My Laburnum

 

I’ve spent most of the day cleaning away the dust and mess from ten days of workman. 

Four loads of washing hang drying on the garden walls, my gates and the field gate and the carpets have been shampooed with hot water and hints of lemon juice.

I had smoked salmon for lunch, eaten with long green beans cooked in garlic. 

And had a break in the Churchyard where the blue Alkanet frames the yellow Welsh poppies in an Ukrainian flag display .

Exactly a year yesterday I planted the baby laburnum and when  I visited it today I was happy to see it had flowered well and looked straight and tall and healthy.

Choir Later

Taaaadaaaaaaaa!

The new bathroom is finished,

A few minor tweaks need to be done, what with a new shower head and the like but it’s finally done and dusted and finished.

I know it’s just a tiny bathroom, in a tiny cottage, but having the final room in my home changed  remains a sort of landmark for me. It’s me, finally putting, my stamp on my home, in my way.

The final ghosts of it being a former marital home, chased away a little more.

It also underlines my a certain balance in my financial independence - and just to think only a few years ago, that independence was in question as the cottage was on the market.

And so here it is, all six foot square of it. 

I’ve seen posher

I’ve pooed in posher

But this is all mine

And it’s made me very happy.

Will it, won’t it?

 It’s like the end of Eurovision,

There’s a tension in the air 

Will the bathroom be finished in time? 

Time will only tell.

We’ve had a problem with one of the glass panels,

And I’ve just had to help with the positioning before sealing.

Mrs Trellis popped her head over the kitchen wall to see if things had progressed.

I’ve dropped CBM a curved ball by presenting him with more shelving

It’s humid and we are expecting storms.

Upstairs looks like London during the Blitz

Dusk Sky

 

While I was at work my sister had replanted the back garden with flowering shrubs and plants and flowers. It’s an early and very welcomed birthday gift .

She left instructions for me to water them all in when I got home and so with due diligence I soaked the dry flower beds as the girls ate their dinners and a dog fox barked loudly from down the Felin.

Jo ,a blog reader from Coventry sent me some gifts for the new bathroom which was kind and fun and my nephew Leo sent me a selfie of himself and his new girlfriend grinning wide at the camera…..and feeling suddenly good humoured I found a bottle of Peroni in the fridge and took the girls over to the field to lie down on the damp grass.

Mary and I looked up at the sky

As Dorothy and Albert just mooched about 

I chugged the beer 

And as the fox continued to call 

We watched the clouds until dusk

Back To Work

 With all of the Eurovision hype I had the urge to have some sort of online friend meet up last night.

I wanted to laugh a bit.

It didn’t work out, which I was sort of thankful for as I’m working today and although Eurovision probably didn’t finish until midnight I did dip in briefly 

I watched the stupendously dreadful disaster movie Moonfall instead. 

That was two hours I would never get back .

It left me feeling fed up 

It’s been that sort of covid positive then negative shitty week.

I’ve revisited lockdown with all of those horrid isolated connotations 

I’m sat at the kitchen table with my bucket of coffee.

It’s 5.45 am 

My GP rang me on Friday and asked me to stop my long term antibiotics 

I refused as I’m still waiting review by my urologist but he insisted that he at least change them to a different type. Which he did

Subsequently I have the start of a urine infection this morning 

Eurovision

 

I popped in briefly 

Spain was very good ….very Jay lo, with legs like Cyd Charisse

Ukraine got a massive cheer and will probably win 

Azerbaijan was cute a button with his beard (above)

I loved Greece’s gentle covid ballad had me in tears,

Iceland’s sister act was sweet too.

Sweden was rated but I was bored a bit

Australia was a camp feast

I stayed until Sam Ryder with his big smile came on ….he’s was sooo sweet.

Sam Ryder

Then I went to bed 

Feeling like a wallflower at a Jane Austen ball

Flower Moon

 The present routine continues for another day

Up at 7.45 am walk the dogs briefly then put them in the car with the windows wide open.

Make CBM a coffee and have it ready for him as he walks through the door at 8.20 am

Take dogs for a long walk.

Park in the shade at Sainsbury’s and have breakfast with a large bucket of coffee.

Read the Daily Post from cover to cover 

Drive home and drop the girls off at Trendy Carol’s 

Mull over what to do.

With the bathroom and covid I’ve not planned for much and I’m feeling a bit lost today. 

It’s a glorious day and there’s a food festival in nearby Rhuddlan and a bee festival in pretty Llanasa but I can’t quite get going enough to go. 

I haven’t had a shower since Saturday so I think that has something to do with it.

And so I’ve clambered  over the workman’s tools and have holed up in the office surrounded by towels and toiletries and bathroom shite. 

Here I will catch up with paperwork, emails , banking and bills. 

I’m feeling on edge and unsettled . 

As if I’m waiting for something big to happen.

My online thought for the day tells me I’m upset because of the Flower Moon which is expected tomorrow evening. 

Flower Moon’s,  according to the Algonquin people, bring with them change and a fork in the road for many.

A change for the better…..

Americans In The Village

 The American was the descendent of Thomas Parry, the builder who rebuilt my cottage in the 1860s and the man responsible for the refurbishment of the old Church into its present state. Him and his wife had already photographed the Church and my cottage door over which is a inscription detailing the deed.

Islwyn had already met them in the graveyard and had pointed them in my direction, being the “ unofficial historian of Trelawnyd”

I suddenly remembered that I had a key to the Church.

Now I know that the Church officially closed a while ago, but I thought I’d see if the locks had been changed .

Surprisingly they hadn’t and I showed the American into the Church his ancestor built so long ago

It was much more moving a moment that I expected 

Unfortunately moments later, and out of nowhere the vicar turned up like Batman and gave us a brief lecture on health and safety and insurance and the like. He also told me the locks would be changed shortly.

Of course I apologised , and so did the Americans

And Of course I was in the wrong, 

But I was secretly happy that the great great great grandson of Thomas Parry had stood inside the Church he had built when Trelawnyd was known as Newmarket and when the village population was double its present size.

I emailed the vicar apologising again for entering the church without permission and voiced my concerns that several artefacts inside the church are of historic value and interest to the village and should be kept there. He’s kindly forwarded me onto someone else in the diocese who may be able to help.

I know for a fact  a few interested people in the village will join me as will my contact at the Daily Post 

Hey ho