I’ve finished my part of the catalogue – that is, I’ve gone through the lot descriptions and cross-checked the owners against the lots, and cropped the photos and it’s all been uploaded so that Weeza and Ro can do their part. Then there’s proofreading and then my colleague D will kindly do the envelope stuffing and posting. It’s a great relief to have the main work done, though.
When the field was re-fenced back in the early spring, all the overgrown wood was cut down. Mostly, it was overhanging or dead branches, or thorn hedges that had got seriously overgrown. The hawthorn was all so straggly that no birds could nest and there were a number of trees and bushes that needed to be pollarded. All the good wood was piled in front of the barn and two massive bonfires were made as well. Today, the wood man came back to cut up all those branches and logs. He’s got a very impressive mobile (pulled by a tractor) circular saw and it goes through them in no time. And we had a barn with double doors that was clear, mostly, so he was able to dump a trailer-load at a time and five of them, he says, come to about seven and a half tons. Or tonnes I suppose, which is slightly less. There’s still a pile but much reduced and he’ll do that next week. We certainly have plenty of wood for now.He is also cutting back some willow for me – I’ll have a ton or two of that too; it’s softwood which is useful for starting a fire and, though willow spits, it doesn’t matter in a woodburner.
The family is all coming for lunch on Monday because Wink is up for the weekend – that is, she’s not here yet, she’s at Weeza’s house, and will arrive here tomorrow. Arrangements were made and altered and I only found some of them at the last – just as well I did, because we were expecting her here first and would have been worried when she didn’t show up – but I think I know what’s happening now. And blog friends Zoe and Mike are coming tomorrow evening too, because Roses has paintings in an exhibition in Norwich and they want to see it, which is splendid.
My new tenants have moved in to the London flat and we’ve exchanged emails, they seem really nice. I think a friendly relationship between landlord and tenant is very good – I pride myself on being a good landlord and hope not to be disappointed in my turn. Building up a relationship of trust and goodwill goes a long way, I think.
As for the other field, the one by the drive, there are brick pillars with wire in between, but that is going to be replaced next spring, after more than forty years. But the final pillar is just concrete and then it goes the rest of the way to the gate post, and it’s all not good enough, so we’ve decided to put in a couple of extra brick pillars. Friend Dave, who built The Wall with us, is willing to put them up, but would like the footings in first. And young Stevo was going to do that, but he hasn’t got around to it and now has another job. Anyway, I was talking to Rob the tree guy about it and he’s willing to do them, which is great. All I have to do now is match the bricks to the existing ones. And I have a cousin who’s a builder, so hope he can tell me what they are.
I’ve also pickled onions, red cabbage and more cucumber. And the tomato pickle we made the other week is lovely. It’ll be delicious with barbecue stuff.
You’re a very busy lady indeed. I couldn’t keep up with you for even the first half of your day. Long may you prosper.
Thank you, Paul – actually, Tim said it made him feel tired just to read that too, but in fact most of the work wasn’t done by me 🙂
I do feel I have to keep busy though, it would be too easy to sit back and let life pass by, and I’m too old to let that happen!