The day started after a rainy, thundery night, with me heading outside to exercise and then straight to my computer. We knew there was a lot to get done today, so no time for messing around!
I got straight to my work, while Stuart headed upstairs with the vacuum and a duster to start the mammoth spring (autumn) clean of the house before our guests (our house & cat sitters) arrive.
After about an hour and a half's work, I came to a point at which I could down my office tools for a while and pick up my cleaning tools - I headed to the upstairs bathroom to give it the most thorough clean I think it has seen since we arrived.
After that, I dashed back downstairs to check my email, do a bit more office work, and then headed for the downstairs bathroom, to give that the same treatment as the upstairs one. All the time, Stuart was vacuuming, dusting, tidying, wiping, polishing, hanging pictures, and generally whipping the place into shape.
The whole of the morning and most of the afternoon pretty much went like that - Stuart cleaning solidly, with me doing a bit of cleaning, interspersed with dashing back to my desk to do a bit of work, and then more cleaning again.
By the time 4pm rolled around, the majority of the cleaning was complete and it was time for Stuart to head out - first to Esselunga to pick up some bits and pieces we needed for dinner, and then to collect Chris, Henry and Erik for an afternoon's lumberjacking.
By the time the boys all arrived back at the house, I had just finished everything I needed to do work-wise, so while Chris, Stuart, Henry and Erik headed out with the chainsaw to ponder trees, I made a start on preparations for dinner. I was soon joined by Henry, asking if he could help, and Erik pitched in too.
Sue, who had been tied up with teaching an English lesson, arrived a little later, and we chatted while finalising dinner preparations, before heading outside to see how the boys were getting on.
Stuart had asked Chris if the first job they could tackle could be the sizeable oak trees that are growing on the terrace in front of the house - they block out a lot of the view and are also rather uncomfortably close to the power line going into the house, meaning that when it's very windy the power line gets a bit of a beating.
After some careful consideration, planning and preparation, we all stood well back to watch as Chris chainsawed through the first of the large trunks and it came crashing down! Impressive stuff, and we were stunned by the difference even the first cut had started to make.
Henry took on the role of official photographer for the afternoon's activities, so the following rather brilliant photos are all courtesy of Henry.
Sue and I headed back indoors to continue dinner preparations, Henry, photography now over, asked if he could mow our lawn for us (er... yes!!), and Stuart and Chris carried on with the lumberjacking.
By the time darkness had fallen, Chris had felled all of the oak trees bar one - the one closest to the power line leans towards it and after much consideration, he decided it was too risky to cut that one.
We could already tell that the difference the felling had made was enormous - although as darkness was falling we wouldn't be able to appreciate the full effect until the morning!
After the boys had all come indoors, Chris and Stuart had showered and changed, we settled down to a meal of vegetable chilli with rice and a lovely evening of chatting and catching up. After a rather frantic day of rushing around, finalising bits of work, cleaning and tidying, it was absolutely the perfect tonic.
The Phillipses left at around 10.30pm, and we headed to bed about half an hour after that - excited to see what the morning's view would look like:
 |
| Now you see them... |
 |
| ...Now you don't! |
 |
| Felled! |
 |
| Look at that view! |
Saturday brings another mammoth list of tasks to get done (not least making a start on our packing) before Louise and Dan arrive in the early evening. We're really looking forward to seeing them.
No comments:
Post a Comment