Of Fridays.
D’you know, I almost think I like Fridays better than either Sundays or Saturdays. Everything is still to come, and there is that vast vista of time, stretching out before you in a most appealing and luxurious manner. Friday feels virtuous in that I can make the extra effort, do that little bit more, in the certainty that tomorrow will be more relaxed, and a little bit more life-as-it-happens-orientated. We’re very lucky in the Earthenhouse: we still work part-time, the pair of us, so that we can spend lots of time with the small girl, and thus our mornings and afternoons move at a more relaxed and self-determined pace than can be found in many households, but still, of course, the pattern of work is ever-present, and means that one of the three of us must be in a certain place at a certain time. Not so on Saturday and Sunday, though, and that feeling of tiiiiiiiiime is a very lovely thing to behold.
This weekend, we have hired a three-tonne mini-digger and a dumper truck. With these, we are doing some fairly major work on our garden. This week, Quercus has taken down three corrugated iron sheds which dominated one side of the garden, breaking up the concrete bases as he went, as well as moving about three hundred bricks which we’re going to reuse from the old extension, and rediscovering the slabs which used to make up the old patio (and which we’re reusing this time around, but with a smaller patio so that we can also have paths made of decent slabs). So much stuff has gone to the metals merchant, too – an old bath, the old sheds, various bits of leftover pipe and even some bits we found kicking about in the earth.
The garden, while still chaotic, is at least clear of the various things which have just been sort of stored there for the last couple of years, which is nice, and we are just about to spend a couple of days shoving earth about the place to level out some of strangeness in the garden, as well as preparing for the wooden shed which Quercus will build to house all the tools and whatnot which we’ve acquired in the last few years. This shed will be smaller and prettier, and built, nearly exclusively, from reclaimed timber, a lot of which we salvaged from a house development in Exeter. It’s deeply smug-making to get things which people are throwing away and give them new life, to say nothing of the financial bonus of not having to shell out several hundred pounds on timber.
And you? Any plans for the weekend?
That sounds very nice, although with all the garden work not so very relaxed. Unfortunatly where i work, although i also work part time (due to university work) there isn’t any such thing as a weekend. Quiet rare to have two days off in a row really, or if i do then its because i’m only working two days in the week. Its a very strange job really. How are the chickens coping with the hot weather?
We’re going to the races
the only thing i’m planning for is not melting from the heat & humidity of the american east coast. good luck w/your weekend!
Petoskystone: I have a Petoskystone on my desk at home – picked it up myself in Michigan. Small, small world this internets!
I am driving up north for a few hours where hopefully I will find a) coolth b) green and c) peace and quiet!
Relishing the peace and quiet, after 2 solid days of JCB digger-ing and scraper-ing and the sound and dust involved in loading up a very large farm trailer with stone from our drive ( old drive?) . Which was repeated at roughly 30 mins intervals from 9 am until 5 pm yesterday and today.
Will all start again on Monday, but then, ah THEN we will be laying geotextile and then the noise will be NEW stone ( local!) and gravel( local!) going down.
I can’t wait to have a lovely, weed free, level, tidy drive and yard. I loathed how bad the old stuff had become, but not being prepared to use weedkiller, once it got beyond hand weeding or raking, we were doomed.
And it wasn’t done very well, in the first place I think.
So, enjoying the respite from noise and dust.
Enjoy your digging etc!
Self-employed and working from home, there isn’t a pattern to our working (paid or voluntary week). I might be working at midnight or 5 am or I might be free in the middle of the week. I try to keep some time off on a Saturday as otherwise it’s too easy not to have a day to do what I want.
Village festival this weekend, very busy. Feet so swollen with the heat and too much standing that I couldn’t get any of my shoes on yesterday and ended up in sequined Indian sandals that I bought in Jodhpur and never normally wear as they’re far too big.
Mmm hmmm. Fridays, The beginning of a vacation, the first day of summer — all of them are ripe with possibility! We had delicious weather, after a week of either heavy rain or oppressive humidity, so there was lots of time spent in the garden (some of it in the neverending battle against creeping charlie).
It’s a good feeling Friday – but even better when you’ve managed to do a great big chunk of gardening. I’m anticipating a FANTASICO Friday as it’s the start of the summer holidays. The smell of freedom hangs in the air as the excruciating morning routine hits the dust. Yay. Weekend plans … we’ve been roped into a school fundraising camp-out/mini festival in which 90% of the grown ups get mildly drunk on Pimms and the raucous 10% (who remain nameless)treat it like a mini Glastonbury. It’s going to be great!
Ooh, lots of different things – one of the things I love about the blog world is that you get such a diverse slice of life from people you meet.
Here’s hoping you are all having a lovely week.