I’m going a bit scatty trying to sort things out – I have reports from 24 chairmen of different societies, nearly all labelled ‘chairman’s report’ or something very similar.  Likewise, ‘lecture report’.  Why on earth don’t people automatically put the name of their society on the report?  I have them all in a folder and am having to open each, check which society it is, relabel it – and then some people have sent it twice, a couple not at all and I’m having to check and recheck against the list.  I know I haven’t been as efficient as I might have been, but I didn’t realise it was going to be so tricky.  I’ll know better next time.

But – and sorry, I know I’ve said this before – I’m on several committees and have been secretary of quite a few, and it’s always been obvious to me that a certain amount of information is useful in a label.  The worst I ever had was a list of useful phone numbers and addresses from the Rector’s then assistant, labelled Bengen (as in benefice gen).  Months later, doing a search, how on earth was I to find it?  But Committee Minutes is as bad.  How about what committee and the date?  It just seems obvious to me.  Even if you put everything straight into folders, you need a different name for each document and if you want to find something, it’s simplest to type the committee and date and do a search rather than physically open each document to check.

Of course, I should have done nearly all of this over the weekend, but other matters took my attention and I didn’t have the heart to look at it last night either.  Midnight oil tonight, though.   Tomorrow evening is the absolute deadline and I hate to hit the wire (I received two more reports this evening, I couldn’t send them out earlier).

So, obviously, I’m writing on the blog now instead of just getting on with it.

Music today, two double lessons.  There are larger classes than usual this year – another 40 or so pupils applied late and filled the year, after the timetabling had been done for nine forms, and so there are about 28 pupils in each.  And some of the pupils have learning and behavioural issues (though no bad behaviour at all so far, the lessons have been fine), so the teacher is keeping to a careful structure.  All the same, they have to do some independent work in small groups and so the class was divided into three for some of the lesson, so that each group in turn could learn their work on the keyboard, drums and guitar.  I’m finally mastering the guitar, in theory at least, and can show how to play it, although I’m not ready to give a demonstration.  I wonder if Ro has left his guitar here or taken it with him.  If it’s here, I should ask if he minds me having a try.

Thanks again for your kind and thoughtful messages and emails.   They have meant a lot.  Thank you.

Dave fitted the last two ornamental bricks this morning, and we built the whole row above too, except for a few bricks that are part of the pillar.  Rather than work on that, we decided to leave it until Wednesday.  Remarkably, we’ve almost finished the bricks.  Just two more rows – the last three sessions have achieved more than I expected.  After that, there are the tiles and the capping bricks to add – the tiles are there to deflect rainwater from running down the brickwork.  They are the original tiles that used to be on this house.  We replaced them, with new hand-made tiles from a manufactory in Sussex, 25 years ago.  The Sage went down to fetch them in a borrowed lorry, and stopped off on the way at an auction to buy a cat – a china cat.

Weeza, Phil and Zerlina came over in the morning to make a fuss of Tilly.  She was glad to see them and wanted to be with us – she rested for some time in her basket, which Weeza brought outside into the sunshine.  However, Weeza could see the difference in her, after only a few days, and agreed that there wasn’t any good news to come.  Later. “I’m on Tilly’s sofa!” said Zerlina … she’s too little to understand, we’ll have to fob her off until she forgets.

Zerlina laid a brick “put the bird poo here” said her mother, possibly unwisely – is it a good idea, to give the notion that guano is okay to handle and a useful building material?  – anyway, she slapped it in place, helped put down the brick and then banged the hammer to tap it into place.  Then, Weeza took over from me, so I went to cook lunch.

Lunch was slightly odd, admittedly, with a random assortment of food I happened to have.  No one but me fancied the beetroot in yoghurt sauce, but the baked beans and sausages went down well.  The grilled pork belly slices, we finished off tonight with yesterday’s chicken casserole.

So, here are pictures.  I am really thrilled that we’ve got this far this quickly, over the last week and a half.  The wall looks lovely and I’m proud of it.

The Virginia creeper on the end of the house is beautiful at this time of the year, until we get a strong wind, when all we’re left with is stalks on the house and leaves blowing in the door.

Tilly couldn’t eat all day and was uncomfortable.  Not in pain, but not getting much rest. We arranged for the vet to come and help her out of it and she died quietly as I held her.  I don’t have to tell you how much we miss her, and thank you for your kind messages.

I mentioned on Facebook how concerned we are about Tilly.

Back in the summer, she started to get an upset stomach, and we changed her food to pouches of  meat, rice and veg formulated for ‘senior dogs’  (really, pc-ness for dogs, how absurd) which she loved; nevertheless she started to lose weight and her backbone started to show badly.  The week before last she started to be iffy about eating, for the first time in her life – having been underfed for the first 15 months of her life until she came to live with us, food was extremely important to her – and I had to sit and feed her with a fork.  By last weekend, I had decided to take her for a check at the vets’ surgery.  As I mentioned the other day, I took her on Wednesday and she was put on antibiotics because she had a slightly raised temperature, and a blood sample was taken.

By that time, she wasn’t really eating.  However, I cooked her chicken, rice and vegetables and she loved it, and spent the rest of the day coming back to her bowl, which I refilled – she had 5 or 6 meals that day.  The rest of the week, she gradually ate less, however, and by Friday afternoon she had pretty well stopped eating.  She would take a few bits from our dinner and eat her Bakers Allsorts treats and that was all.

The blood test indicated a problem with her pancreas, and the vet will phone tomorrow to see how she is and ask if I want further tests.  Well, by yesterday, I’d pretty well come to the conclusion that there was no point.  I know that it’s only too easy, out of misplaced kindness, to keep a sick dog a day too long and that you don’t know when that time is until it arrives and it is too late for it not to suffer.  This morning, she wouldn’t eat at all – I’d cooked her an egg for breakfast and pretended it was for me and I was sharing – and I was in doubt whether to bother giving her her antibiotics.  I say ‘bother’ not because of the trouble, but because it’s really hard to force her to swallow them, it’s really upsetting for both of us and if they aren’t going to help, I could spare her.

I did give them to her in the end.  I reckoned that, if they keep her temperature down, that’s one way she won’t suffer.  But I left for church heavy-hearted, quite sure that I’d have to call the vet in tomorrow.

When I got home, the Sage said he’d persuaded her to eat the egg.  I gave her some cake too (she surprised us yesterday by eating quite a lot of cake) and then she had some more Allsorts (which are meaty snacks).  I did chicken pizza for lunch, I had a bad headache and had no spirit for cooking, and also brought some leftover cooked chicken in here and she ate all the meat off the chicken thigh and all the bits of chicken off my pizza.

Ro came over – he was really upset by the news.  It looks like I’m making a fuss about nothing, she wags her tail and looks quite perky, but she is ill.  As I say, she never refuses food normally.  We fed her cake and she ate more than any of us.  I didn’t have any in fact, I gave all mine to her.  This evening, I made a chicken casserole and she ate quite a lot.

So I’m hoping against hope for a reprieve.  I’ll ask for the blood test and then at least we’ll know.  If she has cancer, we’ll call it a day.  But if not, we’ll nurse her along.

Ro might drop in here – I told him I’d blogged about our day out yesterday – if you do, Ro, thank you so much.  I felt so much better by the time you left, you cheered us all up a lot.  Tilly has slept all evening since dinner, and I’ve still to give her her tablets, but she’s had a much better day than I expected.

It’s been a weekend for accidents – Wink’s chap Bod’s mum fell yesterday and broke her hip and elbow.  They can’t operate at present as she takes Warfarin so they have to gradually withdraw it, as her blood won’t clot – I’m not sure how long that takes to correct itself.  And my friend Brenda’s sister fell and broke her wrist yesterday too – the complication there is that she suffers from osteoporosis and her bones are fragile, and the break is a bad one.

Today, we went to visit a Bond celebrity – the autogyro out of You Only Live Twice. And its inventor and pilot. He is now 94 years old and still flying. He’s the life-president of the Sage’s classic car club and always invites members and their guests over every year. He’s a brilliant inventor and you are welcome to poke around his workshop and see all the autogyros and he loves to share his years of knowledge and experience. The Sage has been at least four times and this was my third visit. We took our friend J, who helped us when we were blocked in by the fallen tree, and M, another friend who is a mechanic with a particular enthusiasm for restoring vintage cars.

Here is Ken Wallis, talking to the Sage.

And here’s Little Nellie herself.  In the film, it was Ken Wallis flying her.  It was adapted from an autogyro in military service – they have been very useful in a lot of surveying and other situations, though I suppose they’re somewhat superseded now.  He built the first one in 1961.

(Blogger has really messed up photos recently by the way, and it doesn’t seem to be possible to put them side by side any more, which had been a useful recent innovation.  They don’t go where I want them to either, so are out of order.  Sorry – it’s late and I’m not shifting around the order of the html now.)

One of the biggest treats is seeing the autogyro fly. He has to get his licence renewed in America, as he’s deemed too old in this country.  This is the one he usually takes out, but it overturned last week – a wheel strayed into the long grass as he was on the way back to the barn and it fell over, smashing the rotor arms.  He had some grazes on the back of his hand, but was quite dismissive of them.

The one he was flying instead was much larger and heavier, with a sizeable Rolls Royce engine.

He pulls it outside, then removes the stays that keep the rotors from swinging around.  Then he primes the engine and swings the propellor and then gets on and straps himself in, and sets off towards the field.

His usual party trick is a “look no hands, look no feet” flypast, but that wasn’t so easy with this larger machine; still, he showed its paces impressively and it was fun to watch.  I’ve a couple of short filmed clips too, to finish with.

Chris kindly found an article to link to – here – do click on it, it’s an excellent article that really gives the way he speaks, and there’s a film clip at the end too, which is worth watching.

Dave arrived on time this morning, but the Sage and I were running a little late.  The Sage had gone to fetch mushrooms for Tim (a job he always did for Al and still does for Tim – it’s the same farm as the wholesaler gets them from, but they are fresher, not having been to Norwich and sent out again the next day – and cost more money.  I had found that there was a document that needed to be emailed out, and my connection was very poor and it took ages.  Anyway, we made a start before too long.

Dave put in two more of the special bricks, which leaves two more to go and, weather permitting, they will go in on Monday.  We’re not thinking too much about finishing – it depends on the weather and how much time the Sage and I have free.  If the next fortnight is dry, it isn’t out of the question.  Once we’re up to the level of the top of the ornamental bricks all along, it will give a visual effect of a completed wall – it’s surprising, the difference that a couple of days’ work has made.

Afterwards, we had another session cutting up the oak tree.  Still a way to go.  And all that wood has to be shifted and then split.

As you see, Tilly was pottering about when I was taking the pictures.   The vet phoned this evening – the blood test report was inconclusive.  Some muscle damage was indicated, which could mean a lot of injections or blood tests, which she hasn’t had, or a lot of lying around, which is more likely – she used to be an active little dog, but sleeps a lot more now.  And her pancreas isn’t in good shape, though they’re not sure why.  Another test could be done if it seems worth it and we’re leaving it until after the weekend and the vet, who is a lovely Irish girl called Niamh, will ring again.   I’m not very hopeful actually, though I realise I tend to look on the gloomy side.  Let’s not think about it for a day or two, hey?

You know I said that the vet says Tilly’s teeth aren’t in good shape?  They feel pretty sharp when your fingers are caught in between them.  She really doesn’t like those tablets and, most unusually for a polite and gentle little dog, clamped her mouth shut when trying to avoid swallowing them.  Unfortunately, my hand was in the way.  Still, no harm done, and now I know better than to do them one by one.  I open her mouth with one hand and, with the other, shove all pills to the back of her throat until she swallows.  Kinder, as that way she doesn’t get the taste.

Dave started by building the end pillar to the top, and then carried on for another few rows, just to get the sense of a job done – now all we have to do is fill in between.  The final tiles and capping bricks will have to go on right at the end of the job, but the pillar is complete.

In the meantime, I was working on the central pillar, up to where the next ornamental brick will go.  They are four ordinary bricks high, so that’s as high as I went.

After that, we both did some filling in.  The forecast is good, so we’re planning another session tomorrow morning.

Weeza and Zerlina came over for the day.  As the weather was so lovely, we spent most of it outdoors.  In the afternoon, we did more work on the fallen oak tree – more than half gone now, but it’s a big job.  When Squiffany and Pugsley got home from school, Al took the children to pick some blackberries and the girls came back with berry-stained faces and hands.

After that, the Sage and I fetched bricks for tomorrow, opening the last pallet.  It was 6.30 when I took this photo on my phone, so it’s rather dark. And here’s one of the bricks, so you can see why the wall isn’t quite as straight as it might be.

I did finish the work last night, which meant that I didn’t have it to do this morning.  Tilly wouldn’t touch her breakfast, so I was glad that I’d made an appointment for her at the vet.  She’s got a slightly raised temperature so is on antibiotics, and has had a blood sample taken for tests.  Recently, she’s been eating only soft food, as she can’t digest biscuit or chews, so her teeth aren’t in too good shape and that may be the source of the infection.  Anyway, I bought chicken and cooked it with rice, carrots and onions and she thought that was lovely, so she’s eaten a lot today which is reassuring.  I’ll buy some lamb for her tomorrow  (I was joking about the fillet steak, Dave).  She usually enjoys her dog food, and seemed hungry, but wouldn’t touch it – I’ve had to coax her for a few days.  She has lost some weight since I changed her diet and can’t afford to get much thinner.

I did get to the lecture, which was excellent – the Sage came too and enjoyed it very much.  And then I had my hair cut, which I always find soothing, so I had mellowed considerably by the time I arrived home.  This evening I’ve read nice replies to the email with information that I sent out last night, so I’ve answered all those, and although I’ve still got a lot to do, I’ve caught up with the urgent stuff.  Still not heard from Ofsted.  Still not fussing.

Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, we’ll be bricklaying again.  Weeza and Zerlina are coming over too for the day, so that will be fun.

I’ve had a frustrating evening, but I’ve sorted it out at last, and learned a few lessons.  I’ve been receiving documents for the last few weeks and had to put them all together, using a PDF rewriter.  Of course, that was a pc one, so I’d loaded it on the Sage’s laptop.  I shifted the files across and put them together but, late in the day, discovered that some of them had been corrupted in the process.  So I had to retype a lot of information.  And, when you’re used to using one type of computer, using another is very annoying.  They are similar enough that you think they are going to be the same, and the air turns a bit blue when you find they aren’t.

Anyway, I now know for sure that I don’t want a pc, not ever.  I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them or either type of computer is better or worse – I’ve been pretty bored with the whole thing of Mac/PC rivalry for a long time – just that I’ve used one for over 20 years and I don’t want to have to relearn things.  Learning something entirely new is a different matter – I hope I’ll never give up on that.

Anyway, the weather looked a bit dodge today so we called off the bricklaying.  It didn’t rain all that much, but there was a steady drizzle for a while, so it was just as well.  We haven’t had the Ofsted call at school yet but it’s still more likely than not.  I can’t fuss about that either.

Now I’ve finally got that lot of documents off, I can start on the agenda for the governors’ meeting.  I’ll not finish tonight though, I’m tired and unreliable.  I’ll get the obvious bits done and work on the rest tomorrow morning.  Though I’ve got Nadfas tomorrow morning, and taking Tilly to the vet for a check-up before that.

Business before pleasure, I fear.  I may not make it to the lecture.

The catalogue for our sale is online – I’ve got a link to it under ‘the day job’ on the sidebar.

An open evening at the school, for parents and children interested in the school – most of them are in our catchment area, but an appreciable number from out of town.  It seemed to go down very well, in spite of our 70s and showing it buildings.  What was lovely was the prefects and year 9 students who were cheerfully giving up their evening to show people round the school – the year 9s have only been a month in the school, it was really good of them.  Some of them live in Lowestoft so had a long journey back at the end – the Head was going to drive them in the school minibus.

I wish I wasn’t fettered by the need for confidentiality, there were a couple of funny incidents.  Nothing actually confidential as such, just not fair to the people concerned to throw it out for all to see.

More than half expecting a phone call tomorrow which, until a week ago, we didn’t expect until February.  I could do without it this week.  We’re ready for an inspection of course, we’re always ready.  Several schools that were inspected at the same time as us last time have been done or received notice within the last week, so that’s a fair indication.

I didn’t get home until half past seven, so I was awfully pleased to smell cooking as I came in the door.  The Sage was cooking pork chops and baked potatoes, so I did some swiss chard that I’d picked yesterday – the chopped stalks first and then the leaves, which are like red spinach, on top at the end to wilt.

It’s occurred to me how odd it will be next spring (what?  of course I plan ahead) when I don’t need to grow whole lots of vegetable plants.  Just what we need for ourselves.  Unless Tim wants me to, there will be no point.  What it should mean is that I grow everything carefully, giving it lots of space, so I should get better plants.  That’s the theory, anyway.   Hm.  I’ve been meaning to harvest the squashes, but haven’t got around to it yet.  Must do it, they’ll rot with all this rain.

Ro and Dora came over this afternoon and stayed for dinner, which was a pleasure as we haven’t seen them for a few weeks – Dora’s car was out of action and they’ve been pretty busy at weekends.  Ro stroked my Wire DVDs lovingly and with an air of longing.  I finally got around to watching the first episode tonight (I’ve been busy too) – I’ve a feeling this is how I’m going to spend an hour of most evenings for the next couple of months.  Splendid to see it again.

I was going to tell you about the swan.  It belonged to a man who had a collection of Lowestoft china – he was a retired antiques dealer.  His daughter loved the china and he told her he had left it to her in his will.  Of course, he’d left his possessions fairly distributed between his family members.  However, towards the end of his life he needed nursing care and, to raise money, his family decided to sell off some items – the sons, having no interest in the china but knowing it was valuable, decided to sell some of it.  His daughter knew it was left to her, but could hardly say so; her brothers were unaware of that.

Years later, the cygnet that had belonged to the old man came up for auction again.  His son-on-law bought it back for his wife, so it could be returned where it belonged.  He died too, only a year later, so she particularly treasured it for the rest of her life – what it was worth to her had little to do with money.  She died in her turn a few years ago, and now her sons have decided to sell it – they like it, but are nervous of it being damaged, and so it’s been kept packed away.

As for its value – well, what’s anything worth?  Is the work of a footballer worth more than the prime minister or the postman?  If you buy anything that’s purely ornamental, you acknowledge that it has a value.  And it’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it – which may take into account how much it cost to make.  But the swan is a modest little item from a provincial factory – it’s not on a par with Chelsea or Meissen.

The most valuable item in this room, as far as I’m concerned, is the little box, a 1/8 scale model of an antique oak coffer that my husband made for me.  It took him many hours and was done with love and considerable care and skill.  Its monetary value is negligible, but that doesn’t matter, as it’ll never be for sale, not in my lifetime.  It didn’t cost a lot to make unless you include his time.  Which he gave.