Tag: preparation

Careful Preparation

This morning I published https://derrickjknight.com/2023/07/12/livia/ which I finished reading yesterday.

The stiff breeze that sped through the plot on this sunny day was such that I was pleased that Nick Hayter, who, with his customary care, spent several hours preparing the crumbly pebbledash west wall for painting, was working on the lower levels of the scaffolding.

First he removed the old drainpipe that, at an angle, spanned the centre of the wall;

next he scraped off the crumbliest material

and coated the rest with a liquid fungicidal solution.

Jackie had spent the morning completing her clearance of a footpath through the Palm Bed. She had filled two compost bags with debris. After lunch I bagged up more and transported all to the collection on the Back Drive. I had taken my camera in order to photograph the footpath, and was diverted by

a variety of day lilies en route.

This evening we all dined on pork barbecue spare ribs; rice by Jackie and Becky; and Becky’s salad with her own dressing. Mrs Knight drank Hoegaarden; Ian and Dillon, Peroni; and I, All Out 21 Merlot.

There Are No Pale Grey Foals

Preparation is an oft overlooked essential part of house decoration – especially if this has not been adequately carried out for decades. Such has been the case with our home which Nick Hayter has transformed over the years.

He spent several hours on this today.

This afternoon I made him some prints from today and yesterday, notably yesterday’s opening portrait.

Later, Jackie and I took a forest drive.

We had hoped the postbox on Pilley Hill would have been decorated by the anonymous yarn artist in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

We were not disappointed.

I crossed the moorland alongside Furzey Lane in order to photograph

ponies and their foals who rapidly showed me several clean quads of heels.

I was apparently less disturbing on the outskirts of Ran’s Wood

where an equine mother and baby group was clearly in progress. Realising that the young woman who was riding about among them was in conversation with some, I asked her if they were hers. Two of the mares and three of the foals were – she was happy to be a Commoner. We enjoyed a friendly discussion during which she confirmed our impression that grey mares never produced foals born with their colouring. The infants have much darker hides which may or may not lighten as they grow into adulthood, Even then it is not guaranteed.

This evening we dined on fusion leftovers: Jackie’s cottage pie; Angela’s chicken dish; vegetable samosas and sag aloo from Tesco; chicken sag and sag paneer from Red Chilli. This made for a truly tasty melange with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden, Flo drank raspberry and lemon Kombucha, and I drank more of the Malbec. Strawberries and ice cream finished us off.