Before I start, I’d just like to mention the beautiful aroma of honeysuckle and pinks in the garden at the moment. In the evenings, when the air is still, it is simply magical to walk out there, as is sitting in the tea-house in the mornings.
I’ve had another one of those manic weekends. You know the kind, where you seem to achieve a lot? And this despite feeling so drained on Friday night that I did little but read and sleep.
Saturday I finished painting the outside of the house, putting a second coat on the upstairs back, the bit downstairs that I’d missed last weekend and a coat on the back of next door’s garage. I’ve since realised that there are some silly window returns that could probably do with another coat, but to all intents & purposes, I have finished.
Then I trimmed the front hedge and cut the grass (Kim had already cut around all the edges) and painted a coat of white gloss on the garage door frame, before I started on…. the garage itself!
Clutter has gradually been building over the last few months, exacerbated by one or two DIY projects and the more recent arrival of Karen’s stuff while she’s away.
The beginning of the garage project started with my trying to find the white gloss paint amongst a hundred other pots… five deep and stacked three or four high on the bottom deck of the bench. All whilst peering over the bags of stuff on the floor in front.
I speculatively eyed up the cabinets that sit on the bench and almost before I had a chance to think, the boxed contents were stacked on the floor and the tins of paint were being organised onto eye-level shelves.
The project paused last night, as we went to see Inception (Leonardo DiCaprio) – you can read about it via the link, but I have to report that it is truly excellent… a real mind-warper on a par with Vanilla Sky.
The combination of garage dust and widescreen cinema left me with really dry eyes this morning and I strained to be able to read as I sat in the tea-house with first one, then a second quadspresso. The exertions of painting, hedge trimming etc also left me feeling stiff and I was sore tempted not to run… only the thought of an empty blog spurred me to action.
Intending to only run my normal short route, I left my water-bottle behind and set off, quickly finding myself at Ote Hall where people were emerging from the remnants of a wedding party.
At Slugwash Lane, after a brief chat to the Alpacas, I remembered seeing a modernist house (one of my passions) being constructed last year and so ran down past it to have a look, continuing on along a delightful wooded path which wove gradually back up the hill.
At the top there is a delightful place I have been before, or should I say, got lost at (at least) twice before. Fortunately I now know which way to go!
And when I got back to the path I’d been on before I detoured, there was yet another pretty scene.
I dropped down into Wivelsfield and took the bridle path to Hundred Acre Lane that we raced up last week, then chose to continue on through the woods to Ditchling Common Industrial Estate.
Then it was back down the Magical Path & across the Common to home.
The convoluted circuit was 8.5 miles and I completed it in 1.22, a gentle speed of 6.2mph.
After breakfast and a snooze on the sun lounger, the garage task continued for much of the day. I can now SEE my bench (well, the edge of it at any rate), whilst all my painting, tiling, plastering stuff is hidden away behind closed doors. I’ll need some plastic boxes to neaten up the new contents of the lower level, but it’s okay.
I also mixed up some PVA & water to try to better seal the concrete floor, starting under the bench… thank goodness for those new painting pads on long sticks which are very effective.
Now I’m off to bed, but not before wandering back out into the garden for another aroma-sensation!