“Do you remember the days,” queried Mr BW, “when what we did was limited only by the number of hours in the day, rather than by the energy we have?”
Lots of washing, yet more packing, cleaning, painting. Our estate agent seems to be lining up the punters for the weekend, after we’ve gone home and the place is beautiful again, but I’ll reserve judgement until contracts are signed and the money’s in the bank.
We saw our very frst hare in the field behind Coven Sud today, 27 years on. There are huge problems with hare coursing in fields quite near here, so the suspicion is that it was released on purpose. Either that or it hitched a lift down on the trailer and it is actually a Northern Hare.
“Why are you selling?” asked the Morrison’s delivery man this morning. “Because we are moving!” I quipped. “Tell you what, if I win Euromillions tonight, I’d love to buy it!” he said. Just as Nosey Neighbour was walking past with her yappy dogs, he was asking where we were going. “North!” I said, “Way up north!” “Scotland?” he asked. I saw Nosey Neighbour’s legs through the hedge. “Do you know,” I said, “In SCOTLAND care is free for the elderly, and prescriptions are free for all!” “The only problem with Scotland is Lady Nicola!” he said. “Lady Nicola of SCOTLAND is a saint compared to the Ego that is Johnson!” I proclaimed. “Good luck with your move to Scotland!” said the delivery driver, cheerfully. “Fingers crossed that I’ll see you tomorrow, when you are in a position to buy!” I replied. Ah, it’s so easy, mis-fuelling the local gossip.
There is a certain irony in learning today, the day that we had two removals companies round to quote to move the remaining large items of furniture (the tightness of the first one’s trousers, and the potential trustworthiness of the second are still concerning me), that the neighbouring District’s Local Plan has finally been passed by the Inspector: minus the two proposed New Towns in open countryside that we (and particularly Mr BW, who attended and spoke at several public enquiries) fought so hard against for the past x years (I no longer remember how long; it was a long time). We knew that these had already been thrown out as being badly conceived and totally unsustainable, but seeing it in print came at a weird time.
The knowledge that we have helped save several hundred (thousand?) acres of prime farmland from concrete is certainly a pat on the back, and a fitting legacy to our beliefs (which are becoming more mainstream by the day) I think.
Now, how many years until we have to fight those battles again up north? Now, famous last words, but I fear we may soon be fighting view-blocking tree planting (huge amounts of government money are now available for that, in lieu of essential post-EU farm subsidies fo hill farmers, so they have no choice but to play the new game to survive) rather than the peace and quiet destroying urbanisation of unsuitable southern quasis-rural acreage.
Month: June 2022
Reasonable journey down, for a change, albeit hot due to ongoing malfunctioning aircon. Lots of caravans and motorhomes, but few lorries and no delays or closed roads. Most unusual for a Sunday. Got quite a bit done this afternoon after we got back.
I feel like I am living in a show house and we have misplaced lots of things as we can’t remember which cupboard we stuffed them in to be out of the way for photos and viewers. Cleaner BW isn’t too well and it is doubtful whether she will make it over to clean up before we go back at the end of the week, before the ‘open day by appointment’ next weekend, so Mr BW is on pain of death to mess anything up. Several rooms are out of bounds.
Tomorrow it is the funeral of a Patchy Friend. Four consultants (in different specialities) over three years failed to believe she had a problem swallowing and told her it was psychosomatic. By the time the fifth (junior) doctor saw her and ordered different (expensive) tests, her throat cancer had spread and was inoperable. In her last weeks, her husband of more than 60 years felt that looking after her didn’t leave him enough time for himself, and arranged for her to be taken (against her will) to a nursing home as the local hospice would not admit her as she did not want to go there.
She was a lady who spent her professional life working with children and families in various capacities, all of them challenging, and in later life would always do anything for anyone in need, and was a kind and generous person, who always had an uplifting word for everyone. One of life’s true ‘givers’ who always put others’ needs before her own. I find it so hard to understand why her husband, who she had waited on hand foot and finger all her life (so often the story for women of that generation) treated her as he did at the end. I am told that he did not even visit her for her last four days. I am going to find it very hard to be civil to him tomorrow.
I’m really hoping that going down the A1 tomorrow I might meet myself coming back up. I have lost all sense of time (and possibly reality) and am just living from task to task on the ‘to do’ list. We have got through all of them (and some extras) in the last 4 days though. We have now also sourced and ordered the 30 square metres of ceramic tiles for the new entranceway.
Mr BW dropped the jockey wheel of the trailer on his foot while hitching it up this afternoon. I don’t think he has actually broken any bones in his foot/toes, but it will slow him down a bit for the next few days! Thank goodness for frozen peas and ice packs.
An amazing coincidence: we were invited to visit a very local ancient 24 acre wildflower meadow on Thursday evening. Until Tuesday, we did not know that this existed, and we have been struggling to get yellow rattle to grow in our new wild/orchard area. As we were walking around, we were chatting to the owner, and discovered that her husband was a sculpture artist, who worked in wood and stone. She asked where we lived now, and where we had moved from. She then said that they had links to a town down there (where I once worked) and that her husband had several sculpture commissions in various places near there. We visited one of these places a few years ago and Mr BW saw a sculpture there that he loved, that he just stood and stared at for about half an hour, and this inspired him to do a couple of his own woodcarvings – complex pieces, involving several objects, created out of just one piece of wood. It turned out that the lady’s husband had carved it. Truly amazing, meeting up 300 miles apart and finding a personal link as part of a simple conversation, whilst walking through a meadow, about a specific sculpture amongst hundreds of art pieces. We still can’t quite believe the connections.
We’ve known for a while that another near neighbour commissioned That Sculpture That You See As You Come Up The A1 into our adopted county, bit we had no idea that we lived so near to another renowned sculptor. Very sadly, he now has dementia and is now longer able to carve.
We have just had to make over 50 corrections (grammar/spelling/punctuation) to the estate agent’s draft details. Of particular contempt was the phrase, “The properties’ garden’s deserve a particular mention as they offer…” He said, “Most people just say nice advert, thanks!” How we laughed. I’ll bet that there are still mistakes in the final live version though.
And he’s not yet let us see the photos, other than to say that the professional photographer’s one of the back of the house – the most impressive view – wasn’t good enough, so he had to go round, and, being unable to get through our layers of security as he doesn’t yet have a key, or the code to the alarm, then had to vault over the neighbours’ fence, and stand in the farmer’s field on tip-toe to attempt to take a better shot. We’ll redo it again ourselves at the weekend when we are back down, because, you know what they say: if you want something done properly, do it yourself.
It’s too hot and humid here and I am very very tired. To prove that point, we had to go out earlier to look at some tiles (they need ordering to be here in time for the new entrance hallway, or it will delay the fititng of the stairs, which we have also not yet ordered) and buy some outdoor storage boxes to tidy up the assemblage of orphaned pots and planters not adorning the area in front of the greenhouse, and I somehow distracted myself and accidentally left the key in the front door. Oops. Being 400 yards down a private track off a very minor single-track road, luckily no-one walked in, and no-one except the postman came by anyway (and he’s used to no-one round here ever locking their doors). That’s the trouble with UPVC/composite doors of course, they need to be locked, and I’m just too used to a solid old wooden door with Yale lock plus 5 lever mortice lock making it impossible to leave the door unlocked on leaving.
Mind you, Mr BW managed to not remove the trailer-to-car hitchlock before driving home, which is fine mechanically, but illegal, so we are now quits in the key stupidity stakes, and hoping to sleep better tonight than we have been recently. Now, where did we put that floor-standing fan?
Yesterday was a total blur – up before 7am to pretty up and plump, photographer arrived to do photos and the plan of the house at 10.30am, we followed him around until he left at 1.10pm (he was a real old woman and I had to point out things to him several times that would have spoilt shots, and Mr BW had to suggest several better angles for shots of the back, not dreadfully impressed, not yet seen the results of what he took, although he said he’d upload them by last night and send the access code to the estate agent), we left 10 minutes after him, having locked up, got back 7.20pm having stopped at Costco at Gateshead for fuel and some provisions. The aircon on the car has ceased to function, not good when it was 28°C all the way to Yorkshire (when it dropped to 20°C for the rest of the journey, which was much more bearable). Never ever seen so many trucks on the road – I guess because of the rail strikes freight is moving by road, including in really old trucks (some 20+ years old). Then on arrival, even before watering ourselves, we did an hour of watering in the greenhouse and garden, as the solar/water butt powered watering system seemed to have malfunctioned, managing to resuscitate all but some relocated-just-before-we-left white winter pansies, but they might still recover – the thermometer says it has been hotter than the weather forecast suggested and a couple of degrees warmer at nights than down south.
I don’t think I have had a week where I have worked so hard in the past 2 years (although Mr BW has weeks like that the whole time, but that’s Mr BW for you! ). Down again this coming Sunday until Friday next week (to pack and remove absolutely everything left other than what the removal firm will eventually remove, and attend yet another funeral), then house open day by appointment the first weekend in July (run by the estate agent, he doesn’t want us around, which suits us) and then hopefully we might have sold it, with two weeks to spare before building work starts here again.
Coven Sud did look really good when we left it, even if I fear the photos might not do it justice. We’ll see! I thought I’d be really sad, but, unexpectedly, I’m not. It’s time for us to move on, and for the house to move on. In 6 years time it will be 100. I expect it will look quite different by then, but I probably won’t be going back to see it as there is almost no-one left down there now to return to see, and those few remaiing can come up and see us. If you’re passing by, let us know…
We, and Cleaner BW, have worked really really hard and the house is as clean and decluttered as it has ever been, and the garden is now nicely tame wild. It’s amazing how much it has grown and spread in the past 2 years when I haven’t been here to keep it in check, although Mr BW did an excellent job cutting grass and hedges and keeping the bindweed under control last year when I wasn’t able to come down due to having to be present for insurance purposes and to supervise the building work – amazingly, it’s a year ago tomorrow that they started Phase 1, and in a month’s time they will be starting the third and final and most scary phase, which involves knocking down the current blob stuck-on single storey uninsulated porch, taking a wall out of the north side of the house, rotating the stairs through 90 degrees and building back a double storey new entrance with a traditional local arch and tall glazing.
It is a glorious sunny evening at Coven Sud tonight, and in about ten day’s time the garden will look at its best, which is great as that is when the viewing day of scheduled appointments will be held. Photos are being done in the morning, which isn’t the best time of day for the light, but it was the only time the photographer could manage, and we need to get back up north with some more stuff to sort so that we can get back down here at the weekend to complete packing everything but the large furniture. We can’t both leave Cven Nord once building work starts, so we have to cram everything in now.
I am heartily glad that we are not people who move frequently as this is physically and emotionally extremely hard work.
Must have been an accidental auto-spell.
Isle of Wight Festival – last night Madness, tonight Beautiful South, now AKA Paul and Jacqui.
Back when we moved in in 1995, we decorated this house, at 11pm and 5am, in between work, to Beautiful South.
Happy memories.
It’s a funny world.
12 machine loads of washing and 8 dishwasher loads completed today. Lots of subsequent folding and wrapping. Nothing goes north until it is clean.
Summer finally came to the south today: it was 33.8°C in the shade, with a breeze that meant garments were drying faster than the next load was finishing: just as well as there aren’t too many pegs left here. Up north it was just 16°C and no sun all day, according to the BBC and CCTV respectively. Nevertheless, here’s hoping that the automatic solar powered/giant water butt watering system is working to water the greenhouse. Tonight’s low temperature is forecast to be 17°C south and 8°C north. I’ve been making a study of north/south temperature differentials and this is the first time in the 27 months we have been living between two places that there has been such a huge variation in temperatures. What’s it been like where you are?
Today Mr BW unexpectedly needed an expensive electric cutty thingy tool that he moved north in the last load, thinking he wouldn’t need it again, so he had no option but to go out to a local DIY store early to buy another. Very frustrating… but luckily as it turned out, the tool gave up the ghost shortly before he had finished the job (but by then he could finish it another way). So he took it back and got a refund. Usually at 5.30pm on a Friday it would take an hour to travel the 4 miles to get there, but he was there and back in 40 minutes. No traffic around. I guess everyone was melting in the heat and had gone home early to have BBQs and make hay while the sun shines.
Tomorrow is more washing, cleaning, packing up, gardening, and generally getting ready for the photographer on Tuesday morning. For the first time ever I shall be ironing a duvet cover as crumpled bedding looks very bad in property photos.
The independent estate agent who came to see us late yesterday afternoon endeared himself to me when he said, “It’s so nice to visit a property where it takes as long to look round the garden as it does to look round the house. Hmmm… I’m thinking of phrases like “gardeners’ paradise” for the details!” Ha, he should have seen it before we made another garden from it by moving many of the plants up, and neglected it for two years.
Sadly he lost all his brownie points again when, on standing in the garage/workshop and somehow ignoring the large stack of empty cardboard boxes (saved from 2 years worth of northern deliveries) waiting to be filled, he said, “Plenty of room here for a nice old car and a motorbike!” “Exactly!” I said enthusiastically. He then turned to Mr BW and said, “So what sort of bike do you have?” Mr BW smiled wrily and said, “I drive the old car, but Mrs BW rode the bike.” I grimaced and implored him not to be so sexist. I don’t think he will be making that mistake again.
It’s my half birthday today.
… please stop making things go wrong. I know you are sad that we are leaving, but that is really no reason to keep throwing tantrums.
Mr BW simply does not have time to fix leaking sinks, malfunctioning taps, toilet flushes and showers, greenhouse door panels of toughened glass that spontaneously explode, and cope with me dropping window lock keys down plug holes accidentally, as well as doing everyting else there is to do.
The estate agent dealing with the sale of Mr BW’s Mum’s house continuea to disappoint, but we have tonight found someone offering a new ‘American-style’ model of selling who we think will do an adequate selling job for us. And for more service and less fee than mainstream estate agents want to charge. We will see…
It may have been hot and humid here today (knocking 30°C) but it’s cold now. This just is not normal weather for this time of year.
Heating oil is now £1.02 per litre down south and £1.06 up north. It is usually between 30p and 40p per litre at this time of year.
The most expensive diesel fuel on the A1 today was £2.049 per litre and the least expensve £1.897 per litre, with most in the high one hundred and nineties. The better part of ten quid a gallon, but you’d never know it from the volume of vehicles on the road.
We have determined that new personal number plates are largely a thing of the past: aspirational motorists seem to be seeking a green stripe on their new vehicle’s plate these days.
We visited an acquaintance’s open garden on Sunday, and I took the opportunity to quiz him on his much-boasted-about solar panel credentials. With a flourish of his mobile phone and lots of bar and pie charts, he proudly showed how much he had saved this year through renewables. I am still reeling from the shared statistic that they have used 22,000 kWh of energy in their house already this year. I don’t care whether much of it is self-produced, 22,0000 kWh seems to me to be a really profligate amount of energy to have consumed in less than half a year. They have solar panels (which may not even earn their keep, in terms of energy invested in their manufacture, in the NE) and an air source heat pump, and two electric vehicles. These numbers just do not stack up. It’s all very well being ‘green’, but substainability and common sense must come into play too.
Tonight at Coven Sud is just like the first night we saw it, and fell in love with it, 27 years ago. Gorgeous light, long shadows, verdancy, high temperatures (29.1°C in the shade at its peak, still over 20 now). And the washing doesn’t come out orange…
The first ripe tomato and the first ripe strawberries emerged from the big greenhouse on 10th.
We have had strawberries well before June 10th, but we’ve never had tomatoes in June, let alone in the first half, and 300 miles further north. Luckily we have indeterminate tomatoes as well as determinate ones this year, and luckily I found out about the difference in time to grow some of each, because I’d forgotten.
Yet another water problem yesterday – no water from mid morning, for 6 hours, and then it again returned orange and airy, as before. On the way back from an open gardens (ours, at 2 years old, is better than theirs at 12 years old, even if we say it ourselves) we went via the pumping station 3 miles away, and found that the repair the water company did there last time, 3 weeks ago, hadn’t been finished. The blue ‘temporary diversion’ pipe had been left over the road, and the farm traffic driving over it had pulled it out of the unfilled hole where the leak was, and the water was gushing out like a fast-running stream. It had obviously been like that for several days, and, yet again, no-one had bothered to report it. I can understand why though… unlike down south where a leak can be reported quickly and easily online, here one can only phone. It took 10 minutes for Mr BW’s call to be answered, they then cut him off and didn’t call back, so another 10 minutes waiting to be answered, and they then demanded his full details and also a postcode for the leak, even though their pumping stations in the middle of rural nowhere don’t have a postcode as they don’t have a letterbox!
Tomorrow we make another trip south to Coven Sud to have a final tidy, primp, and have photos for marketing done. It now feels rather final, and quite sad, 27 years on. Still, it has to sell, in order to fund the next (final) phase of the renovation works at Coven Nord. Building starts on 18th July, we are promised. Just 6 weeks later than originally forecast in February, and already 10% more expensive due to rising costs of materials. But probably still 50% cheaper than it will be in a year’s time, which was the original plan.
Now, a question. We were originally going to put the same engineered oak floor into our new entranceway as is already in the lounge and hallway. However, it is now hideously expensive, there are now no local fitters, and it is recommended that it is not wet mopped.
Because of how we live, we need easy-clean, hardwearing flooring, that can be regularly mopped.
I think we have now ruled out wood, and I wouldn’t put down laminate as, like wood or engineered wood, it also has problems if wet-mopped. Ceramic tiles are an option, but as we are not having underfloor heating, I think they could be very cold in winter, and hard to walk on.
Has anyone any experience of Amtico flooring? It seems very hardwearing, wet-washable, easy to remove marks from, and warm underfoot. Any experience or suggestions welcome, thanks.
The weather doesn’t feel like June.
We are now just a couple of weeks off the longest day, and it really doesn’t feel right.
It is only warm when the sun is shining, and the rest of the time feels like March.
Anyone else noticing this?
Yesterday I caught the sun. First time in many years. Not sun burn, but sun red, and I had to hunt for the aftersun yesterday and for the sun screen today. Lots of vitamin D manufactured anyway. Today has been less sun scorching, but fair weather nonetheless.
After making a 5m x 6m new ‘allotment area’ in the field yesterday (and then planting it with cleansing potatoes, plus lines of horseradish and jerusalem artichokes transplanted from Coven Sud), today Mr BW widened some of the garden borders, and then cut out new areas for soft fruit in the garden with the Magic Turf Machine. Then he cut a swathe around the hens’ enclosure so that the electric netting stopped shorting out on the long grass, and chopped out some new bits of grass for wild flowers.
This evening we watched something that was trailed before almost every broadcast from the Chelsea Flower Show (they know their target audience): Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen (“which includes the BFI National Archive’s new digital restorations of rare highlights from the Royal Collection of film”).
An amazing BBC production, one of their best, and a rare glimpse into the past and the future. Do find it on Sounds and watch it if you haven’t already. Truly touching, and enlightening.
We are doing a very patriotic thing today.
Setting up a new asparagus bed.
The crowns (Guelph Millennium) came a couple of weeks ago, and had to be hastily potted up as the raised bed wasn’t ready for them and we didn’t want them to dry out. They have already grown thin spears, so will have to be carefully transplanted. We’ve never managed to grow asparagus successfully before, despite doing all the recommended things. I’ll let you know in two years whether this attempt is any better.
At least we are not flying any Union Flags upside down. I wonder what proportion of people actually know which way up our national flag should fly?
Yesterday was turf cutting and soil shifting and soil sifting in the warm sun. All very hard work. Goodness knows how earlier inhabitants of our house over the centuries managed to eke out a subsistence existence without power tools. The soil is fabulous once the thick hill grass is removed, and the field area was last cultivated for food in the 1950s or 1960s, so should prove very fertile.
Late afternoon it rained in drops heavy and hard enough to be hail, and the valley was so obscured by rain in the evening that we couldn’t see any of the beacons, which we might have been able to see had the weather been better.