Just a Little Cracked!

Cracked is the word of last week! Our move day grows ever closer and we are still not packed at my house, well apart from a few boxes of my living room ornaments! 

The house we are to move to is still nowhere near clean enough from the build work to move any furniture in, two beds are there but not up as the ceiling that cracked needed to come down and new one put up. Shovelling lath and plaster has to be the worst job we have done so far, soul destroying, hot, dirty and claustrophobic are the words that describe it. Emotionally it was upsetting as Paige needs to be sleeping in this room in a week. Its now had the ceiling put up, but the room is a splodgy brown decor.

So beds and other remaining furniture that was already there are in what's to be our room.

We have no removal transport and Chris unable to get much time off to help pack and come to that move.

Each day I'm at the house brings the date to go nearer, but lessens the time I have to move.

We have to be in in six days and I am starting to worry, I am exhausted physically and mentally and after the move... 

well it will be unpacking us and at the same time unpacking and caring for my Granny, a family and working.

This will be the start of the real hard graft and new adventures!

Positive thoughts and calmness is most needed!!

Silent Sunday

This week I have mostly been filthy!!

Its been a thought provoking week. I have been working like a navvy, clearing the house, clearing a shed with many a creepy crawly having lived undisturbed for 4 years, I have seen many species of spider and become immune to them.

The presence of a rat visitor who lost his way and ran in the kitchen last week, kept Sue (my Aunty) at the shed door with sack, gloves and a stance of Usain Bolt ready to take off if any rodent relative appeared. I was thrown in with hoe to make lots of noise and gingerly remove old bags and boxes!

The only mammal we found was a dead mouse poor thing had got into a filing cabinet made a bed and then unable to escape had perished literally it was like a papier mache model.

The hard work which before the beginning of August consisted of mere housework has been at times so physically tiring I have fallen asleep slumped over my laptop! The day I think of  a day of groans saw Sue and I shovelling rubble and tarmac into a skip, we filled it in two hours and it was a biggie! It was hilarious as we started realising a heavy wheelbarrow just does not go over a skip ledge if you are not musclebound, we nearly ended feet up in the mud and muck!

This all done after we had just cleared the shed and been shopping for bedding, I never thought I would walk upright again. When I arrived home absolutely black and needing a bath, the thermostat had packed up, so no hot water. I just sat on a chair feeling like a dead thing from a horror movie! My friend rescued me with a hot bath and Chris supplied fish and chips and sanity was restored.

At the beginning this task seemed impossible, now we can see a garden shaped green space, due to lots of chopping which sadly had to be done, the trees had all crowded in pushing shrubs into gnarled stumps.  We discovered the lost greenhouse so overgrown we thought it had been stolen. It needs new panes and a tidy up, but I already dreaming of home grown veggies and Granny giving me advice, she had a vine in there at one stage. Cucumbers, courgettes, all manner of produce she grew with amazing expertise!

We had taken lots of wood to the tip, but decided to have a bonfire each day to make faster progress!

Although I did love the beauty of the wilderness that had taken over, the undisturbed haven for birds has to make room for people again, bird tables being added from mine as I spotted a Thrush, not seen one for years.

The house has a wet room taking shape, cracked sewage pipe fixed, the builder Mick Vernall if you live in Peterborough an amazing craftsman who has worked into late evenings to help, and fixed so many things. He put a new bay window the one above will be recycled to pane the shed and other bits it was finished on Friday, even down to releading the bay roof and painting the sill.

He has gone above and beyond a normal builders day, fixed little problems and even stopped moaning about my rubbish tea making. I like mine like a builder  strong and little milk and he likes his with soya milk and it  resembles the liquid from a gnat!!

Now begins the joy of of putting the room together and adding back lots of wonderful ornaments and pictures that Granny holds dear! The wallpaper is on, nw curtains and carpets and I did then have a few tears as I see the love and hard work given by family and friends!

The old 60's gas fire condemned and gone to reveal an amazing tiled fireplace and its been cleaned up and the greens in it will be in touches of decor in the room that is the new bed sitting room. 

Will be bringing you more news of this next weeks happenings soon.

Silent Sunday

A Chimney Sweeps Tale

"What did I tell ya? There's the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars, and the chimney sweeps."

Mary Poppins and Bert have a lot to answer for in terms of how many of us view a Chimney sweep. Young children, boys as young as four, were bought from their parents and the workhouse, trained and sent into a life of danger. The household chimneys and industrial chimeys all were climbed. Work was hazardous and some of these children became trapped in narrow flues, suffocating and even burnt to death!

My favourite book as a child was Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies, where Tom the young boy chimney sweep falls into a river and is saved and transformed. Chimney sweeps were often portrayed as villains and not to be trusted, I have since discovered the book was highly derogatory towards race and religions and so it seems the morals of a sweep!

So I had (as is usual with me) a highly romantic perception.

 As some of  you know my family are working on my Granny's house to get it ready so she can move back in and we are very happy to be moving in to help her. The gas fire in the living room, needed replacing and part of the task before putting in a new fire, was to get the chimney swept as it was very blocked.

My Auntie rang around and booked a chimney sweep and last Saturday, I was very excited to watch the process.

I said on Twitter last week, I would be very disappointed if the knock on the door, opened to a young boy, urchin style, with a sooty face and a "cockernee" accent!

I was disappointed on that score, a tall well spoken man walked in, in smart shirt and trousers. I did look past him to see if a sooty individual was following, but no here was our sweep! 

No twirling of brush, just a strange looking hoover and a bag resembling a golf bag which was full of poles. 

I asked if I could take photos and he kindly agreed.

The sweep carefully laid sheets and  began to hoover the chimney I was not going to see the brush I'd imagined at all, it all seemed clinical and modern and not what I wanted to see.

I commented that Mary Poppins must have had a lot to answer for, the idea of somebody up on the roof, Mr Sweep told me that especially in homes belong to people from the US, when he arrived, the customer would point up to the chimney and go to close the door. They were under the impression he would be scaling the roof. He went on to say that in France and Scotland the sweep method is actually done from the top, a huge weighted brush crashes down from the top.

 Then out came the iconic brush and my faith was restored.

A soot container was placed in the opening, the brush was placed into the chimney, then the area around the hearth was covered leaving a hole that the brush pole protruded from. The chimney sweep added more poles to scale the passageway up and started to sweep!

He turned and pushed, twisting the brush up and up, the soot started to work loose, it sounded like raining sand, this went on for a minute or two and he said "Do you want to go outside to see the brush?" Sue (my auntie) and I were off, my camera in hand, out the front and across the road so we could see it.

This was the real thing, the only part of the process I had imagined. The brush emerged, meaning the flue was cleared. The whole procedure had taken minutes. Back inside the sweep began to bring the brush down. Clean the soot box and remove the sheets, no mess, no real technical changes since the days of the urchins, but I was happy and in the midst of lots of stressful days getting a house ready and packing up my home, this was a bright spot!

See my Silent Sunday this weekend for the best image which I wanted to keep for later!