Lets Go Fly A Kite

It is very windy here today with intermittent sunshine and some short sharp showers too. Today’s blip was taken from our balcony and shows a kite, against the grey sky; it was being flown in the railway station car park. I only managed three shots before the kite disappeared; too windy I suspect.

This morning, unannounced the plumbers arrived to do the plumbing in the bathrooms. They went away again as the tiler has not yet completed the tiling in the shower room. One of the building workers arrived with some chrome fittings for the some of the windows, they did not match the ones that they fitted a few weeks ago; he went off in a huff when we said that we were not accepting them. The tiler arrived and carried on working; he is doing an excellent job. Then the owner of the building company arrived to sort out the problems, which are of his making; he is not managing the project as well as he should do. He went away having sorted his workers and now things are moving forward again. To be continued….

Phalaenopsis

Despite losing an hour during the night due to BST I was still up at silly o’clock to watch the Malaysian Formula One.

Then we went to collect the window blind that had to be ordered last week and purchased an extra one. This is a replacement for one which had a slightly damaged slat, helped along by one of the cats sticking its paw through. Pointing no fingers at either of them, but I know who it was.

Then I have caught up on last week’s MasterChef, but done little else. Very mixed weather today, Wet and windy when we were out, followed by some sunshine and then even higher winds and torrential rain. Now in the late afternoon the sun is shining again.

Today’s picture is of the Orchid (Phalaenopsis) that is sitting on my desk alongside a Venus Flytrap. The orchid was originally going to placed on the windowsill in the shower room, but it may well stay where it is, as it looks good on my desk.

Art Therapy

Today’s blip shows my ‘Art Therapy’, colouring for adults, which arrived in this morning’s post. I bought some similar items last year, although I have not managed to find time to complete many of the designs.

The man tiling the walls is here today and is tiling the showroom walls. The new boiler also arrived today so things are moving although they have slowed down a little; probably to be expected at this stage in the proceedings.

I did some work this morning before meeting my friend for a pensioner’s lunch. Today I could eat either of the two main courses; being a coeliac, sometimes I have to order from the main menu. I saw an amazing sight both on my drive to the pub and on the way home. A car had mounted the crash barriers along the side of the road, near the McDonald’s exit and roundabout. I can only assume that it must have been going very fast to mount the barrier, which is two or three feet off the ground. It was facing the wrong way and tilted at an angle, but had not fallen off. It would have made a brilliant blip, but there was nowhere to stop and park, so instead you have my new ‘Art Therapy’ books.

Spring Snowflake

Today’s picture is of a Spring Snowflake (Leucojum vernum), which is flowering in one of my front borders. Although I do not have many, I like them as they look very similar to Snowdrops.

A fairly uneventful day although the builder visited to check on the progress of the work and to clarify exactly what else needs to be done.

I have prepared my spreadsheet for the annual Living with Mammals survey, which I have taken part in, for the last ten years.

Other than that, it has been a pleasant warmish day with some blue skies and some sunshine.

Lesser Celandine

Lesser Celandine

As I may have mentioned before one of our new patio doors had started to delaminate. The suppliers ordered a new door and today two fitters arrived to fit the replacement door.

The tiler that our builder uses arrived today, his second visit, he checked things over and we have employed him to do all of our tiling work. He will start work, tiling the shower room on Wednesday.

Despite not liking yellow flowers vey much, today’s blip is of a Lesser Celandine, classed as a wildflower. This one is flowering in exactly the same place as the one I photographed on 9 March 2014.

It has been dull and overcast for much of the day although the sun shone briefly at times.

Are all builders the same? This builder started off working well. Now some weeks later and beyond the finish date, the house and garden looks like a rubbish tip. There is still much work to be done, bathroom, shower room and kitchen to mention just a few as well as replacing glass in some windows as well as fixing handles and latches to some of the new windows; all to be done before he clears the site.

The Maltings

We went into Bishop’s Stortford this morning to purchase some window blinds and curtain poles to match those we already have in our home.

We had breakfast and then coffee and a cake in Sainsbury’s before coming home. The journey took forty-five minutes, it usually takes about twenty minutes, but there had been an accident and Rye Street was closed, this meant that we had to travel about six miles extra in very slow moving traffic around the outskirts of the town.

Today’s picture is of the old Maltings in Bishop’s Stortford (now Coopers shop) and shows the grey sky; the sun did come out a little later, but it was quite a cold day.

Florence

Florence

Victoria visited this morning to help with some jobs and to earn some extra pocket money. We were going to do some gardening, but it rained on and off for much of the morning and it was also quite cold. Some of you may remember that some while ago Victoria was learning to knit, so when we had a break during the morning, we did some knitting. Victoria is now quite proficient, so some nice wool has been purchased along with a new knitting bag to keep all her bits and pieces together. So that she can practice various stitches, she will now be making some squares, using different stitches, the squares can then be sewn together to produce a ‘throw’.

I was going to blip Victoria, but I only used my iPhone and with the window behind her they were not very good. Instead you have Florence sitting on one of the dustsheets; her current favourite place to sleep. (For those of you, who do not know, Florence has only one eye, she was born like this and it causes her no pain or problems.)

Another dull and dreary day here again today. After the cloudy start yesterday, once the eclipse was over, the sun came out and shone brightly all day.

Dougal

Partial Solar Eclipse

I had almost given up hope of seeing the partial solar eclipse today when the clouds parted and it was visible for just a few minutes.  

Other than that not much has happened as I have been watching the skies. The postman has brought me a parcel and I was going to blip the contents if I did not get an eclipse picture; that will now be a future blip.

Update: After posting yesterday’s blip, I spent the rest of the day sorting out the cupboard under the stairs, which serves as a larder. This originally had a window in it, which has now been bricked up and plastered over. This is now one part of the house that is almost finished.

Just One More…

…Snowdrop

The majority of my Snowdrops are now well past their best, but there are still a few in pots which seem to be later flowering ones, which are still looking good.

An uneventful day until 1700 hours when the kitchen designer and the kitchen fitter arrived to finalise the kitchen and decide that everything would fit; the new kitchen has now been purchased.

If the weather is co-operative tomorrow I hope to blip the Partial Solar Eclipse.