The main event this month was an impromptu trip to The Gironde for three days of orienteering at Easter. We had to eat some humble pie and fly Ryan Air but I couldn’t see that much difference with Easy Jet and they were competitively priced, on time and took us where we wanted to go. Still couldn’t stop myself from humming the Fascinating Aida song as we left the plane!
The first grass cut of the year took place and the Beast came out of its lair, started first time and whizzed through the flat bits of the garden. I think it has halved the length of time it takes to cut the “grass” so I will continue to flatten the humps and fill in the hollows so that the Beast can roam wherever it wants.
The trip to France gave us plenty of sunshine, exercise and relaxation. So all in all it was most welcome. The coughs and colds of last month finally seemed to ease their grip and we enjoyed sharing some of the time with Val and Ted Finch who kindly gave lifts to and from airports and who had suggested the trip in the first place. I’m sure we would have enjoyed a trip to South Wales to do the JK but I don’t think the cycling would have been as good.
When we got back, Priscilla Lowry from New Zealand stayed with us for a few days. She is on a UK lecture tour promoting her latest book about silk. We knew her from 2003 when we did her first book and Suse and her have stayed in touch over the years. It was quite nostalgic looking at the book that we did for her and remembering all of the scanning and page layouts that had to be organised. It seem to compare very favourably with the current volume so I was quite pleased.
Encouraged by a spell of overcast but dry weather, I finally dredged up the enthusiasm to sort out the garage roof. The first membrane was inches too small and despite repeated attempts to patch in extensions, small leaks were evident inside the workshop. Erecting scaffolding onto which to “park” the gravel from the flat roof brought back some “dear” memories of the house build as did shifting all of the gravel to lay the new membrane. However, it is all done now and has been well tested with no signs of any leaks. I wonder if the sedum which Emily planted and which had started to colonise the roof will survive?
Before the trip to France work had also started on planking a fallen cedar. The planks will be used to build a new shed for the various bits of machinery currently housed in the garage/workshop. Although there was a large rotten, central section running up from the base of the trunk, we’ve taken a good number of wide boards out of the tree and cedar is a lot easier/quicker to cut than oak!
Suse’s comments about the blossom appearing on the fruit bushes and the absence of fruit last year prodded me into rustling up the old fishing nets acquired last year and working out a system of securing poles to carry them. We now have a functioning fruitcage which I hope will withstand the Kintyre climate and the local bird population, presumably seriously “miffed” by the loss of their summer desserts.