still have my planning to do but that will have to be tomorrow. One thing I did achieve was to mend a kitchen drawer which had broken yet again. As the kitchen was put in before we came (we re-used the original carcasses, moving them around and adding beech work tops when we knocked 2 rooms into 1), everything is in imperial sizes not metric and you can't buy a new drawers to replace the original ones when they fall apart. To fix the drawer I had to resort to screwing into wood when I could and using resin to glue when I couldn't. It should hold for a few years so long as we don't put heavy stuff in the drawer.

Bed - Reports - Bed?

A calming picture from our walk around Morte Point.

Another long day spent writing reports. We were given a day off to write reports which makes it 10-15 mins per report. I'm fairly new to report writing so with these longer 'short' reports it's taking me over half an hour just to get the basic information onto the reports. Then I need to add in the maths and check through everything so I could be taking up to 30 hours to do these 30 reports. No Way! That's the whole of my half-term holiday gone. At last now I'm getting to the middle group of children I'm able to do a lot of cut & paste with just a few changes. I had so wanted to be able to get out and do some gardening this week not sit chained to the bloody computer.
The bed foot-end finally came this morning after an early phone call which woke me from my slumbers. I didn't pick up in time but called back and left a message that I was dismantling the bed and would definitely be at home. When the delivery man came he denied being yesterday's courier so I allowed myself the satisfaction of telling him what I thought of deliverymen who just knocked and left. I made the guy wait until I unwrapped and checked the new foot-end and wrapped up the old one for him to take away. It was only 5 mins later when I went to rebuild the bed that I realised I'd left the bolts on the old foot-end. I made a frantic phone call and the guy came back reluctantly so that I could rescue those vital bolts. (Ruta is able to make use of effective describing words.- I've got reports on my brain.)

Aargh !!

I'm all cross at the moment. The day started well enough. I got up just after Peter left, dismantled our new bed and brought the foot end downstairs as a replacement piece was being delivered sometime today. That was not an easy task as the mattress is very awkward and I had to prop up the rest of the bed on stools and books while I loosened the screws holding the end on. I then tidied the kitchen, hoovered said kitchen, boiled t-towels, made bread and generally prevaricated before sitting down at my PC in the sitting room to work on those blasted reports. I wasn't out of the kitchen for more than half an hour , had no radio or music on yet a while later I found a card slipped under the porch door saying they couldn't find anyone at home. WHAT !! The lights were on, the car was in the yard and the sitting room has windows that overlook the front door. The delivery man must be as thick as 2 short planks! I rang the delivery people explaining that it had cost me considerable effort to dismantle the bed and now we had nothing to sleep on but they insisted that the guy could not deliver today. It was only after a second call that they agreed to deliver tomorrow and will phone me 30 mins before as I'm not dismantling the bed in advance, but I am so cross. The front door was even wide open for half the morning to get rid of the smell of some fish that I cooked yesterday. I rang the bed company, who have been absolutely fine and made a complaint about the delivery company. Part of my crossness is also due to not yet getting into the swing of these reports. I was sort of OK then one of my colleagues sent me some to look at and I need to go back and put more detail in. Maybe its a good thing that it is grey and drizzly outside otherwise I would be fed up with being stuck indoors. That's my short blogging break over so back to those reports.

Oh and those t-towels I so carefully boiled - I threw them in the machine with a new pink sheet and they came out pink too. Into a bucket of stain remover they've gone and they'll get washed again tomorrow.

I'm Back!

Hi Folks. It has taken me this long to get over having my pc invader by a nasty virus. One of those ones that look through all your files. The worst thing was finding out that the hacker was actually looking at us through my switched off, web cam. How do we know? Well Peter had come to my rescue when all the screens went black, realised what kind of a virus was in my pc and before cutting this virus out of my system he made a rude gesture at the web cam - which was responded to by an indecipherable comment issuing from my pc just before being cut off. That's not nice to think that people can watch you. My web cam now has a lovely view of the inside of a pot until I actually want to use it. Luckily I don't bank on-line so my biggest threat is identity theft. No money has been lost but it took until today to get my new bank cards and a stronger anti-virus put on the pc. Peter, who tends to take a dismal view of things says I should scrap everything with my old email address but I don't know how to move this blog over to my new email so I'll leave things for a while and think things through.

Oh and if you were wondering, it's eggs that are being sold from that pet carrier. I stopped and bought 6 in a gesture of solidarity for small enterprise. Pictures will be back tomorrow.

Brrr!

Very cold again today, -4C out of the wind. Peter went and checked on the pump and it looks as if the pump is ok, good news. There is no electricity getting to it so we'll have to get an electrician in to sort out the supply up to the outbuildings and that could be as expensive.

So for the moment this is the little waterfall where I go to fill up buckets for replenishing the toilet cisterns.

I spent the morning in town, meeting a friend for coffee and some general shopping. It wasn't too crowded first thing in the morning but the bitter cold made me eager to get inside the shops.

Some schoolwork this afternoon followed by roast lamb for dinner.

No Frost.

A little bit of sunshine today and generally it was much warmer. The new mattress is proving its worth in that it supports our aching backs perfectly so it was tempting to have a nice long lie-in but there were things to do.

Not a sign of frost as I took the rubbish up to the road. I left the car up the top just in case but also because a man was coming round to collect our unwanted 4ft bed. Originally bought at an auction the bed has old fashioned walnut? head and foot ends and it would have been a shame to simply throw it away. Freecycle is such a good way to pass on items that are still good enough to use, and it would have been a major job to take the bed down to the recycling centre so we both benefited.

Once the bed had gone I had time to finish off my school planning and then do some work out in the stream. It looks like the recent cold weather has affected the pipes or pump again and we currently have NO water coming into the house. Oops. Not sure what we are going to do about that but I'll leave that in Peter's hands.

Cold But Sunny.

Another cold day today, -5C all day. Peter had to work today so I had the house to myself. Spurred on by the bright sunshine I got a lot of things done including some small DIY jobs. I fixed a broken piece of our old bed which is now in a spare room, wood glue and mending plates for that job. Then I put 2 kinds of draught proofing on the front door. I was crouching down measuring the length of the brush strip which needed to be cut before when being screwed on when there was a tap at the glass panels above me. I popped up to see Jack from next door bearing a hanging basket of sprouting daffodils which he had planted for me. Luckily I had a Lindt chocolate Santa which I had been saving for him. I also managed to replace a broken hinge on one of the kitchen cupboard doors. I felt rather pleased that so many jobs were done.
I've even got most of my school planning sorted. Half an hour tomorrow should get the last bits done.

I can now relax with a cheesy pasta bake to look forward to and some easy watching on tv.

All By Myself.

Came home early (5.00) to find new bed had been duly delivered and left in the porch as per instructions. Carried all parts upstairs. Dismantled old bed. Wiped down old bed. Carried old bed to spare bedroom. Answered phone to man who would like to have the spare room bed (I freecycled it). Cleared under bed storage boxes and moved to spare room. Hoovered much dust and removed accumulated odd items from under bed. ASSEMBLED NEW BED. Dragged in new mattress. Solved problem of new mattress being a couple of inches too small for the frame.
Made bed. Now worn out. It's 9.00 and planning still to do.
GOODNIGHT.

Boring Work.

On line at last. That trojan reappeared yesterday so it took until today to scan and then delete all the copies of the trojan. I'm going to invest in a better anti-virus so that I don't have to go through this again. I felt rather isolated not being able to check my e-mails, blogs & facebook but more importantly I couldn't do my school planning without access to emails from my colleagues. As it is I've had to spend the whole of this afternoon doing my planning, yuck. Normally I try and do as much as I can on Friday evening and an hour or so on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend has been very wet though a brief walk around the garden revealed lots of spring bulbs already making good progress. As I had to go to the bank yesterday I treated myself to a leisurely stroll around the sales. We've reached the time when final reductions are being made and I ended up buying £82 worth of clothes for just £21. Mostly tops and t-shirts and a pair of palazzo? pants with the idea that we might one day have some hot weather or even jet off to sunnier climes.
This morning even though it was raining quite heavily, I took stuff down to the dump including Romas' old mattress as our new bed is due to be delivered on Wednesday. Then will ensue a grand shuffling around of beds as our double bed is moved to the spare room, the small double mattress goes in Romas' room and we end up with a super-king (6ft wide) bed in our room. That is if it arrives and we can put it all together.