We got a ghost!

We have lived in our little stone cottage which we believe was built when the railway came to the valley for over 15 years and always thought we had a ghost.
Strange smells on the upstairs landing the idea that you saw a shadow move across a room or around a corner, things not in their usual place?   We never gave the ghost a name but always imagined it to be a woman.
It was no surprise some months ago when a couple of kitchen items "disappeared"!  An enamel roasting tin and a metal non stick flat baking sheet just vanished.  We use the enamel tin to cook off oven chips so probably used it once a fortnight so it was strange when it was not in its usual place in the drawer next to the cooker. We looked high and low checked all the cupboards twice but all to no avail. We assumed "she" had been at work!
We have friends coming for the weekend so you do kind of make more of an effort with the hoover and duster.  Ugh! the cooker looks a bit manky I thought so knowing it only takes a short while to clean it I whipped out the kind of tray thing with an oven shelf that sits on it.  There were a couple of dead chips in the bottom of the tray that resembled the fingers of an Egyptian mummy.  Apart from that though it looked quite clean, I like to cover everything in tin foil to avoid a marathon cleaning session when the oven finally produces so much smoke that "you know it needs cleaning!"
But wait a minute!, whats this!,  underneath the tray thing was the "Enamel roasting tin and sitting underneath it the flat baking sheet!  
So all this neither proves or disproves that we have a ghost but it does show however, we "dont" clean the oven until it really needs it!

So exiting times just now, we have friends staying the weekend, we are going to the Chatsworth Country Fair" on Saturday then next Monday Tuesday I will be travelling over to Wales to complete the abandoned 2nd day of the Welsh 15 Peaks.
I'm going to attempt to blog my progress using my "Iphone".  I will either travel over Monday and if the weather is really good do the walk that day, or start early on the Tuesday.  The blog will start with a link to a picasa web album and I'll post pics as well as some text.  Dont miss it!

Real drama at work the other day according to my boss, "lets call her TracEy"  capital E because I always spell her name wrong she says.  Being a closely regimented system the bosses have to fill in various forms throughout the day and it seems the book containing these forms had gone missing.  Safe to say it was found but TracEy almost needed counselling and therapy before it was.  A slightly tainted rumour is that someone hid it but I cant possibly comment on that!  

And finally we have to admit that"little Sainsbury" is no longer little.  He's taller than Tom our old black moggy, his tail is very long and he still looks as if his legs are too long for him, we guess he has another growing year so by then he might resemble something the size of a small pony.  We shall see, here he is resting right now after a hard night out reducing the local rodent population!

The tax man cometh -- again!!

You know what it's like. Or thinking about it you might not so I will expand the story a little. When you retire your income is less shall we say up and down so you expect not to get too many letters from the taxman. Imagine my surprise this morning to get a demand going back to the tax year 2007/8 from the bean counters in Cardiff. I checked my old documents and they "seem" to have missed a bit of detail so I rattled off a note. I just hope it doesn't result in a bigger bill. Watch this space.

John our "gardener" neighbours protestations about sorting out his tip of a garden are not "bearing fruit" as yet. In fact he seems to have added to the junk on his "courtyard terrace" with what resembles a water butt. See pic below

At work one of our more junior colleagues, lets call him "doh!" believed that to clean up an oil spill it was sufficient to spread it over a larger area with a wet mop then leave a "wet floor sign" before fleeing to another isle to carry on his work.
I cleaned it up and didn't even bother to explain to doh!
Another work anecdote:  Clocking in and out, a novel experience for me as I have never had to do it before in my whole working life, used to be easy. Press button for in or out bang in your "Clock Number" if you were going out it asked you if you were on authorised overtime, a little up arrow meant yes and a down arrow for no.  Job done.  Not long ago a curious "instruction" appeared above the clock about a "new method" of clocking in and out, I read it one twice and 3 times but it was no clearer.   The reason for the new method It would appear is that our more "challenged" colleagues would enter any number, date of birth, pin, or telephone!  this made accounting a tad difficult at the end of the pay period.
The "new method" is simple really even with the cockeyed instruction.  Hit in or out bang in your number and hey presto your name appears.  You then hit the old up arrow for "yes" that's me or the down to go back to the start and try "another number".  It  soon became apparent that once again our more "challenged" colleagues didnt know which arrow was for yes and no.  Some enterprising person then stuck a little bit of paper next to each button with Yes and No on.  This then threw me completely because being a tad "challenged" myself I kept pressing the little bits of paper instead of the correct arrow - - - what a stressful time it all is!  It did however occur to me that colleagues "more challenged" than I might not even know their names so whats the next move I wonder?
So dear reader with the stress of clocking in and out and the discombobulating experience of the tax mans demand this morning i fear i must away and spend an hour wandering the lonely corridors of the DIY shop as therapy!!!

A rich vein maybe?

A colleague at work, "lets call her Debs" she of the rabbit and 2 dogs story, see the last blog entry, has again come up with a classic, she maybe a "Rich Vein" of stories for the future!.  Being the dutiful daughter she takes her parents shopping every Friday.  Just before setting off Friday last Dad decides he needs the loo and off he go's.  Debs and Mum go out and sit in the car.  Dad emerges from the house, walks straight past Debs's car and gets into the neighbours (who are also going out at this time) Debs then gets out of her car to inform Dad that he's in the wrong car only to get a dressing down for "parking the car in the wrong place "!

Work also supplied a couple of amusing anecdotes yesterday, a customer approaches me to say that all the bread on the "Free From" section is out of date.  Shock horror I exclaim and follow him to look at the offending bread.  It turns out the date is fine but a little confusing when you first look at it, being like this 28    (space space) Aug 12.  He took it to be indicating Aug 12.  Once explained he grabbed a loaf and beat a hasty retreat.
.
The second was a male customer clutching a basket and looking quizzically at "the list" obviously supplied by the  boss back home.  Without pre-amble he says "she's written orange biscuits on here, whats that then?".  Stopping only to say,  "I haven't a clue", because its not my list I take him to the biscuit isle and we peruse the shelves and he settles for "Jaffa Cakes" I must admit I always read through Sally's lists only to confirm what she has written as her writing resemble the meandering of an ink wet spider at the best of times.
The Bank Holiday weather in typical  fashion is drenching everyone with today being given as the best of the 3 days.  Next doors little girl is having a birthday party today so its screaming kids for an hour or 2 when I get home from work - - - I wonder if there's any overtime going this afternoon?  - - - .

"THE" Holiday is paid for!!!

It seemed like an eternity back in Feb or was it early March when returning from a holiday on Kurumba in the Maldives we booked another 2 weeks in October.  We were so knocked out by the place, even though it was our 3rd visit we decided to cancel our intended Aussie trip and go back.

I mean just look at this photo taken I must admit from their facebook page 

The place is just fantastic especially if you like to snorkel or dive, the house reef is second to none!  The place is run by a manager who strives for perfection and is never short of new ideas to enhance your stay.  He's backed up by an army of staff who know their stuff.  It must be a great place to work because some of them have been there for years.  So our excitement is building now since we paid off the balance for the trip yesterday, i know you shouldn't wish your life away but roll on October!!.  You can see the resort site from this link Kurumba site   enjoy.

Back to work for a week today and to hear the news my Boss "lets call her Tracy", managed to have a car crash on what is known locally as the flying mile.  Its a straight bit of road with a small crossroads on it and it seems someone toodled across the main road as Tracy was on it and had the right of way.  Several nasty bruises and sore knees later she's back at work albeit on light duties but still soldiering on!! 

My team leader at work "lets call her Molly"  is leaving her job to become a nurse, not something I would like to pursue but there we are.  So it will be another new recruit to "break in" when the short list is reduced to 1.  It appears the list is a long one, obviously they have heard what a "fine team" we have and they cant wait to join!

Another story from work a colleague from the fresh department, "Lets call her Debs" was relating the story of picking up the pet rabbit from its outside run to put it in the hutch for the night with her 2 little dogs looking on and obviously thinking the rabbit might make a lovely meal.  So she has rabbit in her arms and picks up one leg and over the top of the little run, picks up the other leg and catches it on the top of the netting or whatever.  At this point the Rabbit takes a little flying lesson as Debs lets it go as she does not want to fall and maybe squash it.  While she tries to regain her equilibrium, the 2 dogs are chasing the rabbit thinking it a great bit of sport.  So the chase ensues with Debs not sure which to chase first the dogs or the rabbit.  Peace is finally declared as the rabbit is secured and the dogs do not get the chance of a lucky rabbits foot each.   

So there we are much excitement both in and out of work - - - now where did i put my snorkel and fins???

Timber!

Our old friend Sharon who used to live a couple of doors away had a beautiful Eucalyptus tree growing in her garden.  I say used to because our neighbour John (the one with a tip for a garden) asked if he could cut off a large bough which was growing into and over part of his garden.  When he cut it off it happened to be a  particularly cold spell in winter 2010 and unfortunately this killed the tree.  So for ages we have had this stark reminder of its former beauty seen in the pic below.  

It was then with great surprise that we rushed up to the base of the tree after John mentioned that it was growing again.  Sure enough there was a branch with the grey blue leaves on looking very healthy.
This sparked a series of text messages to Sharon who is living and working in Canada.  This also re-ignited the debate about felling the dead tree before it blew over in the wind with the possibility of damaging various fences and walls.
It was decided that it should come down that day (Sunday) and after collecting a little more wood from our logging site we set to the task
My idea was to cut off all the branches then fell the trunk.  This I did for a couple of the lower branches but the 3 main vertical ones were in too dangerous a position to use the chain saw.

So here I am having a very short attempt at sawing them off with a bow saw.  The wood was so dry and hard I decided to just fell the whole thing.

 So having sawn out the wedge in the direction I wanted it to go I tied a rope as high up the branches as possible and my lovely assistant Sally stood up in the garden pulling on the rope to hopefully help it along.

Thankfully all went well as can be seen in this pic and my assistant can be seen waving from just out of range of the falling branches.

So there we are we chopped off all the branches and finally yesterday made cheeses out of the trunk which I shall smash with the maul today to finish the job.  You can just see the "new" tree growing from way down the bottom of the original stump which is hidden by the branch.  I sawed flat and covered the old stump with some lead flashing in the hope of preserving it so the new tree has time to establish itself.
More excitement though as John declared that "his gardener" would be working again today to sort out his tip/garden -  -  I cant wait!

£9.60!!!!!!

I wandered down to the shop yesterday and one of the things on the list was, stamps. Not the type of thing you buy every week what with all the modern ways to communicate.  In fact I used our last stamp the other day and it had a christmassy theme on it so you get the idea of how often we use the "snail mail"
Could I have one book of second class stamps and one of first class stamps please I asked my sainsbugs colleague at the kiosk.  Another exchange between us established that the second class only came in books of 12 and the first in 6 or 12, I opted for the book of 12 second and a 6 of first class.
I dont usually buy first class stamps purely for the fact that we dont use the mail all that often and i'm in no hurry when I do so second is fine by me.  With all the background noise and my dodgy ears I did not hear the price quoted by my colleague and proffered a £10 note not having picked up any change when i exited the house earlier.
The till was opened and my colleague scooped up some coins and dropped them into my outstretched hand, only 40p?  I gave him the look of - - but I gave you a tenner?  "The stamps are £9.60p" he said, I replied "Oh my god" and wandered off clutching the 2 books like they were gold bars.  I checked on the net when I got home first class post is 60p and second 50p minimum!  I will utilise the more modern forms of communication with even more glee now and start saving up for stamps with which to post the Christmas cards.  Thinks - - - I could just scan one card and e mail it to all the recipients.
The much trumpeted "sorting out" of Johns garden (our next door neighbour who has a tip for a garden) never materialised over the weekend.  Well it kind of did, the workforce, his son and Father turned up but instead of attacking "the garden" they spent all day attacking a wild rose which is growing down the side of his garage.  I always thought that the rose belonged to our friend Sharon who occupied the next house along but could be wrong. So here's the pic I only include one as a before and after shot really because after many hours of cutting and slashing the scene does not appear to have changed, except for the large pile of cuttings outside Sharons garage.  I wonder when it will be removed?

Saturday rain

Sitting here deciding what to do on our day off.  I need to collect a little more wood for the winter store but i decided it could wait until the afternoon because the weather is meant to be "brightening" by then.  Sally says she would quite like a walk around the Ladybower reservoir.  As soon as we "pencil it in" it starts to rain!

Here's a pic I took in February this year around the reservoir, its a stunning walk whenever you do it but the snow adds another dimension to the scene.

I'm still wrestling with the "water" problem in Cyril our little white van.  After attempting one "repair" on the drivers side I adjusted the pond liner I put in to keep the water off the carpets as it still managed to dampen one part of it.  The passenger side looks to part of the same leak as its only wet on the right side of the footwell.  I will attempt a similar "repair" to that side in the hope of getting a dry front end.   

Great excitement from John our neighbour who claims to be a gardener but has made his garden into a jungle in the few years he has had it.  He has recruited a family member to help him sort it out this weekend, i do hope the weather is a little kinder than just at the moment.  

In preparation for Sally's stopping work I am urging her to make a list of items she needs for the various "hobbies" she is going to attempt, Wine making, fruit preserving.  I may live to regret the "urging"!

The attempt at completing the 15 Peaks I started in June took another twist during the week.  I had decided not to go with Ginny as I didn't really want to pay for a 1 day walk for 2 of us as all the others had dropped. Having told Ginny she then came back and said her sister could now attend, I had already made other arrangements so felt a bit mean not joining back in.  However I'm intending to saunter across to Wales on Mon 3rd of Sep and complete the remaining 5 Peaks the following day.  Watch this space!
On a happy note we managed to link back up with the 2 girls from Sydney who we got on so well with on our Fiji holiday.  We hadn't heard from them since Christmas last year but they are now back on the planet

Here they are Rachael and Erin trying to look sober as we speed to another resort on our "Pub Crawl" afternoon.  

So up and at em, onwards and upwards into the still falling Saturday Rain!

Cyrils an Amphibian!

Ok so we didn't pay a fortune for Cyril the little white van which replaced my beloved Freelander.  He had done 90k plus miles and was really quite manky inside when we got him.  A bit of T cut on the outside and a shampoo on the inside and he was "good to go".

Pic of Cyril with Sainsbury posing on bonnet

Well not really, he always had a, well, a kind of, pong on the inside.  Sally bought the fresh air whatsit that sits on one of the fresh air vents and all seemed ok.  Well again not really, if he'd been standing in the sun, which was unusual for UK this summer until a couple of weeks ago he definitely was a "bit whiffy".
I got him stuck on the mud one day when I was logging and in getting out the towing attachment you fit on the front noticed the carpet behind the front seat was "slightly wet".
I pulled out the carpet from the drivers side and the underneath was "awash" with water.  All i needed was a couple of koi and a water feature and a finer mobile pond you will not have seen!  Underneath the carpet  a huge 2" thick bit of foam which was soaking as well as some sound deadening material which was also soaked.

pic if sound deadening material "dripping" on the washing line

I noticed that there were a couple of holes drilled into the floor, obviously "designed" to allow the water to "flush out".  Unfortunately they were not at the lowest point so were "not that all effective"

Pic of holes "circled" and arrows pointing where they needed to be! 

I looked under the bonnet and quite plainly there were a number of holes that should have had plugs in, that didnt.  They were obscured by the windscreen washer bottle so had nor been seen before.

Pic of holes under washer bottle 
I plugged these and dried out the foam and carpets etc.  As luck would have it we had a downpour as i returned from work yesterday and having left out the floor covering I could see a bit of water coming in.  When I got home I searched on the net for "water in footwell of Corsa" and there were a "Plethora" of tales of woe.  People having paid over £400 to fix the leak and still leaking, home made options that didnt quite work etc, etc, etc.
A lot of the problem seems to be the seals of various bits bolted to the bulkhead that had failed and the home grown "fix" was "bath sealant" you know the stuff that go's around the edge of the bath that nearly always "starts to go black" at some point.
Wanting a "quick fix just now", that will probably never be rectified, or beaten for that matter i did the following.  Drilled holes at what is obviously the lowest points on the floor pan.  Plugged the obvious holes under the bonnet and "fitted a pond liner"

 Pic of pond liner "going in"
So there we are, no doubt I will have many happy hours fixing the passenger side in a similar manner!
What a swizz though, its obviously a design fault that has been around for years and is ongoing - - Shame on you "VAUXHALL"  well "OPEL" as it is nowadays.
On a lighter note getting rid of all that water should do wonders to the mpg!

Corpses all over the house!

Its been a habit to lock in the cats at night for some time now.  Especially since we lost one to a car accident last February.  A couple of times recently Sainsbury the tabby has failed to come in around 20:00 and its caused a bit of concern to say the least.  We finally sat down and realised that its probably safer for him to be out all night, less traffic about, because then he tends to spend all day asleep upstairs when the road is busy!
We have been finding the odd dead rodent in the morning, mainly mice on the kitchen floor and this only confirms that at least he does come back to the house during the night.  Last night though it must have been a bumper hunting night as Sally woke up to hear this strange squeaking.  Sainsbury had brought up a live one but then despatched it leaving blood all over the quilt cover!  When I got up to go to work this morning he was sat looking very proud of himself beside another dead one in the kitchen and I found a third in front of the log burner!
He certainly is making his presence felt in the local rodent population.  Here he is getting some hard earned sleep before going out to hunt for the night.

 
Almost finished my week at the fun factory and I found out that the opening at 09:30 on Sunday mentioned in the last post is because during the Olympics the Sunday trading laws were relaxed so now that its over I guess we will be back to normal.  I thought that we did exceptionally well in the Olympics both in the organisation and medal tables.  Pity the politicians couldn't run the country as well!
The attempt to complete the 15 Peaks challenge took another twist yesterday.  I was having second thoughts about spending money to have a guide for the 5 peaks needed to complete the challenge when I received an e mail from Ginny, the organiser saying the guide wanted more than we both thought had been asked for originally.  So I have backed out but offered to do it on the day (Sunday 16th Sept) we agreed but I will lead and navigate.  If Ginny doesnt want to do that I will go across to Wales and complete it one Friday.
And finally, I have had a couple of comments about the old pics I included in the last post and might put the odd one in future posts!  Most will be from my Army days to give you all a taster of things to come in "the book".
Here's a good one to start with, i'm intending the book cover to look something like this!

Just a bit of this and that

Readers might recall the story of my attempt at the Welsh 15 Peaks earlier in the year, blog dated 18th June.   The 2nd day was terrible weather and we decided to abandon it.  Ginny the driving force behind the team organised a rerun of the second day in Sept and all looked ok until an email last night.  Due to other commitments it now looks like it might be just Adam the guide, Ginny and me.  Shame really as I felt everyone would have enjoyed the 1 day jaunt.
I have been working quite hard in this dry spell trying to get the wood shed filled up for winter and its nearly complete. 

 The ground is still quite wet up on the logging area but at least all my stashes are by a reasonably firm track.  The pic shows the wood shed almost done and dusted.  I ended up having to cut some logs into "cheeses" because as they have dried its become impossible to split them with the maul.  Just by way of an explanation the foliage sticking out of the green dustbin in the pic are the off cuts from the pond plants.  I had savagely reduced the size of the ones in the pond at the beginning of the year to an extent where I thought they might not survive.  Dropping them into what is the rainwater drain off from the wood shed roof was just a bit of insurance.
I'm still managing to collect pics for the time lapse video project although I will have to take them a little later in the day because of the light being poor in the morning at 0600 now.  Heres the latest pic and this morning it was quite cool with some Autumnal mist around as the sheep were munching away at whats left of the grass in the field over the river

The river is very low just now so i guess you could call it the normal level it will be interesting to see it rise and fall in the finished video.
Back to work tomorrow and while shopping the other day I was told the shop will now be opening on a Sunday at 09:30.  I find this strange because it "normally" opens at 10:00 on Sunday but "because of Sunday trading laws we are unable to serve you until 10:30".  This message booms out over the public address system and cascades down to even not being able to cut an un-sliced loaf until 10:30.  Another twist to this tale is that there will be an open ended closing time, in as much as if its busy the shop will stay open?  It will be interesting to get the full story!
And finally! a blast from the past, here's a couple of pics from the 20/04/1974! My then wife and I were at our friends wedding.  Dont you just love the suits and shirt collars!!

"I'm a gardener" - - "It'll be finished by the end of July"

These words were spoken to myself and Sally when our neighbour John moved into the cottage next door in 2010 I think it was.  Jason and Fran the previous neighbours had  laid down lots of gravel on the first terrace level and made a large decking area above that.  They never claimed to be "gardeners" but had a few pots dotted about with plants and things and it always looked spic and span.
John's idea was to make a "Courtyard" out of the bottom terrace by digging it out to level it off.  This looked to me to be an enormous task as we had completed a similar task in our patch.
The original decking area was going to be replaced by a "Greenhouse" and just behind that would be an area of "Raised Beds" mainly for vegetables we were told.  Over the last 2 years it became clear that the "plans" had changed a number of times and we would be regaled with sweeps of his arms and explanations of how it all would look, "By the end of July"
A conservatory appeared that he had taken down for a client, he's a carpenter, or is it a joiner?  the conservatory then was loaded onto a van and disappeared.  The conservatory "idea" moved from the bottom terrace right to the top of his garden where it would have sat under a dead eucalyptus tree.  Yes I said dead tree its in our old friend Sharon's (who works in Canada) garden and was her pride and joy.  John asked permission to cut off a huge bough that was overhanging his garden area where the "Conservatory" idea had moved to.  The bough was cut off in the really cold spell in winter and the tree promptly gave up the ghost.  Anyway I digress
 So here we are nearly 3 years later looking at Johns efforts and remembering with crystal clarity that early quote, "I'm a gardener - - It'll be finished by the end of July" by the way that was July 2011!  Only yesterday when i was telling him of his place in the blog he was waxing lyrical about mixing concrete for the base of his conservatory and building a back wall to lean it against!  Me-thinks this could be a regular feature of the Blog and we can all share his progress.
Finally then to the pics. This one is the "Courtyard" area which was to be dug out levelled and have a conservatory on it

 The depression at the front of the pic was where he started to dig it out and the intended level is at the base of the wall.  The rusty round thing i think was left by visiting aliens and i fancy it will turn into a rusty ford anglia!
This is the area for the "Greenhouse" which was originally a decked area

The thing sticking out of the jungle is a 6x4 foot greenhouse although it looks a little drunk and has no glass to give it the strength to stand up.
Next we have the area for "Raised beds"

If anyone ventures into this area I always promise to call the rescue party if they don't come out in half an hour!
And finally here we have the "Conservatory" area which give him credit it is presently getting all his attention!

The shadow on the left is from the "dead" Eucalyptus tree which i have promised our friend Sharon i will cut down soon.  Mmmmmmmm wonder if i could drop it on his conservatory?

Mists of Autumn fruitfulness - - Already?

Twas a morn of mists and dampness at 0530 when I arose to go to chapel.  Well not exactly chapel but at least across the road to take a pic of the field across the river which is to be my latest time lapse photo project, due for completion next summer.  Ah - - Summer did we get one?

So here is the fruit of my early morning labour

If you click on the pic you can see the sheep nibbling away at the grass left by the bailing machine which swept across the field a week or so ago.
Another reminder of the approaching seasonal changes are the raids on my bird feeders by the squirrels.  They visit quite often, when Sainsbury the tabby allows them some peace, but now seem to be on either the seeds or nuts almost any time of day.  I had just decided to include the pic below when my number 1 daughter Caroline, e mailed from her holiday in "Sisters - Oregon" that she could see the "raider" on the net.  Isn't technology a wonderful thing!  She asked if I recorded it and I must try and get a video as its a comical gymnastic display!

So here he/she is having a go at the sunflower seeds.  The first pic is early this morning, the other early in July when we were experiencing "the deluge".  Tomorrows blog is dedicated to "Our neighbour John, - who is not a gardener despite all his claims, with pics to prove it"  more anon