Ill Winds & Blues

We are wondering whether to start building an Ark! But given the lack of a big booming voice from the sky giving detailed dimensions and instructions, it must be the rainy season! No s**t Sherlock.

Although December was wintry with minus temperatures at night and some rainy days, the promise of Christmas indulgence, fairy lights and all the glitter helped get through the worst. But now? Well January has been, wet,wet, wet. As I write we are in the middle of a gale and rain storm and we are watching the surrounding saplings with interest. We have found several branches snapped off and lying in various parts of the garden and pathway to the field. The forest around us is poorly managed and there are abundant spindly pines that really should have been pulled up to help healthy trees flourish. It is expedient to carry a bow saw and some rope in the bus to clear the track and local roads in the event of tree fall.

Two walls of the barn have wet patches growing daily inside since the roof apex and edges are leaking like a sieve because the roof work and finishing was just not good enough.

To cap it all we went to a town just 30 kms north of us last week and found ourselves in the middle of a snow storm. Well bugger that, thought I. Actually we think bears have got the right idea. Bring on hibernation!
To add to the joys we were both struck with the lurgy for a couple of weeks and Fraser has had to resort to anti-biotics to get rid of a persistent chest infection. We are lighting log fires every day to help keep the house dry as well as warm. The smoke and resulting dust doesn´t help Fraser´s condition.

At the start of the month, despite the chimney sweeping we had a chimney fire which was rather scary but easily put out. We reckon that it happened because we are burning a lot of old wormed rafters and wood from the original barn which was coated with some noxious stuff, probably old diesel oil or creosote. The resulting gunge that lined the cleanly swept chimney ignited as a result.

Just after Christmas we had the building rubble and stones removed from the back quad and a JCB started to create the levels for the rear garden and patio. It was only 5 degrees and bloody freezing!

Unfortunately, with three weeks of rain it looks like Passchendale without the bodies. The resultant mud is impressive and we have had to stop.However at least it is a start. We have a plan, Stan, so hopefully this year will see the patio and the beginning of landscaping happening.

There´s not much you can do when the field is waterlogged and the rain just keeps falling. So the bright side of the situation is that we are taking this time to do our own things as well consolidate jobs inside the barn and house. Just finished cleaning, sorting and clearing our utility area to make it easier to find things and to clear out the garbage. Very satisfying.
Also it has given Fraser more time to focus on painting now , although he says it is a bit like pulling teeth. He has been doing a number of small still life oil paintings and working on a few ideas for larger canvases. Here are a couple of samplesHopefully this will help release his artist block.

I haven´t done anything in the way of painting or drawing recently, although I did a few bits and pieces later last year in watercolour and pastels. I have spent the rainy days making James and Adela´s wedding gift, a patchwork bed spread. Hope you will like it Adela! Here is a sneak preview of a section..... and have also completed another smaller quilt for a friend.

Fraser´s niece´s wedding is in April in Cornwall and so I will start their quilt soon. Additionally I am hoping to sell some small patchwork and quilted items in a newly opened health food shop that wants to provide hand made gifts for customers. So will need to get on with more making.

In the meantime we are trying to keep up with our Tai Chi, which we started in November and trying to get fit and well for the time when the rains stop.

We have enjoyed communication with a number of people, particularly our good friend Marcia in the US, about Obama´s inauguration. The man is going to have so many enemies, since he has so many idealistic and revolutionary ideas and because basically what he says is right and terribly difficult to achieve without tears and loss of power for many. However we have been really inspired to see a leader for our times who is not afraid to tell it like it is. I hope that he will inspire other politicians to be proactive instead of reactive.

His eloquence and delivery is so redolent of Martin Luther King (I am guessing deliberately so). As our friend Marcia put it in a recent email before his inauguration.

"It's such a pleasure already to have an almost President who can say a FULL sentence."