Good Times

It has been an outstanding weekend. From beginning to end it has been productive, enjoyable and generally brilliant. Hurrah!

It all started with tidying up some long overdue "finishing" jobs on Friday evening - the whole job is yet to be completed but there's something about having started it that makes me confident it'll get done. Decorating, as this particular job is, seems to me to be a never-ending job but I'm not going for perfection, just Finish. What the difference is varies from person to person, but for me it's another hour or two of painting and then lots of cleaning!

Another "never ending" job is that of sorting out my house. Sorting through things I don't need to keep. Moving furniture. Deciding what really needs to get redone and to what extent. Doing the washing up. Et cetera. Saturday morning saw a new job started (effectively emptying a bookshelf, to move it to make space for some built-in shelves to be constructed - the job was finished this afternoon and also resulted in a whole bunch of books being lined up for the charity shop and paperwork I've been hoiking around with me dispatched to the recycling) and then I was off on a weekend adventure. That started at my office building collecting some pallets that had been left by builders on an adjacent building who had clearly decided leaving them in situ was a good idea (for them, at least) and, yet again, loving how brilliant my vehicle is. Basically, I get a car (sans VAT) which can, in less than a minute, be converted to have van-sized capacity. And this weekend I discovered it can take 3 pallets without much fuss. Huzzah!

The pallets were to make a compost bin in a bit of garden I've ended up being allowed to play with over in Grange over Sands. It's part of the grounds of a beautiful old house and has been left to run pretty much wild since the current occupiers moved in. There's not much soil as it's effectively limestone pavement on quite a slope but I still think there's plenty that could be done. Ha har! Thus far I've burnt a big pile of hedge trimmings and tree prunings that had been accumulating over about 12 months - and a whole heap of brambles. Not being one to enjoy having my arms covered to my wrists (unless I'm freezing cold I generally have my sleeves pushed up to my elbows) I now have a whole host of Tigger-versus-bramble marks but somehow it's a fond reminder. In an odd way. While I'm playing with their garden, the family that live there feed me, give me a bed to sleep in and let me use their beautifully huge enamelled bath. Plus I get to have interesting conversations with them (mainly with the parents, but occasionally with the two children and au pair) and generally have a window on a completely different world. Which is rather marvellous. And they're very grateful for the help in the garden! Win win, winnety win.

I headed home at lunch time today (after being cooked brunch - hurrah!) and proceeded with the aforementioned "sortings" in my house, as well as more of the decorating. I was on "receive stuff back from the course" duty for work and that went smoothly - just in time to head home to make myself roasted veggies, peas and gravy for tea (and lunch tomorrow) along with an "everything" flapjack (base: oats, marg, sugar and stewed apple; "everything": desiccated coconut, seeds, raisins, plus various spices). Oh, and also having got a load of washing done and put away some shopping, along with moving a bunch of stuff down to the basement.

So yes, pretty awesome weekend. Huzzah-ee-rah!