Saturday, 23 July 2016

Spending the estate

The shed base and new path were finished last week, and they're paid for.  The shed/summerhouse/studio arrived at an indecent hour this morning on the back of a flatbed truck, and is stacked at the top of the garden ready for the guys who are coming to assemble it on Thursday.  The chap who delivered it told me he'd left Nottingham with it at 03:30 this morning, and had delivered two or three other sheds before coming to us at around 08:30!   The shed appears to be of quite decent quality - time will tell.  It too is sort of paid for c/o the Co-op VISA card.

We've done a bit of planting in the space we gain on the border side of the path - gazanias, pansies and some primulas that had been in a box on the steps.  The slugs were very interested in the gazanias, and slithered straight into the ambush I'd laid for them, to slither no further.  I spent much of the morning in the garden, dead-heading and weeding, and taking electric shears to an excessively exuberant spiraea.

The path makes cutting the grass a little easier - hurrah.  This was part of the plan, I admit.  I've adapted my mowing technique a little to avoid hurting the knee more than necessary: self-drive engaged uphill, and released for downhill cuts, so that I can take them at my pace rather than that of gravity-assisted Briggs and Stratton.  

As for the knee, I'm still no closer to surgery, since my blood pressure is now consistently high, and needs drugging down.  I loathe taking medicine, but if it'll get me closer to an ability to walk for pleasure again, it'll be more than worth it.  

The prescription was the least welcome of my birthday presents.  Martyn has bought me a very natty (and very necessary) new case for the iPad, and a pair of CDs of Janet Baker doing Schubert Lieder.  My Amazon account is nicely reinforced, so I shall stock up the kindle.  An M&S voucher has bought me a leg and a half of long cargo trousers, and today's post brought a parcel containing a nice little DAB radio, which now graces the bedside table.

The next chapter of estate reduction comes a little closer on Monday, when I'm hoping to take a look at a SEAT Ateca.  I've ordered one subject to satisfactory inspection and test drive, but doubt if they'll let me loose on the left-hand drive demonstrator that they are getting for just one day.  The model I've chosen won't start being built until October, so the earliest delivery will be in January.  Meanwhile, VW seems to be in no hurry to correct the fraudulent electronics.  The Tiguan did, however, sail through its MoT this week.  

Given the good results we got by sanding and oiling the outdoor table (we repatriated it from Lagrasse a fortnight ago), we tackled the conservatory table this morning.  I've given it a first thinned coat of Danish oil, and it looks far better.  When we bought it, it was coated with dull shed paint, which turned out to conceal an attractive grain, so the oil treatment should bring it up nicely.  At which point in the narrative, yr obed servt bears down on table wielding brush.

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