nikki's fat eye and other guests

morning all,

visitor season has gotten off to a flying start with jane, mikey and diego coming friday until sunday and arti and rich from saturday to this morning.

highlights included:

- the river walk/swim

- the bilberry tart

- mountain biking with mike and diego (thanks diego for keeping the pace down for me)

- the bbq

- artis curry

next up we've got deblah arriving this afternoon and then pam on friday.

also.....we've got wasps nesting in the door of our shower and two days ago nikki went for a shower only to find herself of a surprise attack from a particularly territorial wasp on the eyelid.

she said the initial pain went away but this morning the swelling has returned with a vengeance!

here it is in all it's glory:



after hearing the cautionary tale mikey then went for a shower only to be stung on the forehead!

i then showered under the hosepipe as i was taking no chances.

ok, that's all i got for now.

later, gairy.

amazing butterfly

morning folks,

yesterday, whilst driving back from the alps, we saw this amazing looking butterfly.

i've never seen one quite like this before (even though we get loads with vaguely similar colourings/markings) and so thought you lot might like to have a look.



and.....



brilliant - no?

then, when we were nearing home and stopped to pick up some food, we saw another one injured on the floor.

we considered putting it out of it's misery but instead i picked it up and bent it's wing back into position (it was bent/stuck underneath itself at a funny angle). when i placed it back down it immediately fluttered around and then flew off - my good deed for the day was done!

we're having a lazy day of lounging, eating and enjoying the insanely hot weather today (it was 37 degrees c in the valley yesterday) before we enter a month and a bit period of continuous visitors (starting this evening!).

ok, the outdoors calls, later!

gairy.

late july update

evening,

it's been a fair while since we posted anything and so here's an update of happenings, progress and news:

- the barn is progressing nicely (if not speedily) with more wall work, plumbing and loads more.

the stove is now in place and looking bloody brilliant!

it wasn't easy to move/install (weighing in at approx half a ton) but between us all and the plumbers we got the bugger in ok.

here's a nice shot of it:



also, here's a sneak preview of the upstairs bathroom unit that we built.

it's still unfinished and already looks better than it does in this photo but it's a nice little teaser.

(the grouting around the tiles was yet to be done and the woodwork wasn't yet sanded/finished in this photo):



- we had a kuelsheimer family visit (nikki's uncle, aunt and cousin) which was very nice indeed!

we had a very tasty bbq and a fun time was had by all.

thanks SO SO much david, adrienne and adam for the amazing wooden kitchen gifts which we're looking forward to using for many years to come - very much appreciated!!!

here's the bbq me and monkey boy built hastily to cook that evening:



- the vegetables are coming along nicely.

here's a photo of the first of our green beans, pickling cucumbers and (two varieties of) courgettes:



check out the size of the courgettes:



- for the last three weeks we've had lodgers in the house!

maggie and little (9 month old) alfie have been staying with us and i think it's safe to say a splendid time has been had by all.

the highlight for me came during a game of asking each other questions from the childrens version of trivial pursuits.

when asked which ex member of take that had had the most successfuly solo career maggie ansered: "gary, mark, jason no howard" before finally giving up and being made to feel extremely foolish!

other highlights included:

alfie becoming rudie's new best friend!

maggie making alfie a wooden chair (photo to come).

many woodland walks.

alfie's evil mastermind laugh.

much kitten-pushchair action!

and loads more - it's been cool.

we've also had maggie's sister ellen here for the last couple of days (i thought it mean if you didn't get a mention) - HI!

- now onto something about which i'm very proud.

i thought it'd be nice to make alfie a wooden toy whilst he was here and so decided to make him a 'duck train'.

i used a different wood for each duck (ash, walnut, pine, oak and chestnut) which i thought would look nice

here they are all together:





and indivudually:

mummy duck (ash - 20cm x 15cm x 4cm)



big brother duck (walnut - 15cm x 10cm x 3cm)



big sister duck (pine - 12.5cm x 10cm x 2.5cm)



lil' sister duck (oak - 10cm x 8cm x 2cm)



lil' bro duck (chestnut - 10cm x 8cm x 2cm)



there were a few things i'd like to have done better (damn perfectionist!!!) but i'm pretty damn happy with the end result.

disclaimer: for those (david, eddie and no.1.) wondering why i'm making random kids handmade wooden toys (and not your own beautiful offspring) the answer is simple - BRING THEM HERE AND THEY'LL GET ONE!!!

- finally, here are a few more nice insect images:

monkey boy finally got this beautiful image of a butterfly after many minutes waiting



a nice little grasshopper with rudie in the background



and a pretty small dragonfly that i saw this morning



ok, this post is long enough for now!

take care of youselves and see you next time.

gairy.

more winged things and a mirror!

good evening one and all,

things have been progressing well here at simple h.q. with the unit in the upstairs bathroom all but finished (photos will come when the grouting on the tiles is done and it's been waterproofed - have patience).

more wall skimming/priming/preparing is happening and the other sink units are being started and so there's loads going on.

here are a couple of nice shots of butterflies that i took today instead of going for a ride (the first days riding i've missed in over three weeks!) as my chain snapped yesterday and i think its finally had it but i can't get a new one until tomorrow - doh!

this one has two sets of wings of differing orientations:



and this one is amazingly coloured - beautiful:



finally, i made a mirror frame for the upstairs bathroom.

i found an old mirror in a horrible broken frame by the skips in the local town and so scavenged it for future use.

then, i made this frame from some left-over chestnut planks which we have.

to say that i am please with the resulting product would be an understatement. the only problem with it, as nikki quite rightly pointed out, is that it is so well made that it looks shop bought instead of homemade but what can you do???

the reflection of the late afternoon sky is great too!

enjoy:



the others (nikki, monkey boy, maggie, 9 month old alfie and rudie) have all gone for a walk down to the river (which i could have joined them on if i'd remembered by chain was broken) and so i'm now off to start dinner.

cheers, gairy.