Really hot overnight in our bedroom which, being virtually in the roof, not only retains the sun's heat but is warmed by the hot water tank (in a cupboard). I went out shopping this morning and actually found it quite chilly at only about 16 degrees!
My word @North East Quine , the North East Chateau is certainly getting a major makeover!
Much cooler here, in a good way - I can actually face the prospect of doing some cooking without having to brace myself for the heat. We're eating our main meal at lunchtime today as we're going over to see Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling this afternoon. It's three weeks since we've seen them so we're looking forward to that.
It's a long overdue make-over, @Nenya! We moved here in 2003, and much of it is still as it was.
We had reached the point at which there was a "technique" to opening the kitchen door which involved simultaneously pushing down the handle and bumping the door with a hip, or giving it a sharp kick. To make it easier we had rubber bands round the kitchen door handles (not a look often seen in House Beautiful) It was only a matter of time before the route from kitchen to dining room was going to involve going out the back door and in the front door.
It's a wonderful feeling, walking in and out of the kitchen effortlessly through a door which opens and closes without being wrestled into submission.
Of course, once our lovely new varnished doors are finished, the hallway is going to look very shabby indeed. We have the same wallpaper and carpet as when we moved in, and we don't know how old the carpet and wallpaper were then. We did change the light fittings a few years ago, but only because one of the old ones broke.
Redecorating the hall is top of the list for 2026.
A bit fresher today in Arkland the Cloudy, after some welcome Rain this morning, but not much sign yet of the Big Yellow Face.
I was totally washed-out yesterday, but managed to sleep fairly well. Why, then, am I still feeling washed-out today? Even a nice Lunch of Chicken in Lemon Sauce, with Potatoes, Peas, and Carrots, seems not to have had much effect.
There are a few little Jobs to be done around the Ark, and after that I think I shall retire to my Berth for more restage.
I’m home from my trip. No energy to do anything yet! I have a ready meal waiting in the fridge.
After breakfast I took a stroll along the canal and round the town, including the market stalls and precinct, with its delightful independent shops, before collecting my case and taking three ( almost empty) trains home. At my last changeover I needed my showerproof coat, whereas back in my home town the sun is blazing.
I’d better get on with some unpacking, washing, admin. Good to go away for a change, good to be back home.
You seem to have had a pleasant little trip @Puzzler! It's long years since I last went to that part of the world, but I, too, have happy memories.
Jobs have been done - mostly unpacking, and putting away, some new light cotton Shirts from my mate George...my brother, my sister, and I all have a bit of a thing about Shirts, and tend to go for much the same style (the sort that doesn't need Iron Ing!). The rest of the Family favours the *hobo chic* look, as my niece calls it, but it may simply be that we are all (as she says) Norty-Word Lazy...
The rain seems to have tracked north of here for the most part. We had a little this morning, but not a great deal.
I spent the day in a weaving with waste workshop, which was interesting and actually produces things you might want to use. I then went litter picking ahead of the judging of our town in bloom tomorrow. I now should be at my writing group but I've had enough sociability for one day!
Our Nice Weather came to an abrupt end overnight, and I got absolutely soaked going to work (I did have a lightweight raincoat with a hood, but it wasn't really man enough for the amount of H2O that was descending from the heavens). I'd just about dried out by the time I had to go out again to get something for lunch; at least by the time I was coming home it had stopped.
I had mentioned to the girls in the front office that they had to be nice to me today, as it would have been our wedding anniversary; one of them mentioned it to L (my female boss), who presented me with a beautiful bunch of sunflowers in honour of the occasion. I really do have the nicest possible colleagues!
Supper was (as mentioned yesterday) cold meat, quiche and salads.
At last night’s meal in the hotel, ( sea bass for me) the couple on a neighbouring table kept including me in their conversations. When their dessert arrived, the words Happy Anniversary were written in chocolate on the husband’s plate. 47 years. Out came the cameras ( phones, actually). In all the excitement, my dessert order was forgotten. When it did eventually arrive, together with profuse apologies, I was also provided with a free cup of tea ( I don’t drink coffee).
My self-worth is taking a bit of a beating at the mo, so today's session with the vampires has given me a big boost.
The donor carer put a Neo tag on my donation today - meaning my claret is particularly suitable for newborns!
95 donations in, and I've just found out.
Science may be treating me like shit right now but tonight, Matthew, I am a fecking hero saving babies lives!
🧛♂️👶
It's a wonderful feeling, and no exaggeration to say you are a hero. I also remember the boost it gave me when I needed one. I hope everyone else here is thinking, "I can do that!" (I am 0 negative and was quite popular with the vampires until I was disqualified after my stupid body misbehaved).
It's a wonderful feeling, and no exaggeration to say you are a hero. I also remember the boost it gave me when I needed one. I hope everyone else here is thinking, "I can do that!" (I am 0 negative and was quite popular with the vampires until I was disqualified after my stupid body misbehaved).
Washer/drier being delivered today, so checked email first thing. 'Delivery between 7 and 9'. It is currently 3 minutes to 7. Whirlwind shower/dressing followed by equally rapid clearing of hall and stairs, unloading/reloading dishwasher. Check tracking option in email. Van currently in Fife, could be 11 before they reach here.
Some of you may remember that my Grandson William was in trouble with the police. After year’s wait he has today been told that charges have been dropped. A year is a long time when you are 20. ( Also posted in the Waiting thread in Heaven).
Glad to hear it, Puzzler! Hopefully it'll be a wake-up call, and won't happen again.
Nice for most of the day here; there had obviously been some rain during the day, but for once in a way, it didn't fall on me. High of 16°, which is Quite Nice.
That is good news @puzzler. I hope things are going better for your grandson at the moment.
Another warm day and I spent a lot of it at a couple of events on behalf of the Town Council. It was useful as I got to meet some staff I don't normally see and I do enjoy chatting to people. By the time I got home I was very glad to get out of my posh frock and nice, but not that comfortable, sandals.
Tea tonight was pizza and salad, eaten in the garden. I need to go out and water it sometime, but not just yet.
I have a strategy to use if someone walks in when I'm on The Ship at w
I've been out this morning to deliver a birthday present to someone and am out this afternoon for coffee with friends. The breeze is lovely but the sunshine is still Very Hot.
Warm again in Arkland the Elysian, with a pleasant mixture of Sun Shine, the occasional Cloud, and a light Breeze from the balmy south-west.
More Paint Ing has been accomplished, and the main deck (the equivalent of a roof) is now almost ready for a good coat of Red Oxide. There is a small area towards the forward end of the Ark which still needs some Scrape Ing, and I may tackle this over the weekend, which They say will be warm but overcast - ideal weather!
This afternoon's Task, after Lunch (STEAK n'KIDNEY PUD + CHIPS), is to tidy up a corner of the aft deck, where the Gas Bottles stand. It's out of the way, and not usually affected by Wind and Rain, but could do with some attention. It's out of the direct glare of the Sun in the afternoons, and will be quite a pleasant place in which to sit whilst wielding Tools and Paint.
Distinctly wet and windy here, and not at all warm.
Street full of large vans as new people moved in downstairs. (The first days aren't so bad as long as you can find the frying pan and the bedclothes - and the bed).
Cleaning Chap has been, so there's the brief but lovely interval before the house descends to its normal levels of squalor.
Must go shortly and set the new washer/drier to work on the sheets and towels.
Dinner will be a light, but hopefully agreeable, curry of halibut and prawn.
I hope your new neighbours turn out to be Congenial People @Firenze.
This afternoon's planned Task turned out to be a bit tiring for my already tired Legs and other muscles, so has been deferred until (hopefully) tomorrow afternoon.
As long as you don't mind the sound of a baby crying
First day of the school holidays here. I took Captain P to speech therapy this morning, and spent most of the afternoon working on making myself a new pair of jeans. I love making my own jeans - only ones I've ever had that fit.
@la vie en rouge, your skill and resourcefulness with a sewing machine never fails to amaze me!
Having not taken a coat in the morning (because not really cold), when I went out at lunchtime to get my hair cut - of course it was Rain Ing and blowing a hoolie ...
No matter, the rain that happened on my way home wasn't really enough to faze me, and after a bit of a sit-down, I pootled along to the corner shop to get some WINE, the box I bought nearly two weeks ago having just run out.* If the weather isn't too filthy tomorrow, I may go and get another one.
* For those who were worried about my WINE consumption, I think I actually used less than usual; I usually reckon on three bottles lasting just over a week, and these have lasted nearly two.
This afternoon we got back from a week in Amble on the Northumberland coast, where the temperature was a welcome 10 degrees lower than in Cambridge. We had a lovely time walking/driving along the coast, visiting castles and being rowed to a chapel carved out of a rock face. We visited Lindesfarne, and took a boat trip to Coquet Island where we saw puffins - thousands of them, they were flying past the boat with sand eels in their mouth. We went to the marvellous Barter Books in Alnwick, housed in a redundant railway station.
We ate locally caught seafood in restaurants; a shared platter of lobster, oysters, cod, bream, prawns and mussels in one restaurant and I had halibut with clams in cream in another. We also purchased freshly caught fish to cook ourselves including monkfish in Amble harbour and smoked kippers from the smokery in Craster. One of the best holidays we have had.
That sounds like a wonderful holiday @Heavenlyannie . I love the countryside up there; my father was a Durham man and Nenlet2 and his partner live up that way as well.
I'm feeling quite mellow after bolognese washed down with wine and am thinking about bed and book. There's a lively breeze this evening and we have all windows open to try and cool the house down.
Glad you are stocked up with wine @Piglet . We had a box of assorted white wines delivered this week so we should be ok for a little while.
We're thinking of heading up to the Northumberland coast later this month or early next @Heavenlyannie. So many people have told me about Barter Books I think I need to go and see for myself.
I went and played table tennis with my husband this morning and then we headed off for lunch out via the car dealership where my husband bought a new car yesterday so he could show me what he's purchased. I’d seen it on line, but it was good to actually sit in it. It’s being serviced and we’ll get it next week sometime. The rest of the day has been spent lazying about and watching tennis.
I had a very lazy day yesterday, recharging my batteries.
Today is a Come and Sing Day ( entitled Let’s get a handle on Handel) in my town.
I must get there early to help set up.
The organiser is chaotic and much too late arranging everything, but musically it will be good. There will also be an excellent Cake stall, and CD stall. I have donated about 50 CDs to sell. Those that don’t sell will become Somebody Else’s problem.
I recently offered a load of CDs to Our Place, but FatherInCharge very gently and politely refused them - apparently, they're virtually unsellable, at least in our parish.
A day of Cloud and occasional Rain in Arkland the Overcast-but-Fresher. A foray to Tess Coe was aborted, because Traffic, but the village Co-Op had some of the Essentials (Bread, Chips, BEER).
Further Paint Ing has had to be deferred again, because Rain, but that which I've accomplished so far this summer has made the Ark look a good deal more respectable. The hull itself needs a good coat (or coats) of Black Tar Varnish, but I'm still waiting for Family to come and help me out with this fairly big task - September is a good month...
You could market the surplus CDs as bird scarers. If you drill a small hole near the edge and suspend it on a wire over an outside light, it discourages robins from nesting on the light fixture. It solved a long-standing problem with our garage door light.
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Much cooler here, in a good way - I can actually face the prospect of doing some cooking without having to brace myself for the heat. We're eating our main meal at lunchtime today as we're going over to see Nenlet1 and the GrandNenling this afternoon. It's three weeks since we've seen them so we're looking forward to that.
We had reached the point at which there was a "technique" to opening the kitchen door which involved simultaneously pushing down the handle and bumping the door with a hip, or giving it a sharp kick. To make it easier we had rubber bands round the kitchen door handles (not a look often seen in House Beautiful) It was only a matter of time before the route from kitchen to dining room was going to involve going out the back door and in the front door.
It's a wonderful feeling, walking in and out of the kitchen effortlessly through a door which opens and closes without being wrestled into submission.
Of course, once our lovely new varnished doors are finished, the hallway is going to look very shabby indeed. We have the same wallpaper and carpet as when we moved in, and we don't know how old the carpet and wallpaper were then. We did change the light fittings a few years ago, but only because one of the old ones broke.
Redecorating the hall is top of the list for 2026.
Heidelberg to Passau by bike, down the Neckar and Danube river paths.
Here they are at Passau and the confluence of the Ilz, Danube, and Inn Rivers 🙂
https://photos.app.goo.gl/334w475J9aQjALQCA
I was totally washed-out yesterday, but managed to sleep fairly well. Why, then, am I still feeling washed-out today? Even a nice Lunch of Chicken in Lemon Sauce, with Potatoes, Peas, and Carrots, seems not to have had much effect.
There are a few little Jobs to be done around the Ark, and after that I think I shall retire to my Berth for more restage.
After breakfast I took a stroll along the canal and round the town, including the market stalls and precinct, with its delightful independent shops, before collecting my case and taking three ( almost empty) trains home. At my last changeover I needed my showerproof coat, whereas back in my home town the sun is blazing.
I’d better get on with some unpacking, washing, admin. Good to go away for a change, good to be back home.
Jobs have been done - mostly unpacking, and putting away, some new light cotton Shirts from my mate George...my brother, my sister, and I all have a bit of a thing about Shirts, and tend to go for much the same style (the sort that doesn't need Iron Ing!). The rest of the Family favours the *hobo chic* look, as my niece calls it, but it may simply be that we are all (as she says) Norty-Word Lazy...
I spent the day in a weaving with waste workshop, which was interesting and actually produces things you might want to use. I then went litter picking ahead of the judging of our town in bloom tomorrow. I now should be at my writing group but I've had enough sociability for one day!
I had mentioned to the girls in the front office that they had to be nice to me today, as it would have been our wedding anniversary; one of them mentioned it to L (my female boss), who presented me with a beautiful bunch of sunflowers in honour of the occasion. I really do have the nicest possible colleagues!
Supper was (as mentioned yesterday) cold meat, quiche and salads.
Now, off to see how the tennis is going.
At last night’s meal in the hotel, ( sea bass for me) the couple on a neighbouring table kept including me in their conversations. When their dessert arrived, the words Happy Anniversary were written in chocolate on the husband’s plate. 47 years. Out came the cameras ( phones, actually). In all the excitement, my dessert order was forgotten. When it did eventually arrive, together with profuse apologies, I was also provided with a free cup of tea ( I don’t drink coffee).
The donor carer put a Neo tag on my donation today - meaning my claret is particularly suitable for newborns!
95 donations in, and I've just found out.
Science may be treating me like shit right now but tonight, Matthew, I am a fecking hero saving babies lives!
🧛♂️👶
In other news, the weather has finally cooled down to a sensible level.
💗
As was our beloved grandson Huxley/ Little Beaky who had several transfusions whilst in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Thank you indeed.
💗
It's a wonderful feeling, and no exaggeration to say you are a hero. I also remember the boost it gave me when I needed one. I hope everyone else here is thinking, "I can do that!" (I am 0 negative and was quite popular with the vampires until I was disqualified after my stupid body misbehaved).
I'm not allowed - anaemic.
But I've gratefully received blood. 🙏
What to do for the rest of the day? Garden possibly in the morning. Rain and thunder promised for the afternoon, so that'll be watching the tennis.
Nice for most of the day here; there had obviously been some rain during the day, but for once in a way, it didn't fall on me. High of 16°, which is Quite Nice.
Quiche and salad for supper.
Another warm day and I spent a lot of it at a couple of events on behalf of the Town Council. It was useful as I got to meet some staff I don't normally see and I do enjoy chatting to people. By the time I got home I was very glad to get out of my posh frock and nice, but not that comfortable, sandals.
Tea tonight was pizza and salad, eaten in the garden. I need to go out and water it sometime, but not just yet.
You'll need to take a banana to work with you to stave off the hunger pangs.
Why are you reading the Ship when you should be working?
I've been out this morning to deliver a birthday present to someone and am out this afternoon for coffee with friends. The breeze is lovely but the sunshine is still Very Hot.
Spaghetti bolognese for tea.
More Paint Ing has been accomplished, and the main deck (the equivalent of a roof) is now almost ready for a good coat of Red Oxide. There is a small area towards the forward end of the Ark which still needs some Scrape Ing, and I may tackle this over the weekend, which They say will be warm but overcast - ideal weather!
This afternoon's Task, after Lunch (STEAK n'KIDNEY PUD + CHIPS), is to tidy up a corner of the aft deck, where the Gas Bottles stand. It's out of the way, and not usually affected by Wind and Rain, but could do with some attention. It's out of the direct glare of the Sun in the afternoons, and will be quite a pleasant place in which to sit whilst wielding Tools and Paint.
Street full of large vans as new people moved in downstairs. (The first days aren't so bad as long as you can find the frying pan and the bedclothes - and the bed).
Cleaning Chap has been, so there's the brief but lovely interval before the house descends to its normal levels of squalor.
Must go shortly and set the new washer/drier to work on the sheets and towels.
Dinner will be a light, but hopefully agreeable, curry of halibut and prawn.
This afternoon's planned Task turned out to be a bit tiring for my already tired Legs and other muscles, so has been deferred until (hopefully) tomorrow afternoon.
Restage is about to occur.
Spoken to the chap, who was very pleasant. Plus they have a six week old wean, so I doubt they'll be doing anything noisy.
First day of the school holidays here. I took Captain P to speech therapy this morning, and spent most of the afternoon working on making myself a new pair of jeans. I love making my own jeans - only ones I've ever had that fit.
@la vie en rouge, your skill and resourcefulness with a sewing machine never fails to amaze me!
Having not taken a coat in the morning (because not really cold), when I went out at lunchtime to get my hair cut - of course it was Rain Ing and blowing a hoolie ...
No matter, the rain that happened on my way home wasn't really enough to faze me, and after a bit of a sit-down, I pootled along to the corner shop to get some WINE, the box I bought nearly two weeks ago having just run out.* If the weather isn't too filthy tomorrow, I may go and get another one.
* For those who were worried about my WINE consumption, I think I actually used less than usual; I usually reckon on three bottles lasting just over a week, and these have lasted nearly two.
We ate locally caught seafood in restaurants; a shared platter of lobster, oysters, cod, bream, prawns and mussels in one restaurant and I had halibut with clams in cream in another. We also purchased freshly caught fish to cook ourselves including monkfish in Amble harbour and smoked kippers from the smokery in Craster. One of the best holidays we have had.
I'm feeling quite mellow after bolognese washed down with wine and am thinking about bed and book. There's a lively breeze this evening and we have all windows open to try and cool the house down.
Glad you are stocked up with wine @Piglet . We had a box of assorted white wines delivered this week so we should be ok for a little while.
I went and played table tennis with my husband this morning and then we headed off for lunch out via the car dealership where my husband bought a new car yesterday so he could show me what he's purchased. I’d seen it on line, but it was good to actually sit in it. It’s being serviced and we’ll get it next week sometime. The rest of the day has been spent lazying about and watching tennis.
🤣🤣🤣
Today is a Come and Sing Day ( entitled Let’s get a handle on Handel) in my town.
I must get there early to help set up.
The organiser is chaotic and much too late arranging everything, but musically it will be good. There will also be an excellent Cake stall, and CD stall. I have donated about 50 CDs to sell. Those that don’t sell will become Somebody Else’s problem.
A day of Cloud and occasional Rain in Arkland the Overcast-but-Fresher. A foray to Tess Coe was aborted, because Traffic, but the village Co-Op had some of the Essentials (Bread, Chips, BEER).
Further Paint Ing has had to be deferred again, because Rain, but that which I've accomplished so far this summer has made the Ark look a good deal more respectable. The hull itself needs a good coat (or coats) of Black Tar Varnish, but I'm still waiting for Family to come and help me out with this fairly big task - September is a good month...