Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Couple of scorchers

So..., August already. Scary how time flies. Looking back at July, it seemed to be a rubbish month weather-wise. Certainly not what you'd expect for high summer. Mind you, the last day of July, Sunday, dawned sunny and turned out to be a scorcher. Took the opportunity to mow the lawn. Amazing how quickly the grass, weeds rather, grows after a rainy spell. Then set about doing a bit of strimming out the back. Ended up dripping with sweat. Wore a baseball cap to keep the sun off. Relaxing Sunday? Must be joking.



Monday was another scorcher. Decided to re-paint the front door. Have never been entirely happy with the light green colour so nipped up the bricolage and bought a tin of grey-green. Much better. Started sanding down and painting but, due to the door being south facing, was soon dripping with sweat (again!) despite the minimal amount of physical exertion. Had to keep going inside to cool off. Got through a couple of bottles of water. Come mid-day, I'd had enough. Watched the latter stages of the Grand Prix (boring cars) then decided to change the bed sheets. Well, the bottom one and my pillow case. Hung the duvet out the window (very French y'know). Fired up the washing machine and did a couple of loads. Hung the stuff on the washing line. Sounds relatively straight-forward but the line runs from the apple tree which is covered with wasps and hornets. All rather worrying. Returned to door painting in late afternoon. Then did a bit more strimming out back. Some of the weedy things had thick stems - bit too tough for the strimmer, so I had to pull 'em out. Twelve inch roots meant I ended up on me arse a couple of times. The joys of gardening? Must be joking.

Two sweaty days and I was stinking, even more so than normal, so I treated myself to a much-needed bath Monday evening. Yes, I know I should shower or bath more than once a month but when there's no-one around to complain, I can't be arsed. Dogs don't seem to mind. So, Monday night, clean bod, clean sheet and pillow case, aired and turned duvet, parfait. Had also washed Sprock's top sheet (he insists on kipping on my pit) and shampooed the bugger so everything smelt of roses.

Not so hot Tuesday so finished off the front door and took some junk up the skips on the edge of the hamlet. The skips are dropped off for three or four days about three times a year and very useful they are too. Always amazes me how quickly they fill up with all sorts of interesting stuff. For example, couple of years ago Roy (neighbour from next hamlet) found a discarded anvil. Being an antiques expert, he rescued it, cleaned it up then sold it on eBay for hundreds. Hard to believe but somewhere in France exists an anvil collector. However, I doubt if my rubbishy plywood door, old scanner, duff battery and various other bits of junk would be of interest to anyone. Mind you, Georgie reckons there might be a collector of old computery stuff somewhere out there who'd leap at the chance of owning an old black and white scanner such as the one that's now languishing under a ton of crap. Being the daughter of an outback Aussie, she has immense difficulty in chucking anything out, unlike moi. Always thinks stuff will eventually come in useful. Hmm...

Tuesday evening (last night), took the dogs up the cemetery run. Bit muggy with storm clouds gathering. Returned home and sat outside with my evening scotch'n'dry while last night's leftovers were being re-heated indoors. Turned windy and dark as the clouds moved in.



Sure enough, thunder and lightning at around 11pm (damn, 'Gladiator' had just started). Switched everything off, disconnected laptop and gave the dogs a quick walk in the garden. Or would have done had they not stopped in their tracks on the front step when confronted by the pouring rain and raging storm. So went to bed without late-night walkies. Dogs panicking and hyperventilating. Jock woke me up with a bark at about 4.30am. Demanded to be let out with Sprock for a wee now the storm had passed. Been up since then finalising my fantasy footy team (serious stuff - season kicks off on the 13th), checking news websites, responding to emails and writing this drivel (apologies for it being about nothing in particular - as usual - but I just wanted an excuse to show the photo of the nicely lit, newly cut lawn - click to enlarge). Anyway, this morning's dawned cloudy and grey but on the bright side it's perfect weather for painting the white shutters grey-green to match the door. Summer? Must be joking.

2 comments:

  1. Great photos. You're right, it has been a peculiar year, weather-wise.

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  2. it's not anonymous, it's avril again..

    We've had a right mix of weather here too. Seems like the summer happened in April and we've just a few days of it here and there. I'm off camping tomorrow, so paintbrushes crossed, it'll only rain when I'm asleep. I enjoy your photos, why live in a town when you can live in peace surrounded by nature?

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