Wednesday 21 September 2011

New patio; big plants; whingeing

Arrived back at the house on Friday evening to admire the larger and much smarter new patio. The new retaining wall and the built-in seat all look great; now the render just needs to dry so that the wall can be painted. We briefly considered a bright colour of some sort, before deciding that white would probably be more sensible.

Visit to the vets first thing on Saturday for the rabbits to have their follow-up jabs from the one they had a few weeks ago – not entirely satisfactory visit as when we were eventually called in 30 minutes after our appointment time, the vet discovered that the surgery only had one VHD vaccine in stock, so we had to pick the lucky bunny to receive it. The vet’s advice was that given Harley’s impending operation, it would be better to give Lola the jab – this was duly done and Harley has been booked in for his surgery this coming Friday. Ruth is planning a special meal for him the night before; we speculated whether this might involve chopped bank statements with a side order of leather sofa.

Spent the rest of the day buying a rotary airer from Homebase and then driving around various garden centres looking for a potential new bamboo, as our existing bamboos have suffered from the patio extension. Started at The Big Plant Nursery on the A4 at Twyford, which does indeed sell some very big plants. Lots of good looking bamboos, but all about 5 metres tall which we decided was pushing it a bit. Tried out the Wyevale at Hare Hatch, but more oriented around pansies, nymphs etc. Didn't get further than the car park of Ladds Garden Centre, the other side of the A4, as Ruth noticed that they sold live animals and insisted on leaving. I did once see some cute quail there, but should probably repent of my thinking they were cute and be outraged instead. Eventually gave up on plants and went for lunch at the Shire Horse as Ruth needed fuel.

After a late start on Sunday I decided to attack the attic, as we seem to have agreed on turning part of this into an office space to relieve pressure on bedroom 2 and to free the room up for decorating. Spent a cathartic few hours bagging stuff up for charity (though have not persuaded Ruth to get rid of nearly enough books as yet) and then clearing a space for some shelf-building (hopefully). With admittedly great foresight, I had a couple of double sockets installed up there during last year's electrical work - at the time because I was intending to take up sewing and wanted somewhere to plug in a sewing machine, something which admittedly doesn't quite seem to have happened yet. Have been keeping a boxful of old duvet covers, pillowcases etc though just in case, so that I have something to practise on when the new hobby finally does get going. Ruth started stripping wallpaper in bedroom 2, ably assisted by Harley who seems to enjoy the taste of wallpaper paste, even though we fear it can't be good for him.

Quest continues to find a charmingly attractive part of MK that I might fancy spending time in, but have unfortunately discovered that nearby Bletchley is definitely not one such, unless I missed the good bits. Took the bus there on Tuesday evening to register at a new doctor's surgery; the walk there from the bus station down what appeared to be the high street (Queensway, featured in the Wikipedia link above) was suitably depressing, as the most upmarket retail outlet along its whole length looked to be a branch of Nisa. The bus I took home has made me belatedly determined to send Reading Buses a fan letter; surly driver (as seems the norm here) and a motley handful of other passengers, half of whom seemed severely in need of a bath. Bloody hell.