From one extreme to another

Tuesday - typically the day after the bank holiday, was beautiful, hot and sunny, 26 degrees centigrade, it felt like an English summer's day.

I started the day with a bit of seedling nurturing, smashing a completely woodworm riddled shelf off the wall and throwing all the soft furnishings outside to air out before resigning myself to the emails and letters I had to write.

Dealing with solicitors and estate agents is two ends of a wide spectrum. One the one hand, one is required to observe a tortuous route through many vagaries of the English language, in order to ascertain the prescribed procedure - and on the other hand - you have to speak in simple words to make sure that the person on the other end does not make a mistake as a result of not understanding your instructions.

It is enough to make you want to tear your hair out.

Luckily I was rescued in the afternoon by a surprise visit from some friends and managed to actually spend some time outside enjoying the sun.  Lovely lazy afternoon.......


........... to the other extreme .....

We had planned to get started on the pantry renovation, got distracted, got even more distracted by sunny days, then got into it today.

The worst part of starting any decorating job for me is the clearing out of the space before any work can begin. And three years worth of foraging, bargain hunting, stock piling and perserving our harvests meant that my pantry was very very very full indeed.

It has taken us both all day to move everything out, now just the freezer, gas cooker and washing machine are left, and I am hoping we can work around those, shove them to one side then shove them back. I do not want to have to empty the freezer and move it.

 At the moment everything is not so conveniently stashed away in the barn, on a couple of temporary trestle tables.  I am just hoping that I can find everything I need to cook with on Saturday night - but fear not - when all else fails, I know where the wine is!