I think this is the first time I’ve ever written this blog without my beloved MacBook . Don’t worry, the laptop should be back next week; it’s just having a cleanup and getting a new battery so I’m tap tapping away on my equally ancient IPad today. I’d use the desktop Denis lent me but I can’t remember how to start it up – modern technology pushes all my wrong buttons. So, hopefully just this once, it’s me and a tiny screen; one I can finally see properly thanks to my new glasses. Yup, it’s only taken me about 7 years to update my eyeballs which, according to the British government, is the length of time before I become a pensioner. Thanks for the letter powers-that-be, it’s so nice to be reminded of that fact. I have to admit that I had gotten used to looking at a world slightly blurry so it’s taking my beleaguered brain a bit of time to adjust to life in focus, not helped by the rest of me fighting an infection at present. Inevitable really, we are in autumn after all.
Ah, Autumn. The nights are drawing in and the pjs have come out. The Virginia creeper is starting to lose its summer greenness and go all out vibrant red for the new season whilst the rest of the garden is doing the opposite. Gone is the sight of tired tumbleweeds in favour of lush grass and no hose in sight. Tomorrow’s plan of the day has us dragging the winter bâche out of its lair so the pool can go into hibernation – far too cold to swim in and keeping the depths clean is a daily slog I could do without. It’s funny to think that that job will fall to someone else next year although I’m taking the robot vacuum with me for my much smaller swimming hole near my new soon to be built building. Fingers crossed we will be breaking ground before frostbite.
In the meantime, I’ve been busy in my atelier putting what remains of the summer stock in storage and redesigning the space for the upcoming festive season. There’s nothing like a downward shift on the thermometer to make one think of Christmas (I know, scary) and in my case, selling it. The room is nowhere near ready mainly because I keep getting distracted by other necessary chores. Like getting a solar tank through a small gap in the ceiling. The house’s incoming owners insisted it be removed from the attic above the apartment – how the previous (before us) purchasers managed to install it up there in the first place is a scientific mystery. But, thanks to a little bit of wiggling and weightlifting by a few fellas, namely my nephews Louis and Max and a Frenchman I’m quite fond of, the dalek made its descent and is now in the carport along with my freebie furnishings for the future pad. You see, what they don’t know is that the thing has never been used and therefore, very useful. I haven’t seen a manual anywhere mind you and it does seem to have a lot of buttons but at least I can see what they say …
“ I’m getting to an age when I can only enjoy the last sport left. It is called hunting for your spectacles” (Edward Grey)
