Busy Day

Today I dealt with the backlog of housework and laundry which had built up in my absence (to be fair to R he has been exceptionally busy while we were away preparing for the conference in Amsterdam which is where he is this week).  Then I cleaned and polished Gertie to remove the ton of Cumbrian mud which had got all over her during our abortive trip to Caldbeck.

Then I put the dining room back together.  The beams in the ceiling need another coat but they will have to get it in a week or two’s time because I just could not face standing at the top of the ladder for hours today.  The room looks pretty smart even if I do say so myself – the cream paint so much lightens everything compared to the vile orange I painted over.

And I really like the fireplace now, although it still needs something in the centre to fill up the blank central panel.

While I was cleaning the car, I noticed that one of the basement drains was overflowing, so I cleaned it out as far as I could.  I managed to partially unblock it, but I will still need to get the drain people in on Monday.  While I was doing this, J painted the back gate – there are bits of it which need wood hardener and some filler applied before we can put the top coat on.

Finally of note, while I was in the garage I heard a loud buzzing noise.  A very large bumble bee (a queen I think) had become entangled in a spider’s web and was frantically trying to escape while the spider, only about quarter of her size, circled waiting for its meal.  There was no time to worry about gloves or trying to trap her in a glass – so I summoned up my courage and lifted her out of the web with my bare hands.  I had very much expected to be stung, but I wasn’t, and when I got to the door and opened my fist, she soared away into the sky.  Our garden is swarming with bees at the moment.