Moving 2018: Goodbye, Manor House

Things have not gone particularly right today. Bank would not allow a standing order of sufficient magnitude to be set up online to pay rent. Went to bank. Ran into friend on the way. Lovely to see her! 20 minute delay on way to bank. Cannot set up standing order at bank kiosk either. Eyed customer service. Concluded they were the wrong people to talk to. Went to cashier. Stood in line several minutes for cashier. Turns out I should have gone to customer service. Customer service helps me. STILL…

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a brief panicked spate of gardening

IT’S STILL MAY I CAN STILL PLANT STUFF I’m afraid I’m probably the kind of gardener who is only going to garden if it’s stuff one sows directly. Or, at least at this early stage in my gardening career, that certainly appears to be true. Which is fine, really. The fact that I got potatoes into the ground a month ago is a great triumph! In fact, it looks like we have 28 potato plants, and I think we planted 32 or 36, so that’s quite good. Better than I…

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Garden Ambitions

I have Ambitions about the garden. My Ambitions probably require a wood chipper, a chainsaw, a tiller, whatever one uses to pull (reasonably small, because I wouldn’t try to deal with the big trees) stumps/roots out, and as many willing bodies as is feasible, to accomplish. See, half of it garden is gone to wild, and was before we moved in here. I don’t even necessarily mind that it’s wild. It’s that it’s murderous, full of brambles (which at least produce blackberries) and nettles (which don’t). I’d like to reduce…

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a feast of strawberries

I was in town yesterday and saw a fruit vendor with 1-kilo flats of strawberries for €5 each, which I thought was an excellent deal. I bought two, came home with them, and went back out not much later to get (other things also, but) four more. The young lady at the booth looked at me a bit askance when I came up and asked for four flats. I explained I was making jam, and she said, “Oh! Okay. I was wondering if you maybe had a bit of an…

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The Great Manor House Picture Post

This is long, but I’m Showing Stuff Off, so I’m not putting it behind a cut. :) The house & front garden: The sun room (with slightly distorted child), visible to the right of the house: The living room end of the Long Room: The dining room end of the Long Room: The library: To the left is the TBR shelf before 6 weeks of no net. The TBR shelf after 6 weeks of no net: The kitchen: My (the, but mostly my :)) office: My beloved Captain’s Chair: Guest…

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