Painting the Passageway

With no guests I am busy painting various areas of the house.  We have recently had a new oil tank installed in the passageway down the side of the cottage and I have been busy with the paint brush. I painted some of the white on the cottage and the black bottoms on the walls, as well as stripping off the black paint on the door to the Lean-to and repainting, and a general tidy up.

A Hot May

This month we have had no rain and I am having to water plants in the garden, as well as all the pot plants.  I am now keeping the horses in their stables during the day and turned out in the fields at night, as it is cooler for them. The donkeys, goats and sheep are out during the day, but they are sensibly going into the shade when it is too hot, today (Sunday 31st) it was 25c with no wind.

New Patio

Last year we commissioned garden designer Laurence Maunder from Taunton to create us a new patio for the main house and the idea was for us to build it in the autumn of 2020, however with Covid and not being able to have any holiday guests we have brought the build forward.  We started at the end of April as the weather was so dry and sunny by hiring a mini-digger to start digging out all the soil that had to come out of the garden.

Bird Table

I have been busy this spring painting and creosoting and while I was looking at all the pots of paint in our barn I came across a pot of Lime Green Cuprinol, which I had used in the past to paint a wooden horse jump and there was some left in the pot. I decided to give the bird table a make over and here it is in the cottage cottage after I had just finished the painting. It looks very luminous when the light is going down!

Kitchen Windows

This spring the two windows in the cottage kitchen have been removed and stripped down and repainted.  New glass has been installed and in one of the panes an extractor fan has been added.  This window is near the hob and the fan can be switched on when required.

Sculptures in the Garden

During the Autumn of 2019 we have the The Somerset Arts Week, although it is usually a fortnight! and earlier in the year I visited the Margery Fish Garden in South Petherton, Somerset and saw in the garden various steel plants made by Chris Kampf. I was so taken by them that I ordered some of his work and during the art week I visited his home and collected my sculptures.  I ordered 3 very tall Rudbeckias, 6 different size Snowdrops and not shown here 6 Mini Ruds.

The Porches

At the end of March Shane White of SW Leadworks,Wiveliscombe spent a week with us adding the lead on the two porches. He also added lead to the front door porch.  They are now awaiting their drainpipes and rendering and then they are finished.

Renewing

Our renewing for this year are two porches on the main house. We have had a bespoke carpenter, Blake from Wiveliscombe, Somerset make the porches for us with green oak and he has just finished assembling them.   They are not yet complete as their roofs have to lined with lead and we now have to arrange a date for the specialist company. This has been a long time coming!

Repainting

The holiday cottage is having some repainting this winter upstairs.  The bathroom and the separate toilet have been freshened up with a repaint.  The colour in the bathroom is similar to the previous wall paint, but a slightly lighter Dulux colour of peach has been used this year.  The shower room, which is off the second bedroom has also had a fresh coat of white paint.  I am about to start painting the walls in the second bedroom with a lighter shade of green using the Dulux lumitec paint.

Repair

Every year we spend the months of January and February repairing, renewing and repainting. This year's repair work is in the main house along the landing. All the woodwork on the doors and windows were stripped and painted over the winter of 2018/2019 and we are back this year to repairing all the plasterwork on the walls where the radiators have been moved and all the skirting boards, some repaired and some replaced. Almost finished and then the painting can start.

Electric Wheelbarrow

I thought I must show you a photograph of our lovely new electric wheelbarrow. We bought back in the autumn of 2019 from Germany, just before the first exit date for Brexit as we were worried it would end up being stuck in transit if all went badly for GB.
The wheelbarrow is so easy to use and now we can't imagine life without it.  It has been working so hard on many jobs and it has certainly made my life easier mucking out, as it carries twice as much as a conventional wheelbarrow.