The diminishing project list

We have finally got round to a job we’ve been meaning to have done for some years.  The door from the dining room to the kitchen matched the double doors between the sitting and dining rooms.  Each had 18 panes of very 1960s Flemish tulip pattern glass, hence were a brute to paint and keep clean.  Well, the double doors came off years ago: we only ever closed them when Martyn was still working, when I turned off the heating in the bigger room during the day.  We ultimately gave them to the builders who converted the study.  The door from the kitchen to the hall was of the fake panel variety that predominate in the house, and kept the hall rather dark.  Both doors have now been replaced with matching doors, each with a single large glazed panel, installed well at very reasonable cost by our local chippy.  The old doors were too big to go in the car, so I put them on Freecycle and someone took them away, saving us the £60-odd had we got the council to take them.

We next move to the decorating agenda.  Our decorating days are in the past, so we sent a list off to an even more local painter.  He has seen to the little remaining outside woodwork, and will next do the kitchen and cloakroom.  He was somewhat frustrated today when the wind got up and scattered dust and silver birch seed all over the newly painted garage door.  He has pushed off to his timeshare in Gran Canaria: I get to tackle the door tomorrow with a cloth and soapy water - and limited optimism.

I’d mentioned that we’ve started on the tomatoes.  Yesterday I harvested blueberries and cultivated/wild strawberries.  Most of the latter were nibbled away in no time: the blueberries are now in muffins, and, like the project list, rapidly dismissing in number.