The disadvantage to having a long, long weekend is that you get two short working weeks and the time passes very quickly. It seems to be Wednesday already. I am definitely not ready for it to be Wednesday!!
It was a good weekend, though. We went to Bishops' House on Saturday morning to open it up for visitors. Not that we had many visitors. It was a drizzly and gloomy sort of a morning so there wren't many people pottering about in the park. But we did have a mother with two excitable small boys drop in to say hello. And a couple of committee members came to meet a visitor from Colchester who had lived in the house during the 1970s, when it was divided into two residences and occupied by park keepers from the council. And Freyja came to visit too, not from London but from Simon's place near Nether Green. It's kind of fun, in a quiet sort of a way, volunteering at a small museum. We get to play shop. We get to wander around and look at things. We get to talk to the visitors, when there are any. Plus we had taken books and tea-making provisions, so between visitors we got to sit and read and drink tea and eat flapjack. Not a bad way of spending a morning.
Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Truly glorious. So, naturally, I washed absolutely everything I could find and hung it all out on the new washing lines The Builder has put up right down at the bottom of the garden which gets sun all year round, when there is any sun to get. I had intended to get out and do some clearing up in the garden and plant some bulbs and generally do useful things. Instead, we repotted the ficus in the lounge room which had very seriously outgrown its pot and was looking very unhappy. I've had it since I very first arrived in Sheffield when it was given to me as a present. When I got it it was about 40 cm tall and now it's around 120 or so and serves as our Christmas tree. It's looking very much happier now that it is in a substantial pot! So then I was about to go outside and do useful things in the garden. Instead I made some bread and an apple crumble and a beef and tomato stew. And suddenly, it had gone dark and was too late to go out gardening. Never mind. There's always tomorrow. I can sort the flower garden out then. In the meantime we will eat roast chicken and indulge in late Sunday afternoon activities.
Alas. Monday dawned gloomy and misty and damp. No gardening for me then. And the bulbs sit, unattended and unloved in their boxes for another week. And we more or less had another Sunday. All very restful and peaceful. And damp. But not as damp as yesterday. Yesterday was one of those days which, when you get them at other times of the year, cause people to say "Goodness - look at the weather; anyone would think it was November!!" Grey, dark, drizzly, misty. Not cold. Quite mild, really. But definitely not a nice day. Fortunately, I was back at work. The Builder and Marlo, alas, were stuck at home in the gloom. Fortunately for them, we have electric lights and central heating!!
Speaking of being at work, Gareth is off again this week. I think that the company that he has been working for has actually ceased trading. fortunately, the call centre in which he was based has found him a job with another company so there is no immediate need for me to send stale crusts and mouldy water to keep them ticking over. And he is on annual leave so is at least being paid, even if he might not have chosen to take leave this week.
And I am still waking up at around 04:00 ;-(
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| The house is looking distinctly tatty now that The Builder has painted the porch! |
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| Autumn flowers in the driveway and our new back door |
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