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!

The on-going saga of the kitchen floor part 4

My lovely orchids

I thought I'd start by including a couple of pictures of the orchids which are sitting on my kitchen window sill.   They look really lovely and have been giving me pleasure for weeks on end.

I took them into the garden to photograph them.

And now the floor.  The new flooring company did a grand job and took such care with laying the tiles.  They look smashing and there is a picture of the study floor further down the page.

However, it was 5.45pm and the last strip was being placed over the tiles in the cloakroom and the woodblock floor in the hall when there was a shout - "FLOOD!'  The fitter had drilled into the mains pipe and the water was shooting straight upwards to the ceiling and flooding the floor.  You can see the hole he had drilled in the picture.

After a night when we couldn't flush the loos we managed to get a lovely plumber through our house insurance.  The insurance company wouldn't pay up but they gave us the number to call.  It took 3 and 1/2 hours to mend but this is what the result was.  And we could flush the loos again!

A neat job I think you'll agree.

The flooring company came six days later when the floor had dried out and finished the job.  The tiles were replaced and the woodblocks glued down.  So this is the finished floor.

The picture below shows the study floor finished.  It looks good and is waiting now for all the furniture to be put back again.  Unfortunately, the walls and woodwork look awful, after 20 years it needs some facelifting.  My lovely, and hugely talented daughter-in-law offered to re-decorate the room.  She has started and has filled the holes and cracks and has washed down with sugar soap, and has started to paint the ceiling.  It will make such a difference to the room.  

What lovely people we have in our family!!  Thank you for doing such a tedious job.

The on-going saga of the kitchen floor part 3

We have been rather cramped over the past week with bits and pieces of furniture from the study and kitchen having pride of place in our lounge.  The picture above also shows the tiles in their boxes getting acclimatised.  Actually, we have had stuff all around the house since last October waiting for some resolution in the flooring issue. 

 Hopefully, we shall have everything back in their right places very soon now as the new tile fitters have been working all day.  There were 3 in all.  Two came on Monday and succeeded in screeding the awful mess of the floors. 

 The screeded floors looked sleek and smooth - a far more professional finish than the last ones!  The picture below shows part of the study.

Here is a close up of the floor with lots of little bubbles on the top - resembling the surface of the moon perhaps!  They didn't seem at all worried by this. 

After working non-stop all day and with several hair-dryers blasting away, they have almost finished the job, and, from what I have already seen it looks lovely.  I shall put up some more pictures when it is completed and when we are not shivering with the cold - all windows have been open all day and also the back door!

The new studio/shed

My lovely, talented and very artistic daughter had her super studio/shed delivered yesterday.

The 3 men arrived about 10.15am and decided to pass all the pieces over the fence!  The lorry was parked in the narrow road outside and they just lifted them over. 

It took no time at all to get it all up on the concrete base but as the front was being finished we realised that the door hinges were on the wrong side.  She wanted the door to hang from the right side as you look at the front and had asked for this. The hinges were on the left!  So after many phone conversations with the supplier, (where the men had suggested that she should "give them hell"), they agreed to put a whole new front on it next Thursday.  I don't think the supplier was very happy about this and didn't make it easy for my daughter.  But, when you pay out good money, you do expect it to be right!  They left at about 11.15am - just an hour to put it up.

The inside of the shed looks like the above and the finished studio looks like this:-

It measures 10ft x 8ft and gives lots of room inside for benches and display shelves.  I think she is going to put insulation on the inside of the walls too and, of course, lighting.

The on-going saga of the kitchen floor

On Friday the 'Karndean floor laying experts' came to undo the job they had done at the start of last October.

It has taken all this time to resolve the matter of the non-stuck tiles in the kitchen, study and cloakroom.  They arrived just after 9am and left at 10.40am and managed to have a 15 min break in between!  The picture above shows the cloakroom and the screed intact with the adhesive on top.  It also shows dark patches of dampness where it hasn't dried out over all this time!

They had trouble trying to get some of them up, as the picture above shows.  So they didn't bother to do so.  This tile was just left and shows signs of they way they tried to rip it up. 

 

In other places the underlying screed was pulled up too, so I imagine that those tiles were stuck firmly.  This picture shows the edge of the screed and the base concrete floor.

In other places the screed was left intact and the adhesive can be seen clearly on the top.

This last picture shows the state of the study floor where many tiles kept curling up their edges and corners even  after they had been heated and rollered  down.

I'm glad the tiles have gone but I am shocked at the way the floor has been left.  We had agreed that the tiles and adhesive should be taken away but, as you can see, there has been no attempt at removing the adhesive where it is still on the screed.  I think the next tile fitters will have more to do than they had thought - trying to get the floor level and in a state where tiles CAN be put down successfully.

And another thought, we had also asked for one step of faulty carpet on our stairs to be replaced, but that hasn't happened.  So we are left with the feeling that they do not really care about making sure that their customers are happy.

We did get a refund of the amount we had already paid towards the tiles.  So that's one good point. 

Grandson number 3's birthday bash

Grandson number 3 turned 7 last week and on Wednesday we had a get-together with all four grandsons here for lunch/tea and, of course, the birthday cake.

He had asked me for a chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream filling, so this is the result.  As you can see, it also has jelly bears and giant chocolate drops too!  They loved it and had two slices each!!!  That surprised me.  It did taste good though, although I say it myself. 

There was much playing in a camp upstairs with socks off and then in the garden, using pipework and watering cans, to water the plants in pots.  I think they enjoyed themselves.