I don’t normally use the downstairs loo (stairs several extra times a day are “exercise”), but due to still-bad back IIve been using it the past few days. Something caught my eye this morning … the start of a wasps nest on the underside of one of the shelves, which is amazingly pretty, but really not needed: it definitely can’t stay. I’ll clearly have to do something about it, and sadly spray-can of insecticide seems the best bet. I’m not mobile enough at the moment to risk physically engaging with it!
Way back in 2017 I hand-pollinated my amaryllis, as an experiment. It set seed, which I planted, and grew on the resulting few seedlings. The assorted vicissitudes of life meant that only one survived to flowering, which it did, rather half-heartedly, for the first time two years ago, with nothing last year. So this, nine years after I did the hand-pollination, is the first proper year of flowering.
OK, not the most beautiful amaryllis in the universe! But still, something to celebrate.
The kitchen is still in a state of turmoil, due to constantly moving the table round to get at assorted bits of walls and ceiling to prepare them for painting. That meant that things like the Kenwood mixer, cake tins and so on were not accessible, but I was determined to test bake something to see how the top oven worked in practice – I don’t imaginge I’ll be using the bottom oven much!
The answer seemed to be rock cakes (made with chopped apricots rather than sultanas). I’m pretty happy with the results. Regrettably, it’s a recipe that calls for one egg, so can’t be halved … I will be munching my way through a dozen of these large objects over the next few days.
Yesterday, I was expecting the gas engineer between 9 and 10. He turned up around 2pm, but was then quick and efficient. The old gas cooker was disconnected and the supply pipe capped off at high level. Today, the electric cooker was due some time between 0700h and 1900h, but thet said they’d send a text at 0630 with a more precise time! Ugh! But I set the alarm for 0625h, and a text arrived at 0635, saying they’d deliver between 9.15 and 12:15. No point going back to sleep … I checked on line, and at 0800h there were five deliveries in front of me, and the cooker arrived at 0920h. Old gas cooker gone into their recycling stream.
Then to some wiring in. Darren-the-Electrician had left me a couple of metres of 6mm twin&earth, and I have plenty of earth sleeving. Access to the cooker terminals needed a metric Allen key (not provided) – considerable rooting through my four toolboxes revealed two sets of Imperial keys before reluctanly disgorging a metric set. So, cooker cabled up OK, then to hang and connect the cooker hood., before wiring in the cooker. Which turned out to be complicated, and in the end I cut a block of wood to space the hood over the electrical trunking in the corner. Which, once screwed to the wall, needed painting, and allowing time to dry. So the cooker hood wasn’t finished and wired in until about 1500h. Fortunately, wiring in the cooker was straightforward, though 6mm cable is awkward to work with. The cooker is currently “running in” – the catalytic lining in each over has to be run at max temperature for an hour (not both ovens at once) before use.
Tomorrow will probably be largely a rest day. Grovelling around doing fiddly jobs 8 inches above floor level (cooker – both ends) or at head height, stretching (cooker hood) has rather trashed my back. But most of the rest of the work is a little light sanding, and a couple of coats of paint on all walls and ceiling, and there’s no urgency.
I’ve just ordered the electric cooker, to arrive on Wednesday. Induction hob, catalytic oven – and really not cheap! Plus the cost of the electrician for three days, to install a supply for it and completely re-do all the slightly-dodgy sockets in the kitchen.
But it’s about 12 years since I moved in and spent money on kitchen stuff (apart from having to replace the dishwasher last month), and hopefully this will all last another decade or so. Washer/dry keeps on going, and will be a no-cost replacement when it does give up as it’s under a perpetual maintenance contract … which leaves only the fridge/freezer as a future major kitchen expenditure.
Gas engineer booked for Tuesday, to cap off supply to old gas cooker. Then a lot more washing of walls and ceiling, followed by painting. Ugh!
One of the more unpleasant parts of the “electrification” project! I will need to redecorate once it’s done, to cover where sockets and trunking have been removed. Ideally, I’d get at least one coat of paint on the relevant areas before the electrican arrives on Thursday, so that I don’t have to carefully mask off new sockets when putting the final coats on.
So, cleaning. The gas cooker throws grease all over the place – not so much from the grill (which I rarely use except for toast) but from the oven, which is vented upwards with the products of combustion and assorted grease. I did clean the ceiling about five years ago, but it was in a dreadful state … the area to the right of the gas pipe is where the cooker lives, and it’s pretty clear which areas I’ve cleaned and which are yet to be done!
Unhelpfuly, Which? reviews every kind of cooker hood, except recirculating ones! So although the rest of the project is based around Which? recommendations, I’m rather on my own in choosing one … washable grease filters and 300+ cubic feet a minute seem to limit the choice, anyway.
Today was vaguely sunny in patches, and the first day this year that I’ve managed to spend time in the garden. Last year’s tomato pots were emptied and cleaned, and the spent compost put on the bed that will have beans in it. The “done” side of the rotary composter was emptied – the “compostable” Waitrose bags haven’t really composted at all, and the rest was soggy and squelchy: I think I’ll have to drill better drainage holes in the beast. The compost, such as it was, was trenched in where the runner beans will go.
As the stock of 8-foot bamboos bought about ten years ago are now nearly all broken or otherwise past it, I’ve ordered a metal construction to grow runner beans and climbing French beans up. A bit over £30, so if it does a few years I’ll be happy. Indoors, courgettes and a squash have been sown (tomatoes were potted on last week, though I had to re-sow the “Monkton Wylde” as only one germinated).
The project to get rid of the gas cooker progresses (slowly and expensively). I’ve accepted a quote to run an electrical supply (which will also provide a connection point for a future air-source heat pump when the ten-year-old gas boiler dies). Today, I’ve booked in a “gas safe” (was CORGI) to cap off the gas as soon as the kitchen work is done. I also said goodbye to the hob kettle – I’m now the proud owner of an all-singing, all-dancing electric kettle that boils in less than half the time – photo below! The whole project is going to be around £3,000 by the time I’ve added in the cost of the cooker, redecoration (which I’ll do myself, but materials cost) and suchlike. However, a cooker with a wipe-clean surface (induction rings) and a catalytic self-cleaning oven will remove an enormous housework/cleaning burden that I really haven’t coped well with. It also will mark a stage in getting rid of fossil fuels in this house, which is unlikely to save money but which is very much driven by my Green conscience and awareness of climate change.
Also electrical: the Mayfield Road house electrical inspection came back as “unsatisfactory”. Part of this is non-double-insulated fan/light fittings put up by Clare and Ian, which Ian has agreed to deal with. Sadly, the fuseboard cover is broken, so a new fuseboard is needed, which is going to be a couple of hundred quid (including labour), but I clearly do need a valid electrical inspection test certificate.
Last Saturday was the Rainbow Hill & Fort Royal “Big Day Out”. Based in the old chapel opposite Mayfield Road, about 40 people in total over the day. I was there all day, in a “support” role: opening doors when people were carrying things, helping set furniture, looking after the occasional lost-looking person, and so on. Form 0930 to 1615, on my feet most of the time; nearly 10,400 steps for the day.
Monday was also an active day, at rather over 6,000 steps. A GP appointment in the afternoon, postponed from a fortnight ago. All tests came back negative, and apparently I seem to be in quite good shape for my age. However, I’m still troubled by aches in my arms and struggling to keep weight down – I’m mulling over a private checkup and tests.
The 12th year I’ve had this hippeastrum, with one or two flowers every year. It was a bit touch-and-go whether the first flower spike would fit within the height of the window this time, but it just managed. Hopefully, the second flower spike will do likewise.
A good day yesterday. Gethyn and Sue came over for coffee here, and then we went into town. Parked in the Copenhagen Street car park, and went towards Bowns. Council workers were hosing the mud of the quay walkway – the Severn has just got back within its banks, Although there were steps up to the Browns entrance, they were blocked off. Uncertain as to whether it was open, we walked round the back, where it clearly was.
A pleasant lunch, but brought to a bit of an abrupt close when I got a phone call from the Green Party saying that a delivery driver was outside my house – where was I? I’d actually not expected the unused 45,000 sheets of paper to be collected until next week, as today is Election Day in Gorton & Denton, where our candidate stands a very good chance, and I’d expected everyone to be far too busy to deal with it. Fortunately, we’d all finished eating, so were able to scamper back to Gethyn’s car and back to Church Road. They had other plans for the afternoon, so it was a hasty goodbye.
Today, I’m not feeling great. Overcast morning, and when I woke from an early nap the rain had reurned. My back really did not appreciate it! Fire lit around 4pm, and settling in for a long evening – today Worcestershire County Council considers its budget, with a County rise of nearly 10% (the City’s bit of it is only 3%), which looks like passing. It’s the Gorton & Denton by-election, and some good pix of WGP folk who’ve gone up to help on social media. It doesn’t look as though there will actually be a BBC election special, just rolling updates on the BBC News channel, though I think that Sky are doing an actual programme. Result expected sometime around 3 or 4 … I’m guessing it may well go to recounts.
And I’m overdue for a veggie day. I must summon up the energy to make an apple pie for later, which can also do if I get peckish while waiting for the byelection result. Rather a shortage of other veggie stuff, so it looked like making a batch of chickpea fritters (frozen ratatouille to go with them), but in the end I exhaustedly settled for baked beans on mix toast. Which used up the last of the loaf, so the bread machine is currently working on a replacement. That won’t be ready until well after my usual bed-time, but I’m trying to stay up or, failing that, awake for the by-election results.
I’m lucky that the sensory issues that being on the autistic spectrum presents me with are, in general, fairly easy to avoid. I can’t wear artificial fibres next to the skin, but cotton, silk, wool etc are widely available. Being Green, I buy second-hand when I can (underwear excluded!) on line. However, a couple of recent shirt purchases have not been great – the articles were good value and in excellent condition when they arrived, but had been doused in some vile fabric conditioner, I guess in an attempt to make them “smell fresh”. This kind of penetrating artifical odour is something I really can’t handle, and am particularly sensitive to, and it takes two or three full hot washes to properly remove the bloody stuff, as it gets absorbed into cotton fibres. I shall never understand why people have let themselves be conned into thinking that garments that are deliberately made to stink are in any meaningful sense “clean”.
