107. Is the Grass Greener? Fish Tale and Petticoat Pink

Monday 24 April 2023

Smouldering remains of the bonfire and the nearly-finished re-clad shed

I finished painting the area we keep referring to, slightly pretentiously-sounding, as the Indian room. Two walls are now four coats of Fish Tale, a teal Valspar paint from B&Q. Unbelievably, it has come out looking exactly the colour I’d hoped for. I also did two coats of Petticoat Pink around the window ‘cave’. Petticoat Pink is significantly more candy floss-pink than I envisaged. I had a very subtle, pale pink in mind. However, I think it actually works really well. We then hammered in a few picture hooks and have started covering the wall in pictures. This, for my painting capacity/tolerance in a day, counts as overachievement. Mitch-the-overachiever, meanwhile, made massive progress with our shed, which I think will end up looking better than a new one. He also lit an enormous bonfire in the rain, the smell and sound of which took me back to standing in our garden when I was a child fascinated by bonfires.

After he finished that day’s work, he did what he treats as a separate job; he mowed about two acres of land, including driving a ride-on mower up and down our steep, uneven pathway. I was painting the window ‘cave’ while he was mowing, so every now and then I caught a glimpse of man and mower. At one point, I looked up to see Mitch raising the all-important WiFi cable connecting us to our hub up the garden. And then I saw something on the back of the mower catch the cable and pull it from its pole, the whole line suddenly going slack, very clearly cut. I told Chris, who was on his mobile at the time. Chris said he was still able to – Oh, it’s gone down! So Mr Useless-with-cables and Mrs Useless-with-cables were without WiFi, phone signal and, I realised, no Wordle. I’m mildly embarrassed to say that was the thing that annoyed me most, no Wordle.

Chris went up the garden to investigate, Mitch told him what had happened and said he’d come back early the next morning to fix it. Chris wasn’t too concerned as he’s going to Lewisham tomorrow for a few days. I was surprisingly okay about it, in part because most things I’m doing at the moment I can do offline temporarily. As it happens, Mitch managed a temporary fix that evening and contact with the outside world was restored.