Twenty One
At the beginning of the week Guy is off work ill (so he really was ill last weekend and not just trying to get out of gravel shovelling!) so he stays clammily in his bed and I do cake stuff when I’m not working. We have excellent intentions of digging a drainage ditch on Saturday afternoon, but on Friday evening somebody from the Caerphilly Woodlands Trust phones to say they know we’ve agreed to ‘man the stand’ at the garden centre on Saturday morning for 2 hours, but in the afternoon for 3 hours is almost the same and is that ok with us?. What can you say? I say yes. Guy says he’d have said ‘no’ but I bet he’d have crumbled too. As it is, we have a castle themed wedding cake to finish, so on Saturday morning I make a bride and drop the turret. On the stone floor. Oops. Luckily it only breaks a bit, and we repair it fairly quickly… It’s got to travel all the way to Scotland, so it’s comforting to know that it’s relatively indestructible.
It’s too early to eat lunch before we head off to do our stint on the stand, so we take sandwiches and chicken drumsticks. We arrive at the local garden centre and Vernon, who has been on the stand all morning, says it’s Been A Bit Quiet. He has handed out two leaflets and got one signature of interest. In three hours. Blimey. Turns out he had the busy part of the day…. In the afternoon there are NO visitors (well, not to the outside bit where we are busy freezing, anyway) and we don’t even give out two leaflets. I do have a couple of children looking at the giant fir cones, but I have to confess my heart sinks a little when they guess they are acorns. Education nowadays, eh? I explain that they really are fir cones and also point out how you can tell which kind of mouse has nibbled a hazelnut but as I don’t have my glasses on I may be misleading them. I figure as they can’t tell a fir cone from an acorn it probably doesn’t matter… We entertain ourselves by watching the wood turner turn wood and make a bowl, and also by wandering off in turn to find the best Christmas decorations available. Guy wins with ‘Hippity Hoppity Santa’ (or was it Hip Hop Santa?) who is dressed in shorts, baseball hat and iPod and sings a rap version of Jingle Bells as though he’s an Elvis impersonator. Must get one.
By 3.30 we are frozen so we call it a day. Apart from the two ‘it’s an acorn’ kids, we’ve spoken to nobody. Still, at least we did our bit. We go home to yet more cakeing and then our visitors arrive. As they want a proper holiday, we’re putting them in Guy’s house on their own so after a cuppa we drive up to his and show them round and then we do very little else apart from sit in a heap in my house and watch telly… For a few days Guy is officially Living With Me. We like it! Which is probably just as well given that we’re building him a shed and selling his house…
This one is a baby with red markings. We call him 'Little Red' Yep, we're still crap at names!
On Sunday the plan is that they will walk down and find us, but they get lost, so Guy carries on preparing lunch while I walk out to meet them. Guy has practice in the afternoon, so Blunkett and I walk them back up to his house to show them the way, and then walk home again to do yet more to the wedding cake. Can’t show you a pic because the groom can’t see what the bride is wearing!
All in all it’s been a busy if totally unsheddy week. Bummer! No idea when the shed will be arriving – we can’t wait now!
Achieved: Nothing sheddy AT ALL, but two cakes iced and delivered.
Hours worked: Shedwise? Naff all. Cakewise? WAY too many…
Meditation progress: What you need is peace, quiet and the certain knowledge that you are not going to be disturbed. The Woodlands Trust stand was just perfect…
Purchases: Nothing. Zippo.
Pressies: Two chocolate advent calendars (one each so there’ll be no squabbling) from our visitors. Excellent pressies!
Wildlife update: Badger Number One is back! So he’s not dead, which is brilliant news. Still haven’t seen them both together but, yes, I can tell them apart. Honest.
Plan: Again, we’re stuck without daylight, so we’ll have to wait for the weekend. Then we’re going to do a bit of remedial drainage work (one of the advantages of the torrential rain at the end of last week was that we can see where the puddles are…)
The ‘oh bugger’ moment of the week: Guy was off work ill the beginning part of the week and returned on Thursday, happy in the knowledge that the wedding cake was due for Sunday, and the engagement (tent) cake for the middle of this coming week. Jenny (her wot wants the engagement cake) greeted Guy on Thursday with ‘ooh, I’m so excited, where’s my cake?’ which came as somewhat of a surprise. We think she got her dates muddled… Oh bugger. So Thursday evening we finished the engagement cake. Very quickly. They are a stunning couple (although maybe not by the time we’d immortalised them in icing). She’s a doctor, he’s an RAF weatherman, they like camping. So we gave them a tent.
It’s too early to eat lunch before we head off to do our stint on the stand, so we take sandwiches and chicken drumsticks. We arrive at the local garden centre and Vernon, who has been on the stand all morning, says it’s Been A Bit Quiet. He has handed out two leaflets and got one signature of interest. In three hours. Blimey. Turns out he had the busy part of the day…. In the afternoon there are NO visitors (well, not to the outside bit where we are busy freezing, anyway) and we don’t even give out two leaflets. I do have a couple of children looking at the giant fir cones, but I have to confess my heart sinks a little when they guess they are acorns. Education nowadays, eh? I explain that they really are fir cones and also point out how you can tell which kind of mouse has nibbled a hazelnut but as I don’t have my glasses on I may be misleading them. I figure as they can’t tell a fir cone from an acorn it probably doesn’t matter… We entertain ourselves by watching the wood turner turn wood and make a bowl, and also by wandering off in turn to find the best Christmas decorations available. Guy wins with ‘Hippity Hoppity Santa’ (or was it Hip Hop Santa?) who is dressed in shorts, baseball hat and iPod and sings a rap version of Jingle Bells as though he’s an Elvis impersonator. Must get one.
By 3.30 we are frozen so we call it a day. Apart from the two ‘it’s an acorn’ kids, we’ve spoken to nobody. Still, at least we did our bit. We go home to yet more cakeing and then our visitors arrive. As they want a proper holiday, we’re putting them in Guy’s house on their own so after a cuppa we drive up to his and show them round and then we do very little else apart from sit in a heap in my house and watch telly… For a few days Guy is officially Living With Me. We like it! Which is probably just as well given that we’re building him a shed and selling his house…
This one is a baby with red markings. We call him 'Little Red' Yep, we're still crap at names!
On Sunday the plan is that they will walk down and find us, but they get lost, so Guy carries on preparing lunch while I walk out to meet them. Guy has practice in the afternoon, so Blunkett and I walk them back up to his house to show them the way, and then walk home again to do yet more to the wedding cake. Can’t show you a pic because the groom can’t see what the bride is wearing!
All in all it’s been a busy if totally unsheddy week. Bummer! No idea when the shed will be arriving – we can’t wait now!
Achieved: Nothing sheddy AT ALL, but two cakes iced and delivered.
Hours worked: Shedwise? Naff all. Cakewise? WAY too many…
Meditation progress: What you need is peace, quiet and the certain knowledge that you are not going to be disturbed. The Woodlands Trust stand was just perfect…
Purchases: Nothing. Zippo.
Pressies: Two chocolate advent calendars (one each so there’ll be no squabbling) from our visitors. Excellent pressies!
Wildlife update: Badger Number One is back! So he’s not dead, which is brilliant news. Still haven’t seen them both together but, yes, I can tell them apart. Honest.
Plan: Again, we’re stuck without daylight, so we’ll have to wait for the weekend. Then we’re going to do a bit of remedial drainage work (one of the advantages of the torrential rain at the end of last week was that we can see where the puddles are…)
The ‘oh bugger’ moment of the week: Guy was off work ill the beginning part of the week and returned on Thursday, happy in the knowledge that the wedding cake was due for Sunday, and the engagement (tent) cake for the middle of this coming week. Jenny (her wot wants the engagement cake) greeted Guy on Thursday with ‘ooh, I’m so excited, where’s my cake?’ which came as somewhat of a surprise. We think she got her dates muddled… Oh bugger. So Thursday evening we finished the engagement cake. Very quickly. They are a stunning couple (although maybe not by the time we’d immortalised them in icing). She’s a doctor, he’s an RAF weatherman, they like camping. So we gave them a tent.
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