At the beginning is a good place to start I suppose? Yes? Righto. How far back do I need to go *double checks last blog* Yike. Okidoki then…
Concreters were delayed for a few weeks, but it all finally got done in the late part of October/early November. Big digger in the yard, lots of lads (and one girl!) with wheelbarrows of cement – which was two big mix trucks worth – and some judicious warnings to Gandalf to not either get in their way or step in the wet concrete. A nice bunch of people, but their site foreman could do with some lessons in communication and dealing with women who want answers regarding their homes.
Drainlayers came midway through to repair the pipes, ended up being a two day effort, also requiring a digger, as the ground here is all sand. Yup, the poor buggers dug the hole, and it would collapse in on itself before they could get any work done. Also lovely people, who proved chivalry isn’t dead by hauling our groceries to the back door for us so we could negotiate a 20 cm wide trench-edge path to get to the house ourselves!
Result = New paths, driveway and parking zone and about 21 metres of new sewer line connecting us properly to the mains. The loo’s never flushed better!
With those delays happening, the solar panel people got put off…and put off…and put off – although one of those was due to weather. Can’t remember which one, but weather was in there. Finally got the panels on the roof of the garage in mid-November, and we’ve been pushing out the kilowatts ever since. Only negative to it is that they didn’t explain how to read the meter and we can’t actually store anything we generate, so we’re selling most of it back to the grid. *snorts* We pay considerably more to use the grid than they give us for what we supply them with, naturally. But it has meant we have been able to run the aircon on the recent hot days. We had 36.1C yesterday for example. And it was a lovely 20C inside, thankfully!
Still hunting work. Saying no more.
It’s the Summer Solstice/Litha here today, not that you’d know it was summer, what with the cloud, rain and fresh breeze. But longest day it is, and I’m going to celebrate it in a little while, for the first time in a number of years. And I’m doing so in a manner I am used to, rather than following Mr U’s script/plans. Don’t get me wrong, I quite like what he does on occasion, but there’s a limit to how much thee/thou and declaiming of names in either Welsh/Gaelic/Elvish/choose a language neither of us actually knows before I get a twitch happening.
I’m more a seat of the pants kind of witch, a make it up as it occurs to me kind. A ‘here’s the basics, but I’m going to wildly deviate, I can guarantee it’. One who works in plain English and in a simplistic style.
Which is why I’m sitting here, blogging. It’s been so long that I feel a little nervous. I have no idea why, but I suppose it’s because I’ve felt like I’ve been giving my celebrations lip-service only for awhile. It’s given me time to assess things, and deal with some personal stuff, but the last few days I’ve felt the pull to celebrate again. So I will. Regardless of lack of sunshine (irony, thy name is nature). Amongst the nervousness is excitement – I’m looking forward to it. And I’ve missed it.
So, time to log off and get hustling. To all my readers I offer this solstice blessing:
Cauldrons & Broomsticks 