The Hodge Blog

Quite glad to be getting back to work today. This weekend was tough. We got a decent amount done, but neither of us were feeling on top of the world with colds and sore throats. I suspect the heat we are generating in our three room house has brought it on. We seemed fine at -3 degrees.

The bonfire got stoked and never quite got back to a rage, mainly as we were putting fairly green stuff on top of a near dead fire.

Continued on the enclosure and around the tennis court along with a couple of small jobs, which I’ll come to later. The enclosure, which still has a small patch of brambles to cut is completely done with everything raked up and, as well as the chickens, I reckon it’s going to make a good vegetable patch. just have to ascertain how much sunlight it will get when all the trees are in leaf. Cleared some of the ivy off the wall which was incredibly satisfying. It is very shallow rooted and by the time you have cut to ground level on one side you can lift it up and drop it over the other. The weight of it just strips it from the wall the other side. It has exposed some frailties in the fabric with capping’s loose and missing and any pointing that is missing has loosened the bricks with ivy roots, but I am hoping with Murray on site at some point, he can show me how this should go together. It doesn’t have to be great, in fact a garden wall will look ok fairly rustic!

The smaller jobs fitted a new tap to the outside water butt that collects rainwater off the log store. I broke it last week while trying to empty it. Not only did I break it but nearly drowned as I was sucking a 1″ water pipe to siphon all the water out. With a pipe that size you have to suck with an open throat and from the bottom of your lungs. Through that size of pipe the water does come at a rush. Took me a while to be able to breath again. Jo just sat on the wall.

Put a blanking plate over the socket that was moved by the electrician last week and fitted a new ‘Dougie’ switch to Lindsay’s room. If you don’t know what a ‘Dougie’ switch is, it is a family word for the sort of pull switch you have in the bathroom. Every bedroom appears to have one above the bed position. Emma seems to like hers and there was one over Lindsay’s but it was broken. Where does ‘Dougie’ come from? If you have seen Peter Kay, Live from the Bolton Albert Halls, it is the switch his Nanna has in here warden assisted flat over the bath in case she takes a fall and it calls Dougie, the warden. Hence a ‘Dougie’ switch.

Couldn’t be bothered to cook last night and as I have, with all this activity, dropped to below 13st 7lbs, we went out and had KFC with chips, popcorn chicken and gravy! (That gravy is nice and, it’s another thing that reminds me of a sketch from Peter Kay and makes me smile…”They don’t do gravy”)

Just arrived at work to find we have been broken into. It never rains but it pours! It was through the finance window, which is smashed. It appears in may have been someone ‘in the know’ as why finance? Who would know? They also ransacked all the bottom drawers which is where we used to keep the cash tins. They thought they had one, but it was actually just a key cabinet with a few filing cabinet keys. That’s the crumb of comfort I hold onto. It was abandoned a few hundred yards up the road.

On this day in history and last year…

Weather = It’s been a very nice weekend indeed. The week looks cloudier (not as in Schiffer)

Mood meter =  Quite pleased to be back…