Blog Archive

Wednesday 29 June 2016

What happens when you redecorate...

while your wife is writing her End of Module Assignment?

Well, it had to be done sometime and although I was dreading the disruption, I was able to escape to the conservatory and the sitting room does look much fresher now! With my University work finished for the summer break,  I'm finally getting around to posting pictures.

When we moved in, it was enough just to get the boxes sorted out so that we could:

  • Find things
  • Actually get into the rooms, instead of having to clamber over boxes
  • Locate the cats before bed-time, in case one had decided to stay in the outside run and then wail at 2 a.m. because they wanted to Come In and Couldn't.
So furniture was put in place and that was that! We left things for two years and then decided it was time for a rethink. The layout in the sitting room worked, but the room did feel a little cramped and in any case, it was in dire need of repainting.

So after much deliberation and several sample pots, we chose a paint colour (Dulux White Mist in a matt finish) and I took a break from studying to help Kevin pack up the contents of the dresser so that it could be moved away from the wall. We bought another wall-light to complement the one that we had fitted last year and Kevin got to work.

This is the result - the room looks much larger now that the dresser is on the wall facing the windows. 




This means that Kevin finally gets to enjoy a spot by the wood burner!

The cats are happy because they now have two vantage points from which they can launch themselves on to the bookshelves (an unintended consequence and naturally not something that we had planned!) and they are also able to get closer to that wood burner when it is lit!





Tuesday 28 June 2016

Here there be rocks...

We have spent the last few days clearing the ground at the end of the garden, in preparation for moving the shed and building the raised beds for our vegetable garden project.

It seems that many years ago (and certainly before the last owners of our cottage), there was a sort-of rockery at the back of the pond, probably planted with a couple of little conifers. The conifers are no longer small, as you can see!


As we started to clear the area behind the conifers, we came across these fabulous slabs of stone.


and there are far more hidden in the undergrowth! The plan is to clear this entire area and then construct at least four reasonable sized raised beds. The soil here is heavy clay, and I swear that every snail and slug in the South West has moved here  - I have never seen so many! We may have to invest in nematodes, though I have read that a hefty garlic solution is also effective. It's either that, or lay in some cheap beer for them!


This is the area where the shed will go; the pine tree shades the ground here, so it makes sense to have the growing beds on the side of the garden that gets the most sun. We keep finding old slates here - can only assume that they were used to mark the edge of the lawn and probably came from our roof when it was re-done some years back.

Behind the conifers were two elderly hebes (see above); I took cuttings before we started to cut them down, so hopefully they will root and then I can grow them on. When we moved here, there were two massive hebes near the drive, but they had to go when we had the oil tank and boiler installed. Be nice to be able to put one or two back in the garden if I can.

Once we have cleared the ground behind the conifers, we will put up a fence right across the garden to divide the areas, probably without a gate for ease of access, then use the stones to build a rock feature. Nothing gets wasted around here!

Sunday 26 June 2016

Patiently waiting...

Rumour has it that the results for my latest module (EA300, Children's Literature) may be released earlier than 15th July. This happened last year and I got the results on my birthday (9th July) which this year also happens to be my 60th!

I wish that I could say that I am quietly confident, but since this module could have quite an impact on my overall degree classification, the nerves have kicked in and I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the books for my final module (A334 - Shakespeare to Austen).

The books are, on the whole, interesting; three Shakespeare plays (As You Like It, Hamlet and Julius Caesar), Spenser's The Faery Queene, Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Moliere's Tartuffe, Wycherley's The Country Wife, then we have Arabian Night's Entertainment, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's incomparable Turkish Embassy Letters (she's a hoot, loving that one!), Rousseau's Confessions (not looking forward to that so much), Swift's Gulliver's Travels and finally two Jane Austen novels - Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice. Once I get the module books, there will be reading there as well (poetry, mostly).

The main downer is that my lovely tutor, Beth, who has mentored me through A230 and EA300, will not be tutoring A334. She has always given incredibly detailed feedback on all our work, with great pointers for improvement and I will really miss her!

As for my 60th, we haven't got anything planned - if the weather is nice, we have a lot of beautiful places that we can visit; we are National Trust members and there are several lovely properties with inspiring gardens and we are also very close to  RHS Rosemoor

In the meantime, our own garden could do with a bit of TLC - watch this space!

The pond needs a bit of work and that conifer has GOT to go!

This is our 'Family Apple Tree', carrying three varieties:Christmas Cox, Scrumptious and Bramley apples.

A job a day...

This will be something of an update post, since I haven't written anything on my blog for almost nine months (!)
I've decided to get back to writing again, inspired by some lovely blogs that I have been reading, so here goes:

July - September 2015

While I was hammering away at Open University End of Module Assignments and exam revision, Kevin had been plugging away at a 'job a day' on the cottage.

We  had new work surfaces fitted in the kitchen by the lovely John Baker, while the new ceramic sink unit was installed by Steve Martin (the neatest plumber and heating engineer that I have ever come across!).
Once this was done, Kevin re-tiled the kitchen and painted the units in 'Old English White' eggshell paint. He then used window film to create a frosted glass effect on the glazed cupboard doors and I am thrilled to bits!
Being on a tight budget meant that ripping out the kitchen and starting over was never going to be an option, but when I see what we have been able to create, I couldn't be happier.

This was the start of it, after the work surfaces had been installed and before
tiling over the old tiles (necessary, as we could never have got the old ones off the wall!).


A close-up of the new tiles, and before Kevin painted the units
and put the frosted film on the glazed doors.
Finished! Cabinets painted and frosted film on the doors.

My lovely new sink - I'd lusted after a butler's sink but
there really wasn't room.


Another change was to rip out the truly-tiny shower cubicle and build a dividing wall to create a much smaller combined downstairs loo and laundry room with a neat sliding door.



Note the little hole instead of a handle!

Tiny utility room - just enough space for the washer-dryer, lavatory and washbasin.

The ironing board is a bit small for anything other
than occasional use, but the cover is pretty .

Replacing this surface and the basin, and
re-tiling will be our next big project, along with the
installation of a space-saver lavatory.


This enabled us to bring the fridge-freezer in from the garage and install it where the shower cubicle used to stand. One thing that we did discover was that the 18th Century cob outside wall extends into the 1960s addition, leading us to think that perhaps there was a lean-to of some kind that, over time, became absorbed into the main cottage (the rest of the two storey kitchen and bathroom extension is constructed of rendered concrete block).

Other, harder decisions were also made, I  finally recognised that I was unlikely ever to revive Green Witch Crafts - the kitchen here is too small to make the quantities of soap that I used to produce - and the oils and butters that I brought from Surrey were out of date, so I  had a massive clear-out.
I also had a (very painful) book cull - Oxfam will be thrilled, I'm sure, as everything went into the Book Bank in Bideford - but at least the books that are left are ones that I will read again and again.

It had been too wet to do anything more - I needed to pull everything out and rearrange it and I couldn't do that when it was drizzling, but the weather eased up and I was finally able to make it into the sewing and writing studio that I had been dreaming of, ever since I first saw the cottage.



It's small but I managed to get all of my wool and fabric sash in!
Now to write my best-seller, LOL!