And I did enjoy it a great deal. It was a good Sunday. A really good Sunday. Nice and restful but lots of activity. A splendid springboard into so many days at work in a row.
We’ve got the builders in next door. You may remember that the owner of the house when we moved in had done a bunk several months before we arrived. One consequence of this was that he left loads of debts, including many pounds owing for the electricity and gas and phone. This means that it is not proving easy for the new developer (Is it us, do you think, that has caused the poor house to have so many owners since we moved in?!?!?!?) to get the electricity connected. It will be done, of course, but will take time. In the meantime, the bods next door are running an extension cable through our letter box and using our supply. We are assured we will be paid for it! This wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the day when the not entirely satisfactory extension cord burnt itself out and, mercifully, tripped our trip switch. Except that the builders appear at odd times of the day. And they sound as though they are trying to chisel a tunnel through our walls!!!! (We assume they are removing plaster.) Fortunately on Sunday they didn’t come until close to lunchtime so did not disturb the morning peace.
It was a lovely morning. Sunny, mild for February, not raining. I decided to make the most of the opportunity to go outside and start tidying up the garden. Moved the water butts, which were lying lazily about, down to the back fence. I had thought to do something useful like digging or sorting or planting, but decided instead to shift the pile of grass turfs The Builder had left in a heap when he dug the fruit beds. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Getting tired! Backwards and forwards, backwards and forw …… Aha! The wheelbarrow is free. Fill the wheelbarrow two or three times. Much easier on the back! I now have a lovely pile of properly stacked turfs, covered with manure and grass clippings, sat where the chook run will one day be. By the time the chook run eventually arrives, it should be lovely soil!!!!!!!
Time for a quick shower and a change out of the very muddy gardening kit. And off we headed to Chatsworth in search of provisions. As we went, we discussed where to have lunch. And thought as we approached the little village of Beeley that we had oft times thought we should stop and inspect the pub. So we did. It’s an old building, with a modern annex with large glass windows which overlook the stream. I had a lovely glass of merlot and a nice plate of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, although the vegetables tasted curiously of nothing. It was really quite odd. They were properly cooked and everything. Tasted as if they were in dire need of salt, though I never cook with salt and have never yet managed to render vegetables quite so bland. Still. Perhaps it was just a bad vegetable day. The starters which were being brought out looked fantastic and the other diners seemed chirpy enough. We’ll go back and check it out again. They have a lunch and a dinner menu and we pass through quite often.
And that’s what we always do. Pass through. So today we lingered and went for a wander about. It’s a little village on a loop road, more or less. It’s part of the Chatsworth Estate and is really lovely. Fantastic houses, lovely gardens. There was a small field with two little goats in it, and another with a much bigger goat. There were ducks and chickens and horses. It felt like a nice place to live. Certainly the people who were in their gardens and pottering about were friendly. The stream has pictures dotted along the bank of the wildlife you might expect to find. Enjoyed poking about there. Must come back when I am reunited with my walking boots. There were paths and things to explore a-plenty, but it was all a bit muddy for someone who was in her office shoes!
So to Chatsworth for the provisions. The car park was chockers; people were queuing for the restaurant rather than cluttering up the shop (thank goodness we didn’t decide to eat there!) so we were provisioned quite quickly. Then we went back by another route, passing by the Wingerworth Garden Centre in search of some lavender (a week too early). We ambled off to Dunston Hall Garden Centre where we found other things but no proper lavender, only a dwarf one. I bought it anyway. Will go hunting for lavender another day. And so home and back out into the garden, labouring away until the light failed and we went inside for a pleasant evening lazing about.
Bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms on toast for tea. A last hoorah for red meat for me now, until Easter Sunday.
Has been quite a pleasant day today too. A nice morning taken slowly. More time out in the garden. A supervisory visit to the allotment. General pottering about, and so into work. Been busy since. An unusually busy desk shift this evening. Normally this is something of a graveyard shift.
The Builder has been and closed down the Hangingwater allotment. He’s cleared the shed of everything we want and picked the last of the kale. No reason now to go back, unless to do a quick tidy of the stuff we’ve left in the shed and a quick hoe of the beds before we formally hand it back on the 31st March. But he tells me someone has been clearing trees out of the allotments and has taken down the oak tree that was growing on mine. Was there when I got there and wasn’t doing any harm. Poor oak tree. I shall grow another one from an acorn in the autumn. And I shall plant it somewhere in our garden. No allotment official will be able to reach it there!
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