Monday 16 October 2023
The next, most fiddly part of our stairwell painting is now half done. Now that I have adopted the Fitbit thing of making sure to move at least 250 steps every hour when I’d otherwise be sitting at my desk, painting in instalments means I’m more likely to get things done. Today, a full second coat will be applied in my short breaks (which will extend because I kind of get into it).
Yesterday, we had our lawns mowed for the last time this year. The grass had got really long and was making it far wetter than it needed to be to walk through. It takes about two and a half hours of hand mowing (the gardeny area) and ride-on mowing to cut it all. It was finished after sunset last night on a day that had started out at minus three with patches of ice on the roads. It may not be a surprise that neither Chris nor I did the mowing; Mitch did it after a day of overachieving with other jobs around the garden and a couple of hours of painting indoors. We have both been dreading the day he moves on to other things and no longer gets our house and garden sorted out. However, he’ll only be working here for another two weeks this year and then he’s leaving us to fend for ourselves until some time next year.
Chris and I have bid on two things in an eBay-style auction ending today. One is an old Indian gong, the other is an original French film poster that Chris wants. I think we’ll both be disappointed not to get the gong. It’s a dinner gong. I absolutely love the idea of banging a gong to call Chris. I suspect he sees it as a means of calling me. I fear we will drive each other mad with it and we also think that everyone who visits will at the very least be tempted to give the gong a good wallop! I know, I know, complete unnecessaries.