Being outside

They are saying we have had the hottest Summer on record - I don't know if that is the case -  it took a while to settle but July, August, September and October were very hot but November is not being so kind.  The weather forecast for next week is rain and a lot of it (not that the island doesn't need it) so we had plans to stay in and around the house today getting some jobs done.

John wanted to get his new door for the gas-store constructed - the previous one was made out of some offcuts so now we have sorted out the wall leading up to the gas-store and John has better access when he wheels the big old gas bottles along there he wanted the door to look nicer and work better.  

This has highlighted something awry with the roof above as it seems to rise up a bit like a ski slope - this is going to have to be sorted in due course when we finally say goodbye to the wooden shed which is underneath.  That shed must be about to celebrate it's 15th birthday as we had it made for us when we moved into married quarters and initially we didn't have a garage.  We moved from a four-bed double garaged detached house into a very small three bed end of terrace with no garage and no storage whatsoever.  That shed, from Wey's in Crewkerne was a godsend and John was determined to bring it with us - he dismantled it and then got the lovely moving guys from Peter Mortons to help him put it back together when our furniture arrived here in June 2011 and it was bloomin' well raining!!!  We did a trade-off with the movers that they do the shed instead of unpacking all the millions of boxes of stuff we had brought over and they were more than happy.

Here is John on htat day and blimey how things have changed around the house since then but the shed is still there - now encased in a framework which will become the new shed when the wooden shed dies - if you get my drift!!!

So to the right of the shed (as you look at it) is now the gas-store and it has a lovely new wooden door to it.  - The wooden fence between us and next door has been replaced with shiny new aluminium panels and the blockwork below has now been hidden by wood paneling.  The shingle has in part been replaced with some (temporary but still there) paving slabs and what remains has been weeded to within an inch of its life!!

I don't know what vision we had for the house and the garden in those early days but it has evolved over the years and it is what it is!!!  Seeing others around us being done up is exciting and interesting - times have changed, tastes have changed and accessibility to DIY items is definitely much easier now - previously it was so old fashioned you almost had to by your bolts in one shop that the matching nuts in another - now we can order things on-line and get them delivered to our door!!!

 Whilst John was building I was busy tidying the garden - clearing up the leaves which have come down after the recent stormy weather and we bought a storage box for the garden cushions which needed a home being found.  The clock vine and the bougainvillea got a severe haircut but will need cutting back again in a couple of weeks -we just didn't want to get rid of all the colour too soon.  The new box has meant some of the pots needing repositioning but it is a great addition because the lid fits good and tight so the contents should be fairly waterproof.

I checked the water temperature in the pool and the Lying Duck told me that it was 19 degrees so I decided that was more than warm enough to go in.  It was bracing on entry but actually not too bad and I keep telling myself that it is so good for me - anyway I saw Edda from the village the other day and she is in her 70s and she said she was still swimming although it was getting a bit too cold now - their pool (which is massive) is only 15 degrees so considerably cooler than ours - either that or the Lying Duck is actually lying.

The best bit about the swim was jumping into a nice hot shower afterwards.  With wall to wall sunshine today we didn't have any worries about having enough provided by the solar panels but this will soon not be the case and if we want a hot shower early in the morning are going to have to resort to putting on the immersion heater - that is when you know Summer is well and truly over.

I had our dinner in the slow cooker - we are going out with Mum and Bassam and two of his children (we are limited because under current restrictions you can only have 6 people together at a table in a restaurant).  We had bought a piece of meat called 'knuckle' at Paps and it seemed the only way to turn it into anything edible was to cook it long and slow which is what I did.  It was ok when cooked but no better than the cubed beef you can buy which is three or four euros a kilo cheaper.

There was a fire nearby this afternoon - not bad enough to warrant the helicopters but we saw the fire engine race down and it was stinking so we shut all the windows and doors and settled down for a roast dinner on a Saturday followed by the agony of watching Sheffield United play - I threw in the towel and went to bed with Minnie Mou for company - much more pleasant than hearing John rant at the TV.