Christmassy things

Last night, I realised that the baubles and lights for the Christmas tree are down in storage on the other side of the river – not worth msking a special trip for, and anyway I fancy a change in style. So replacements have been ordered.

This morning, I saw that the Winter Fuel Payment had appeared in my bank account. Great to have it back, after last year’s unexpected government decision to cut it off!  As previously, it prompt me to remember Worcester Food Bank, so an online donation by card has been made.

Bother !

Bother! (or similar remark).

The shower/bath mixer tap has started dripping at a rate where it can no longer be ignored. It’s not even all that old – I think I put it in seven or eight years ago. Replacing it is straightfrward, no hassle …. apart from the fact it means removing bath panels to get underneath, which is a job that I loathe. However, a replacement has been ordered and should be here towards the end of the week.

pinkness

Indoors, the Schlumbergera cactus is coming into flower – I think of it as the “neither Christmas nor Easter” cactus, as it normally flowers mainly in November and again late February into March. The pink colour scheme continues outdoors, with the last flowers on the scented pelargonium, and a late self-sown cosmos growing from a crack in the concrete path.



ugh!

Alarm clock set for horribly early tomorrow! Fuel delivery due “between 7.15 and 9” – they usually turn up just before 8. As there’s a risk of rain, and generally damp conditions, I don’t want to risk these being left on the front path … the recyclable paper packs dislike being made soggy! And no – this isn’t just a way of sneaking extra coffee into my life!

getting on for winter …

The chimney was swept last Tuesday (9th), so I’m OK to light the wood-burner.  It’s as much to drive out the damp as it is to provide warmth: the central heating just doesn’t do the same kind of job. Getting dressed this morning was a bit of a struggle, due to assorted joints not wanting to play nicely, even though the heating had been on and it was 20C in the bedroom.

The stove only needs to be low, rather than a roaring blaze, so will largely be fed largely with briquettes made from recycled coffee grounds (a new introduction last year from Homefire, which work well for me).







 

youth …

I very nearly overlooked this picture when packing the last load of stuff to be taken from my late mother’s house over to Worcester! Thanks to my sister for pointing it out.  Long hair is not a recent fad for me – this dates to the 1970s, drawn by my friend, the excellent Millary Hilne.

Moving… emotionally and physically

 
Last night was probably the last time that I’ll walk on the Common. We moved to Green Mount when I was 7, and I’m now 70, so that’s some kind of symmetry, I suppose. After a showery day, in early autumn, the atmosphere was suitably mildly melancholy. The bracken, twice my height when I was a kid, and with taller plants still reaching above my head, is turning colour. It’s still too early for spectacular fungi, but rainwashed haws and the gorse added splashes of colour. Windfall wild apples, smaller than golfballs, stand out against early-fallen leaves, and early acorns are falling, though most are still on the trees.

This morning was wrestling the second batch of furniture and family archive stuff from Green Mount over to Worcester. Not as easy as it sounds: the tall chest of drawers had to be partly dismantled in order to fit down the narrow spiral stairs. The van driver, who’d done my first batch of stuff back in February, was patient and helpful! Most of the stuff is now ensconced in the storage unit on the other side of the Severn, but I have a large landscape painting to hang, once my back has recovered enough to handle picture-hooks and stepladders.









catch-up

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all about IT. I’d finally given up on my Thinkpad T460s – neither touchpad nor trackpoint would work, though it did respond to an external mouse. It’s a known problem, and may be related to obscure driver issues. So, a Thinkpad L13 was bought (second-hand, of course). It was only available in a 128 memory size, sadly. A suitable M2 memory card was bought, and a clean install of Windows 11 was done. Then the current verion of laplink was bought, which transferred all data, but not actual programs. And then all relevant programs were dwnloaded and installed, which in general was fairly straightorward.

The exception was Musikcube, by far my favourite media player as it’s without bells and whistles (though sadly does not handle .flac files, so I have to covert them to .mp3 manually). Version 1 is massively obsolete (discontinued around 20 years ago), and version 2 is command line only. In the end, a trawl through the 2006 snapshots on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive located an installer for it.

Also a major Windows 11 problem with the (obsolete) “Mycloud” external drives. Due to changes in security, the only machine able to access them was the old T460s. A 6Tb hard drive has been bought, and all the data is being transferred. I’ll need to think about backup for this at some point.

Wednesday was over to Green Mount, to re-light the Aga after it had been out for the chimney to be swept. I also checked the number of boxes and other stuff, so I could book a van to transport to Worcest – now booked for 11th September, the day after Sim’s stuff is taken to Oak Cottage.

The journey was horrible! Rail replacement buses from Shrub Hill to Moreton in Marsh, and when the bus was just about to set off it was announced that the connecting train had been cancelled, due to an overnight incident. 90 minutes pacing up and down at Moreton was not enjoyable. I cancelled the cab I’d booked, as due to the delay Jane was able to collect me from Hanborough.

Thursday was an admin day, as my back was very not up to doing anything (Wednesday had been over 13,000 steps, even after I’d removed spurious steps clocked up by the motion of buses and trains). Van booked for 11th as above, old guest bed put on freecycle, attempts to book van to take stuff into storage in Worcester for next week (awaiting confirmation), “confidential document desruction” sacks ordered for Green Mount, and the usual end-of-month financial stuff.

Today (Friday) has seen the discovery that the guest bed won’t fit down the stairs without complete disassembly, which was done. It barely fit in the back room to re-assemble (coffee table and piano stool put in kitchen, armchair moved to give more space), and then the headboard had to be removed again to get it to by the front door. Collection hopefully about 6pm today.

Expensive month!

The last four weeks have been rather expensive! After my episode of heat exhaustion, ambulance attendance and so on, I bought an air conditioner. £300, but as we now have (another) heatwave, with air temperatures around 32 or 33C, worth every penny: it keeps the bedroom (which even with curtains closed has considerable solar heat gain) to a tolerable 25C.

Then, a standing ebay search (that I’ve had going for at least two years) finally came up with a perfect cupboard to go inside the front door to accommodate the Brompton folding bike. That was £200, and arrived yesterday.  Also yesterday, the trackpoint/cursor problem on my Thinkpad got intractable, so I’ve ordered a Thinkpad L13 … another £175.  And there was my share of the Council Tax on Green Mount, at around £180.  All of which has been an un-budgeted sum of around £850. All necessary, but savings have gone down rather than up this month! 







 

garden bits

Despite a fair few showers over the last four or five days, the ground is still very dry underneath. Lots of sprinkler action on the veg beds yesterday and today has been called for! The early kale, which were stripped back to the leaf midriffs by Cabbage White caterpillars, are showing signs of re-shooting, so I’ve watered and netted them. The chard is cropping well, and the Morning glory up one side of the rose arch had flowers for the first time this morning (they will be replaced in the autumn by the passion flower that’s currently in an adjacent pot). The rose has started lots of new side side-shoots, but so far no flowers.

The courgettes in the middle bed are now showing signs of flowering, after a prolonged period when it was too dry (despite twice-weekly watering), and I expect to have produce by next weekend. The other middle bed, which had a few bolted lettuce left, has been forked over, trodden down, thoroughly watered, and two rows of “Autumn King” carrot planted. Also planted, a row of “Navara” lettuce (the plug plants I had last autumn over-wintered well and were excellent this spring), and a row of the usual “Marvel of the 4 seasons”. Fingers crossed – it’s probably a bit too warm still for really good germination of lettuce. And the sowing of lettuce is in the same place as the last lettuce crop … which couldn’t be helped: other spaces in the top beds have very heavy soil which is best kept for brassicas and chard.

Runner beans – the things I’ve watered most consistently over the past month – continue to give two or three servings a week, which is about the right amount for me. The third sowing of “Tom Thumb” peas hasn’t really worked, so I must get round to doing a 4th one.

Indoors, I have finally happened across a small sideboard suitable to replace the flip-down shelf just inside the front door, that covers the storage of the electric bike. Delivery may take up to a fortnight, but I’ve removed the shelf anyway (which may cause problems with unloading my next Waitrose delivery). I’ve had a standing search on ebay, reporting new items by email daily, for at least the past year, so it’s a relief to cancel that at last.  The coat-rack has been moved to the end of the sofa (experimentally), and I’m awaiting a delivery of beeswax polish and lint-free cloths tomorrow, as I seem to have run out.