Laying the floor of the studio

This is where the hard work for all of the studio was done - in the garden.  It looked beautiful today in the bright sunshine and there was a cooling breeze.  Before starting the measuring and sawing the lovely and very hard-working man-in-my-life needed to go on a photo-shoot.  Relaxing!

He then went on to exceed all expectations!  We thought we would 'have a look' at the floor and see what we ought to do.  We were only going to make plans for laying it 'soon', after all,  we were still feeling the after-effects of last week and the hardboard escapade!  

But things moved on rather quickly.  No sooner had we tried the insulation on the floor and positioned a couple of boards from the laminate pack on top, than we realised it looked fine and we should actually try laying a couple of strips. 

The boards actually clicked together rather well and looked great.   They had to be cut to the right length but that was all there was to it.  No glue, no nails no problems!!!!  What could have gone wrong?  After the hardboard we expected grief all the way.

It actually took us about three hours to do the whole floor and the end result is shown in the picture below. Amazing!  Our daughter was over the moon!

The new studio/shed - latest!

Last Friday my wonderful husband, my very patient daughter and I all set about fixing the four remaining pieces of hardboard needed to complete the insulation to the roof.  

We spent all day from about 9.20am until just after five in the blazing sunshine measuring and re-measuring and then sawing, only to find that small gaps had appeared from nowhere!  

This picture shows my daughter picking up all the screws which I accidentally scattered far and wide when I kicked the box of screws across the floor.

We all felt exceedingly weary with creaking knees and backs and wanted only to lie down and sleep through this unusually hot weather.

Very hardworking husband is shown putting in the last screw.  The whole of the inside can now be painted.

Below is one of the chairs we used in order to reach the roof.  It was lovely to sit on it, inside the studio, with the insulated roof shielding us from the heat of the sun.

My present to the wonderful man in my life

A few weeks ago my lovely husband announced what he would like for his birthday. It's always difficult to know what to give him as he seems to have everything he could ever wish for.  A laptop, he suggested.  Not an expensive one.  Just enough for using with the telescope outside on starry nights (when it's cold with the door open) so that he doesn't have to keep dodging in and out of the drawing room.

But which one?  After looking through several websites we decided that we should really ask our brilliant, computer-whizz son-in-law who knows everything there is to know about PCs.  He pointed us in the direction of HP and suggested a particular model which was at a reasonable price.  Excellent!  Apart from the fact that, as far as the m-i-m-l was concerned, it had a processor which was not made by Intel but by a company with which we had had bad experiences in the past.  However, everything else about it was fine so we just had to get the right one - more expensive, of course, and, I have been told, with not such good screen definition.

It duly arrived and was set up as quickly as possible.  Alas, even after days of fiddling and brain aching, it would not connect with the internet.  So, after admitting defeat, the only course of action was to ask our s-i-l for his help which was so willingly and excellently given.  Within about 20 minutes of discussion and advice the laptop was talking to the router which enabled it to connect with the internet!! Voila!  You just need a few of the right brain cells!!!  

Thank you to our lovely son-in-law for your skillful advice!  Where would we be without the generosity of our family?  Of course, my darling husband is really pleased but we haven't had starry nights yet to try it out in situ.  Soon .......

Birthday boy!!!

Yesterday was the lovely Man-in-my-life's birthday.

But the day started in a funny way.  The phone rang while I was still asleep - I find it difficult to sleep past 6.30am so finding out that it was 8.50am was quite a shock!  In my dazed state I found the phone which I can hear (downstairs) and got my hearing aids in and managed to conduct a couvert conversation about the size of men's handkerchiefs! 

As I put down the phone the door bell rang and I had to find my dressing gown and stumble downstairs only to find the window cleaner asking if I wanted the windows cleaned.  Yes please!!

That was our cue to get dressed as quickly as possible but it was quite an art dodging the faces in the windows whilst rushing from bedroom to bathroom starkers!  

As we were getting breakfast my smashing and superbly artistic daughter arrived bearing parcels and cards.  The beautiful picture above of a path near St Catherine's Hill, Winchester is the present she had painted for her Dad.  He loved it and couldn't actually believe she had painted it for him.

The cards were from grandsons number one and three with lots of candles on an amazing cake and love and kisses from them both.  What lovely thoughts.  My talented daughter had also painted a card with all the tools used recently on her shed.  It's so precious that it is going to be framed and displayed too!

We went to the Red Lion in Overton for lunch and had great food.  The picture above shows the creme brulee pudding which was delicious.

This bowl of ice cream was for grandson number four who accompanied us. He loved the pretty coulis decoration around the dish.

The picture above is of the bread and butter pudding which my fantastically clever and imaginative son ordered.  He had made an amazing card using images of the galaxies with my lovely m-i-m-l in the middle, gazing up!  

My daughter ordered the cheese option and you can see how appetising that looked.

The picture above shows the chocolate pudding which I ordered.  It was a joy to behold and tasted terrific.  I didn't really want to spoil the whole creation.

After school my super-duper creative daughter-in-law brought the rest of the family here for a slice of birthday cake.  Grandson number two gave him a card with a picture of a cat 'which looks like Baggy' and a brilliant red mouse mat!  Lovely husband needed a mouse mat so he was very pleased.  Grandson number four had cut out a fantastic guitar-shaped card and made a beautiful red envelope.  He also had a present - a lovely mug which grandad was very pleased with.

My artistic family

I am very proud to put up some of the cards and drawings done by various members of my fantastic family especially created for Grandad's birthday, yesterday.  The first one is of Grandad himself.  He's waiting to be given a shirt exactly like this one!!  (And he told me he's got his hands in his pockets.)

This is an amazing birthday cake picture by grandson number three - the cake had to be big enough to hold all the 66 candles!  And it's been cleverly designed to look like an ocean-going liner.

The lovely landscape below was painted for me to use on a card as I had run out of time to do one myself!  What a lovely, kind thought and lots of help from grandson number four.

The ever-lovely m-i-m-l was so pleased with this beautiful watercolour of all the tools he's using at present on the studio for our daughter.  He couldn't believe this had just been created for him.

And this card is just unbelievable!  What a super idea and carried out with such panache!!  I think Jim is dazed with his head amongst the stars and galaxies in the night sky.  What he would give to get a photograph a tiny bit like this!

This wonderful, 3-d effect guitar was presented inside a handmade red envelope.  Wonderful!!

I haven't yet taken photos of the four handmade handkerchiefs which were specially made by my sewing-genius daughter-in-law.  But I will very soon.  

Thank you to you all for making yesterday a special day.

And, as promised, I have a couple of pictures of the perfect, man-sized handkerchiefs which were so carefully made by my sewing-genius daughter-in-law.  They are in cotton lawn and pale blue.

Dad was so pleased to receive them - he'd given up hope of ever finding some decent-sized handkerchiefs and in a plain material.  Fancy having some especially made for you!  Bespoke indeed!!!!

Again thank you to all the family for such attention and love!  It is really appreciated.

This and that

The cold, icy weather we had during the beginning of April brought fantastic snow showers. Our garden took on a winter wonderland appearance early on last Sunday morning.




The picture to the right shows our patio and the picture on the left was taken through the window looking at the shed.



Below and on the right is a shot from our bedroom window showing the garden. We were woken up on Sunday morning by a very loud explosion and a huge flash of red and orange which I thought was in the back garden. Why on earth was a bomb going off out the back?

When we looked out to see the devastation caused
this was what we saw!!!! Not blackened rubble but a beautiful snowy scene.

We read in the local press that a lamp post about 100yds from our back garden had been struck by lightning at 7am on Sunday morning. Houses had had their sockets blown out and many telephones had been put out of action. So it was a lightning strike and not a bomb!


Below is a picture of a 'bee-fly', as I am reliably informed.
My daughter found it in her front garden in Winchester several days ago. I have never seen anything like it before and actually
thought it was an exotic moth!





On Monday my daughter and I waited in all day for the delivery of the insulation for her studio recently erected in her back garden. On Tuesday at 1pm and after lots of telephone calls and worthless promises, it actually arrived. BUT the hardboard was so badly warped it was frilled!!!!
You can see the edges in the photograph above as it was unloaded from the open-backed lorry.

This week has been the first week of the Easter holidays (although it hasn't been Easter!) and on Thursday my daughter and my four fantastic and very special grandsons went out for a picnic and a walk in the woods. It was freezing. The wind was blowing and the sky was leaden. However, we braved it and sat on blankets eating our rolls, crisps and grapes. As the cold seeped into our limbs the boys got up and started moving around. We went down into the woods and they had a great time climbing on the tree trunks and playing in the shelters already built.

I have only got one grandson in this picture.  The others were milling around pretending to be warriors or spacemen!

And here is a picture of the inside of my daughter's studio with the insulation in place.  The lovely and very special m-i-m-l spent several hours on his knees measuring and cutting the foam so that it would be a nice, tight fit.  The whole studio has been lined with it so it should be nice and cosy both in summer and winter.  In fact, whilst he was working inside the heaviest downfall of hail occurred and the garden was completely white, yet, inside, it was snug and warm.
It only needs some flat hardboard put up to cover the insulation and it can be painted. But that will be the problem - getting the company to collect the wavy hardboard and deliver flat stuff.  I don't suppose they will be falling over themselves to deliver more. However, the end is in sight!! I know my daughter can't wait for the moment when she can move in.

I would like to see her sitting at her bench with the lamp alight and the kiln in place designing and creating new and exciting beads and silver jewelry.

Easter

Over the week-end our study was transformed!  After 20 years it was very tired and dull-looking, but now, it is beautifully fresh and sparkly thanks to my great daughter-in-law.  My son also did some rollering and the end result is superb.  Thank you.  There are two pictures further down which shows them hard at work.

Two of my grandsons decided to make chocolate eggs from the kits they had received.  They turned out fantastically well as you can see.

This is the door to the study with blue masking tape around the small panes - we realised that this door has spent the last 20 years with just the undercoat of paint!

Here is my son putting another coat on the walls.  Looks lovely now.

This is the end result of grandson number 4's egg.  I think you'll agree that it looks smashing.

And this is the finished work of art for grandson number 2.  He has done a great job!

Hope they taste as good as they look!