Friday 8 August 2014

Murphy's Law!

Do you know Murphy's Law? It's the principle that if you drop a piece of bread and butter with jam on it then it's sure to land jam side down. We've had two jobs lined up for the house requiring several workmen and a day each of labour. That was the general idea. One week later and the scaffolding is still up, because the wrong part meant that the solar panel work could not be completed.
That was last week. This week the two charming workmen who adapted our Aga returned to line the chimney that serves the wood burning stove in the sitting room. We had sheeted everything up, the weather was good, it would soon be done.  I would have a good tidy-up before family came home at the weekend.
Stove out.
Ladder up. The liner ready to be fed down the chimney.
"Can you pull a bit harder?"
It's stuck!
And now the chimney pot is loose.
And that's the current state of play!
Sometime next week, hopefully, the scaffolding is going to be moved round the house, the chimney cleaned with chains(!!) and the chimney pot re-set. Murphy's Law!
The scaffolding gives me the opportunity to have a bird's eye view of the garden. This wall looks very bare now that the dead tree has been cut down and you can see how parched the lawn looks with week after week of glorious warm, dry weather.
The fir tree in the foreground is looking rather sickly.

'Stop moaning' says Vanilla, 'just enjoy the sunshine.'

Okay.


We are eating well from the garden with rather a lot of courgettes. I took a peep under the leaves of my squash plants and discovered - courgettes!
Only one squash growing so far.
The onions are small and have folded their stems and stopped growing, the 'Blue Lake' beans are cropping well
and the coriander is setting seed. It smells wonderful when you brush past it.
I've cut our wisteria hard back. It's a disgrace, not one flower this year. Walking down the road to the fields I passed my neighbour's wisteria giving a second burst of colour.
After weeks of sunshine the fields are golden, the crops cut and ready to be baled.
A balloon floated overhead as we walked back home.
And tonight. just in time for Friday Skywatch, the most amazing sunset!


The tail end of Hurricane Bertha is supposed to be arriving at the weekend - I hope the chimney stack stays up on the roof!


14 comments:

  1. Wonderful Rosemary. All except the house problems that is. Still, the chimney is looking cheerfully jaunty. Have a good weekend.

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    1. :Cheerfully jaunty" indeed! I'm just glad it's still up there on the roof and hasn't come crashing down.
      Not a sign of any workmen.

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  2. Your chimney will be fixed before you know it and Vanilla is right: just enjoy your beautiful gardens in the meantime!

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    1. We have got high winds and rain at the moment so I'm tucked up inside but the wet is very welcome for the garden after many weeks of dry weather. No contact from any workmen, I fear the chimney pot may be what Gary describes as "cheerfully jaunty" for a while!

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  3. Oh, that is a gorgeous sunset!

    Vanilla, you're gorgeous too...

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  4. Your garden still looks lovely, no matter what.
    I had a hole cut between two rooms and my wood stove installed, my grandson tiled under the stove and with the builder coming back next Sunday, all seemed peaches and roses. That was a good 6 weeks ago, all he has to foo is put a frame around the opening between the two rooms so my life can get back to normal but since he works in the trade 6 days a week and runs a farm, I'm not holding out great hopes for the immediate future.Old Murphy has a lot to answer for.
    At least you got that wonderful sunset.

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    1. Oh, Arija, I feel for you! But he's your grandson so you are understanding and obliging. Our workmen are no relation and I'm going to get rather bolshy any day soon!

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  5. I hate it when Murphy's Law comes into play! But on the bright side, you live in a beautiful house with really stunning scenery!!

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    1. Yes, it's true, a walk around the garden always cheers me up and soothes the spirits. (But I'll be even more soothed when I don't have to look at a drunken chimney pot with bits hanging out!

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  6. Chimneys have been a problem in my life, too. This will take you to my writing blog and one of the posts I wrote about my last chimney. http://jadcock.blogspot.com/2012/05/they-all-showed-up.html There are other posts, too. May Murphy go visit someone else till you are finished with these projects.

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  7. Wonderful sunset pictures.
    We all had a dose of Murphy's law at sometime or other not a fun experience.
    Merle........

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  8. Oh yes, that silly Murphy... I hate his law, why must it end always like that :o). However your garden looks stunning and Vanilla is completely right: just enjoy it. Have a great weekend and stay safe incase the Hurricane decides to show up.
    Alex

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    ReplyDelete