You will notice from the clothing being worn that this is not, perhaps, what some would consider deck weather. I will spend time on the deck this week. I’ve got my down sleeping bag, wind-tent, umbrella and 3.5 kilowatt patio heater ready …
Just a little rice porridge today. The health visitor said that officially we should wait another week, but that kidneys can develop at different rates … I’m pretty sure I had porridge from birth. How else could I have learned to fling it about so expertly? Sophie slept two and a half hours today and was like a different child when I got home – clear-eyed and smiling.
The deck was finished today. Josie was beside herself with excitement and danced around it (read sprinted around it with hands over her head) for quite some time. When I got home Michelle was racing Josie around it on Josie’s scooter. They’ve done a great job – pics in the gallery.
Me old mum introduced the above expression on a duller-than-can-easily-be-put-into-words safari (if you’ll excuse the internationalism) on which I was pining away for the woman who was to become my wife. She didn’t yell, “Gerry! Gerry! He’s fading, can’t we do something!” (at which point my bush-savvy father would have gone hunting for Athelas – probably in his sock drawer), or even, “James! James! Stay away from the light!” in my moments of delirium. No, instead she cheered my little heart every morning when she saw my no-doubt stricken face: “Ha, ha. Absence makes the fond heart wander …”. Most people suffer separation anxiety in their first year and spend a short while recovering. I started in early adulthood and may never recover.
I won’t burden you with the words I learned as a child to “Oats, peas, beans and barley grow”. Suffice to say that I heard the correct ones on CBeebies last week and had to sit down for a bit. Without wanting to let her off the hook, it seems parental duplicitousness is rife – witness “hitapotami” and “porkypines” as just two recent and deeply disturbing examples.
Makes me wonder what we’re teaching ours that we think is cute but won’t be thanked for.
I like squirrels.
Me too.
They’re cute and cuddly.
Yes, they are.
Are you cute and cuddly?
Yes, I am.
Yes, you are.
Completely dispelled all recollection of dentists.
Josie and I had been walking in a beautiful old churchyard; green and shady and with more squirrels than I’ve ever seen in one place. Lots of buried nuts I guess. One particularly friendly squirrel came over and chatted for a while before it bored of waiting to be fed, tried my finger just in case it had been missing something, and dashed off.
The deck-man maketh progress. No pics, you’ll be relieved to hear, because it was dark by the time I thought of it and you won’t get the true bleakness of the vista with a flash at night.
It was a beautiful hazy day today – definitely autumn. And we were visited by the incomparable Zed.
I met the deck-man before work and agreed, by way of compromise, that the frame would remain nailed together but will be supported on bricks and the decking will be screwed to it.
This carries the advantage that he’ll finish tomorrow and we’ll actually get to use the deck before autumn’s completely upon us. Or has that already happened?
Thank you all for your kind words of commiseration. I feel much better now.
While we’re in the swing of things we’re having a run of medical interventions; Jo was at the doctor today, Soph has shots tomorrow, Michelle’s seeing the doctor tomorrow and I’m seeing the dentist. Does the fun ever stop?
The deck is starting to go in – pic below, and yes, there is a wheelbarrow and a steel-frame table parked smack bang in the middle of our precious little patch of garden. Never confuse hard landscapers with gardeners. If it’s green and soft enough not to knock you out cold if you run into it then it might as well be invisible. I’m looking forward to the deck. I’d taken holiday next week to lie on it (with patio heater if necessary) but:
Very.very.funny post from Zoe, and also heard from Brent today and linked his site on the roll.
Here’s progress at close of play today:
It’s my left eye’s having trouble. Is it obvious?
I visited the opthalmologist this morning and yes, it probably was just an extra-strength sneeze that caused the problem. I need to go back in six weeks. Just in case I sneeze again I guess. He put drops in my eyes which stopped me seeing anything. I asked the person sitting next to me in the waiting room to read the numbers off my mobile that I needed for the morning’s work and wrote them big enough to read normally at about 60 yards. I could just see them when I needed them. Then I stepped outside, from a hospital in Harpenden onto a Greek island in high summer. Colour was washed out and I couldn’t keep my eyes open against the glare. If I hadn’t had a taxi waiting I’d have increased the number of almost-totally-blind drivers on the UK roads to 50%+1. The eyes are starting to settle down now – I can see what I’m typing through a slight mist. I’ll be able to see 10-point type in about half an hour I should think and will carry on working then. Two hours behind on my tender-assessment schedule!
Josie’s an accomplished telephone user at the age of 2-and-a-third. On Saturday we got free calls to South Africa with our calling card so Josie chatted to Nan, to Gareth (who’d just got the family home after Anthony’s birth so probably could have done without entertaining mine too), and to Pete and Ros for ages. I photographed and video’d her talking to Pete and Ros, I got that bored.
phpWebHosting.com was down yesterday so so were we. Very very annoying. I wrote lots of very nasty things about them yesterday but in retrospect if I enjoy being left alone by them the rest of the time then perhaps I shouldn’t complain if they don’t communicate with me about downtime. Better keep my backup schedule running …
Most of the fence went up today, it’s looking good.
On the birth of Anthony on Wednesday 14 September, may he be a great blessing to you all.