Found this. Watched it. Kept saying - it can't get any bigger - can it? And then it did.

... wow...

Watched it again. And again. Had to share...

Best with the soundtrack, but works fine without.

Oh dear... it's getting longer between posts again...

Soooo... starting with medical stuff. I yet again managed to kick the exercise bike support end and I think I fractured a toe. It's taken until now for the bruising to go and to stop hurting (I think I managed to do it just after my last post, but it may have been a couple of weeks before. Time is doing strange things at the moment... No, it was even longer ago: the first time I tried to wear old and comfy trainers was when I went for hair cut, and at that point I thought everything was healed. It wasn't, and wearing them made the problem flare up again.) Anyway, I can now wiggle my toes - to some extent, it's my right foot, the one with the flexor tendinitis and bursitis, because of course it is. Nothing's ever easy 'round 'ere. [sigh] At least I should now be able to wear my driving shoes again (instead of sandals, which is all I've been able to get on for the last 9 weeks...)

Hobbled up to get my hair cut on the 4th! Jeff took my temperature as I arrived - and it was lower than normal. Might have been because it was very cold and pissing down with rain, but anyway... He was in full face visor, I had to wear my mask, so not the most comfortable of experiences, but YAY! My hair is no longer all in my face.

I think I've previously said how much I like Ryan Reynolds as an actor, and how much I love the Deadpool films. Well, I found this and just had to have it. So it's ordered for next year's Yule present... I must be mad. But what the hell. Some people like expensive cars, or jewellery, or clothes, or shoes - I like custom action figures. Sue me, I dares ya!

It's been at least as busy as usual. We're redecorating and reorganing Ken's home office - the bookcases on the far wall are now gone (one in the shed, one broken up - Kai's put the long planks in the loft to act as supports for storage) and the old but sturdy and near perfect work station has gone to a young woman via Nextdoor (free of course.) Half the painting has been done, the new bookshelves put up on the wall, and it all looks cleaner and less cluttered. Still have to buy and put up the curtain rails (and make the curtain - hoping Dunelm has the fabric I want) and generally tidy up a little, but it's much better already. Photos, perhaps, when it's finished (with a couple of before ones - as you know, I photograph everything.)

In the garden... the egg that mysteriously appeared has just as mysteriously vanished...

The paving is coming on well. It's taking time, as Kai can't really work out there when the soil is wet, and it's rained a lot recently, but every little bit done makes it easier to manouevre around the growing section. Should all be done before Yule.

The holly trees around us are doing wonderful things at the moment - so many berries!

I found this at Tesco for £3 and treated myself...

I've not had much success with roses in the past, but the colour of this plant is fabulous, so I'm going to see how it does. It'll stay in the greenhouse until next spring, then move to the patio area: might pick up another couple of different colours to make a pretty display. It smells wonderful.

Thompson and Morgan had a special order on a month or so ago - buy one citrus plant and get another for 1p. I ended up buying one orange, one lemon, and one lime. Always wanted to try citrus fruit, and they'll sit happily in the greenhouse for most of next year (they're on the windowsill in the lounge at the moment with all my succulents and cacti). Fine down to 5° according to the instructions, so hopefully will do well. I just wish I had a conservatory for them, but... we'll see how we go.

We have been working through the backlog of things to watch. Now started on Deep Space 9 and enjoying it. I managed to find an English subtitled copy of Deathnote: Light up the NEW World on ebay: it was fun to watch but very confusing. Maybe another one you had to be Japanese to fully understand? Worth a second watch, anyway! Then it was Donnie Darko... whoa! That was... very good, but very complex and quite scary - though not as much as Coraline, which we watched last night. Nightmare fodder, that one. But very very good.

That's all I can think of for now, though no doubt there's more I've forgotten. Now I need to go move planters out of the way so Kai can move the slabs that are going to make a level platform for the telescope and lay a few for my potting bench - currently at the back of the greenhouse, needs to come to the front. The weather's not too bad today, sunny spells and quite nice. There's rain forecast for the rest of the week, so we'll get as much done as we can.

Labels: domesticity, drama, garden, medical matters, YouTube

Ye gods, is the busyness ever going to end?...

OK. So, in reverse order... we've had the plumbing system cleaned - Tom the Plumber drained everything, put a cleaning lquid through the pipes on Monday - we've had the heating on twice a day to activate it until he came back today to drain it and refill it with inhibitor to help keep everything clear in the future. Can be topped up every few years to keep everything flowing freely. He's replaced all the horrible old pipes in the bathroom with copper, fitted new bath and basin taps, serviced the boiler and replaced the tatty old hall radiator. He recommended us getting a new boiler (the current one was fitted when Kai was about 5 and isn't the most efficient in the world) but that will cost about £3K, and we'd rather spend the money on having the roof replaced, solar panels installed, and going all electric. Which will cost a lot more, but be much more eco-friendly. I'll start saving...

Anyway, that's all done and safe now, and should be fine for the next decade or so.

Yesterday - probably the last dry and sunny day for the foreseeable future - Kai and I picked the last of the fruit from the trees, put all the windfalls into the compost bin, and I pruned back the fruit tree branches. Hopefully next year I'll be able to save more fruit (pear branches broke this year as they were too long to support the weight of the pears, and an awful lot of apples were blown off in the high winds we had).

The clouds were very pretty yesterday...

There is an egg in the garden.

We can only assume either a random hen has visited or one of our foxes has brought us a present. Not entirely sure what to do with it, so we're just leaving it there for now.

Maybe one of our magpies will eat it...

I painted the areas of the bathroom that still suffer from occasional mould (the window wall mainly) after Tom had left on Monday. Looks great! Ronseal anti-mould paint blends in perfectly with what was already on the walls and made the job a lot quicker and easier. Happier with it now, and it's healthier for us all.

Kai constructed my soft fruit bed last weekend!

We've had to cover the open soil with rocks as we found yesterday the foxes had tried to dig holes. [sigh]

Did I mention Kai has finished putting up the wisteria supports in the front wall of the house? Two rows of long, strong vine eyes every 18 inches with 2.5mm steel wire strung through them (borrowed a ladder through the local Nextdoor community group - I joined a couple of years ago, incredibly handy! - for the top row, as our ladder wasn't long enough to be safe) and has been climbing up and training the fronds along it. It's going to be beautiful once it's properly established. Photos next spring, hopefully!

In the search for my missing spiral orchid supports Kai and I risked venturing into the left hand end of the shed. Didn't find them: I've had to order some less nice ones as I need them now - AO definitely has a flower spike coming -

- and I need to start training it in a spiral very soon. They should arrive this afternoon. However, we were able to clear out some rubbish (and get my Tf action figure boxes up into the loft, where they'll be a lot safer. Kept them as the figures are worth more with their original display packaging.) Will have another go at tidying it all up next reasonably nice weekend we get.

RO is doing splendidly! Quite proud of this as it's the first one I've brought on completely by myself.   

I've just had a 'parcel' delivered...

It's my orchid supports...

[Shakes head in... something...] Might be slightly OTT that...

Will get one in place for AO after posting this.

Kai and I had our flu jabs. Reaction hit me very fast and I felt awful for 24 hours - then it just vanished and I was fine. Lasted a bit longer for Kai, but it's now done and hopefully we'll be fine this winter.

Media... The Librarian boxed set arrived and we've watched 1 and 2 - rollicking silly fun, perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon matinée. And Legends of Tomorrow season 5 arrived, and Ken and I have been racing through it. We thought season 4 was bonkers: season 5 is even more so! Wonderful stuff.

Considerably less wonderful is that some of our post is going missing - stolen, we think. Ken has been collecting old postcards of Brislington for a possible book, buying mostly from ebay. Not overly expensive, but some are incredibly rare - and they haven't been arriving, even with proofs of posting (and one was sent recorded delivery). This goes back to two envelopes containing money sent to us (for work Kai did) earlier in the year from a technophobe acquaintance (who has now been convinced to BACS payments instead) which also never arrived. Envelopes containing Ken's postcards look very similar, and we're sure someone in the PO system is stealing them in case they also contain money. I've opened an official complaint with Royal Mail, as needless to say we are VERY angry about this. So far 5 postcards have gone missing, all of which are pretty much irreplaceable. Not to mention it does Ken's rep no good at all for him to keep having to request refunds from the sellers.

Will let you know what happens.

Labels: busyness, domesticity, films, garden, medical matters, nothing's ever easy 'round here..., orchids, Royal Mail, theft