To realise that we have been in this house for just over two years comes as quite a surprise. Despite adopting an increasingly relaxed lifestyle we have packed a lot of activity into that time. Immediately after we moved in, the house had nearly all the relevant furniture in all the rooms but our garage was still full to the roof from end to end, so that you could open the front or the back door but there was hardly space to enter. The garden shed and summerhouse were both packed full and a lot of weatherproof items remained outside for the first few weeks because there was no more indoor storage space. We thought we had reduced our possessions sufficiently prior to moving to this small house. We were mistaken.
Now the summerhouse is almost empty and is usable in warmer weather. The garden shed has been refitted and painted and gardening tools organised (making Granny-Anne happy – always a good idea!). The kitchen has been upgraded with additional cupboards, a new sink and worktops, shelves and a repaint. The bathroom has been improved with new wall cupboards and “A very posh shower” as our friend Maria commented a few weeks ago. More space has been created in our main living/dining room by getting rid of the old three-piece suite which was bulky (it didn’t look big in our old house) and not all that comfortable since we have begun to prefer sitting in higher, more upright chairs. We gave several furniture suppliers, within a few miles of here, every opportunity to supply a replacement suite but none was able to do so. As one who spent a bit of time in the retail furniture trade in my youth, I found it a bit depressing that hardly any of the salespeople in the area seemed able to comprehend why we didn’t want a sofa and chairs whose backs were so low and so soft that they offered no support, or whose arms were more or less useless as well as being too bulky for the rooms in small modern houses. Mind you, I felt quite sorry for a saleslady in one shop who did her utmost to supply what we wanted but while she had suitable chairs and a sofa, they came from different makers and didn’t match each other. In the end we went to HSL Chairs in Bristol, whose products were excellent (we were spoilt for choice in fact) and whose service (including delivery) could only be described as outstanding.
Then Granny-Anne acquired a rather nice bureau to take the place of a slightly larger computer desk which, together with her desktop PC, was made redundant by the arrival of the inevitable laptop. Our old printers have also departed in recent months; hers died through lack of use and mine through old age. We now have one such device between us which, like its predecessors, does everything except make the coffee.
And of course, I almost forgot, we got rid of the car last week.
So, what’s next? Well, The Government have a scheme to insulate the homes of ancient citizens like us free of charge (they do get some things right!). The cavity walls have been done and all that remains is the additional loft insulation to meet the current standards. Then we need to get the exterior woodwork of the house repainted or replaced by “plastic” substitutes. The latter might be preferable but some estimates will be needed. Last year, contractors approached us suggesting replacement or covering the existing wood with “plastic”. I did a bit of research online and was ready when they came back to give an estimate. I had decided against covering as I though that it would hasten rather than solve the problem of deteriorating wood. So I asked for an estimate for complete replacement. Having inspected the house and measured it roughly the salesperson did a few calculations and came up with a price of £3,600 – which I declined immediately. She then did a few more sums and suggested £1,800. I turned that down as well. So far as I am concerned, anyone who can halve their estimate in a couple of minutes and without any change in specifications, has been trying to “pull a fast one” and I don’t do business with them – at any price.
Having priced up all the materials (at retail prices) I estimated that the job shouldn’t cost much more than £1,200-£1,500 depending on how long it takes – and I reckoned that two men could do it easily in three days, maximum. Whether we can do this job during 2010 remains to be seen.
What we can do this year – and I started a few days ago – is repaint the interior of the house. It won’t be difficult but it will be incredibly tedious. I cannot press on with it for 12 hours per day as I might have done a few years ago but progress will be steady and continuous. I am aiming to finish most of it during February, leaving just two rooms until the autumn. The MP4 player will be working hard for the duration of this task.
Now the fun begins.
Having discarded the automobile I can now get rid of other things that were car-related. For example, the Raleigh “IKEA” folding bicycle, about which I have written frequently in this blog, can now go. I had intended to carry it in the boot of the car for use on local exploration trips in places which were too far from home to be within my cycling range.
Then there are roof bars bicycle racks and numerous small items such as umpteen sets of spanners and sockets and other hand tools.
I was a bit surprised to discover that I had no great feelings about it one way or the other on seeing the car towed away. I had more or less lost interest when it was vandalised just over a year ago and I knew that routine maintenance was about to become expensive, and that was before a new problem appeared back in December which completely undermined my confidence in the car’s reliability.
I don’t rule out another car completely if we really need one but at present the cost of ownership (even before we buy fuel) cannot be justified by our likely annual mileage.
Decisions, decisions…
That’s it! I’ve done it now! I have got rid of my car. Well, actually, not quite but I have asked the disposal company to come and take it away.
This was a difficult decision, though totally logical. The car, a 1988 BMW 318i, has covered less than 59,000 miles in its 22 years and though in very good condition for its age (at least until the vandals attacked it just over a year ago) it may not pass its May 2010 MoT Test without some expenditure and I think it will be just the start of a series of repairs and replacements which will make the already unjustifiable annual cost even more so.
We do not need a car. Cardiff Bus provide free services to ancient individuals like me, every 7-8 minutes from a stop about 50 yards from our house and these will take us to all the important local destinations. Also, almost every week, my ever-helpful daughter drives Granny Anne to do the weekly shopping – followed by a light lunch here and a good old chat for a couple of hours before my grandsons have to be collected from school. So in the past twenty-one months we have averaged just 60 miles per month in our own car and this has fallen to 20 miles per month in the past five months.
Set against this, after 48 years of accident and claim-free driving my insurance premium is going up annually in leaps and bounds and, for third party, fire and theft, now exceeds the value of the car by a good margin. The governments “road tax” is simple robbery, no other word for it, and not even spent on the roads. Fuel is a ridiculous price (again, mostly tax) and the total motoring costs cannot be justified by our low mileage – on the rare accasion that it might be necessary it would pay us to take a taxi.
After 48 years of motoring (I had hoped to make it 50) it was not an easy decision but actually, I am rather pleased that I will no longer be paying excessive sums of money to parasitic motor insurers and undeserving governments.
Henry feeding
It is now the morning of January 12th and look what happened just five minutes ago!
Henry has had a daily bath since he woke from hibernation – still showing no inclination to drink – but he has not forgotten how to eat. By chance I caught him nibbling a lettuce leaf a few minutes ago so rushed to get a couple of fresh leaves and then held them for him as he demolished each in turn. I have noticed in past years that he will ignore food for much longer after waking from hibernation unless someone holds it for him. Once he shows any interest at all in food I like to encourage him and then I know that it is all systems go.
Henry 2010
Ever since there had been any risk of frost, Henry, in his customised “house”, had been in hibernation in a partitioned section of our garage, where a thermostatically controlled heater had ensured that the temperature had never fallen too close to freezing. However, I was not certain that the heater could cope if outside temperatures were 3-4 degrees lower than the -6 being forecast for tonight – and forecasts can be wrong.
So it was decision time and I decided to bring Henry indoors and allow him to warm up gradually until he showed some signs of life and then apply the usual annual procedure.
If you are wondering what on earth I am talking about, let me explain as briefly as I can. Tortoises hibernate from autumn to spring every year, and this process is triggered by a reduction in light levels and average temperatures. As cold-blooded creatures, their body temperature is the same as that of their surroundings. During hibernation at a suitably low temperature, body functions slow right down to almost zero so that the nutrient reserves accumulated in the summer will last until waking up time in the spring. Waking up should be triggered by rising temperatures to coincide with a time when food will be ready and waiting in the wild. But tortoises did not originate in the UK and are not able to cope with our climate all the year round. Henry seems to hibernate a bit early in the autumn (not surprising after last year’s summer) and then wake automatically after about 16-18 weeks when the UK climate is anything but suitable.
I am no tortoise expert but I must be doing something right because Henry hasn’t complained over the past 25+ years. To me it is still a minor miracle each year when he wakes up. This year’s miracle happened yesterday, January 8th.
After a good soak in a tepid bath, Henry is content to stay wrapped up in his "bath towel".
Henry's "house" the rear of which is a plain Perspex window, with one wire mesh front door and the other Perspex. That is the "basking lamp" at the front and the green plastic tray on top is used as a bath.
As soon as Henry has had a few hours to get used to being awake again I give him a bath in plain, tepid water. This should encourage him to drink and helps him to get warm and if the water feels only slightly warm to the touch that seems to be enough . We don’t want a lightly boiled tortoise, just a very gently warmed one. No doubt if it was too warm, Henry would climb out of his shallow plastic bath with something approaching alacrity. Instead, he seems to enjoy it, settling down in his bath with the water up to his chin without moving at all for anything up to 15-20 minutes. This is all very well for him but it means that I have to remove some water from time to time and replace it with warmer water as the whole bath cools. Some tortoises are just spoilt rotten!
I have never seen Henry drink, even in hot summer weather, but knowing him he probably takes a sip or two when I am not looking just to keep me worrying. So I keep up the daily bath routine at least until he is eating again (usually after about five days) and although water is a major constituent of many of his foods I can ensure that he gets more by putting it on his leafy foods.
This year I have set up a “basking lamp” for Henry. This consists of a low wattage bulb fitted in an old photographic lamp and attached to a tall lamp stand. The light, and gentle warmth, from the lamp is aimed at part of Henry’s “house” and acts as his private “sun”. Like any celeb worthy of the name he has spent time in his personal sun lounge already and, in between these basking sessions, eats and then buries himself in a darker corner to sleep for a while. This arrangement eliminates last year’s problem when daylight was frequently poor and temperatures barely adequate. In such conditions tortoises tend to become sluggish and in danger of hibernating again. This must not be allowed to happen simply because they have not had the summer months in which to replenish their reserves – so if they hibernate again they are very likely to die.
- I think Joshi is a super specimen. I wouldn’t have a clue how to make something like this.
During 2009 my daughter, Jennie, set herself numerous craft projects (as shown on her blog), many of which were intended as Christmas presents for family members and friends. My presents included a crochet tortoise, a marvellous piece of work and a splendid specimen. The idea was that he would keep me company while Henry was in hibernation. Apparently his name is Joshi and he is low-maintenance, requiring neither light nor heat nor hibernation. I must introduce him to Henry!
The Gurkhas, a new campaign
A new campaign has been launched in support of the Gurkhas. I hope to see it more widely publicised in our national press over the next few days but, meanwhile, a full explanation can be found http://bit.ly/7AKwiV .
A hefty prod
Much as I enjoy painting, I need a pretty hefty prod to get me started. Perhaps the problem is that I need convincing that there is any point in my painting at all. Perhaps it is partly that, when I do get started, it is more of a technical exercise rather than the fulfilment of some arty vision.
Perhaps the real problem is that I haven’t a clue what I am doing other than making marks with paint on canvas or board and hoping that the end product might just amount to a passable illusion of the person or object being painted. It is as simple, and as difficult, as that.
Sometimes the hefty prod arrives quite unexpectedly, as it did a few days ago when I found this little oil sketch that has been hiding in one of the many mysterious cardboard boxes in our garage. I had forgotten that I had painted it. Like the very few others that have been anywhere near promising, it was a little sketch (4 x 3 inches) that I had produced in about 20 minutes or so, that is, quickly.
This discovery was the hefty prod that set me thinking about a fresh start on one of the four paintings that are, supposedly, “in progress” at the moment. Well, I can’t just sit down at the easel and start straight in. First, I need to re-examine the painting, which has been facing the wall since I ceased work on it a couple of weeks ago. So, in a rare, patient, frame of mind, I sit, clipboard with paper on knee and pencil in hand, a few feet from the painting so that I do not see too much minor detail. It is a portrait and I am still at the stage where I am trying to get an accurate tonal drawing. So I am trying to see what is wrong with it and listing each defect in turn and what I think needs to be done. For reasons that I haven’t thought much about just yet, I have to do this assessment quite separately from any attempt to apply paint. A day, or maybe a week, later I will find another suitable time to make a bit more progress. The task of working out where and why the paint is needed has been done and now I can concentrate on mixing and applying paint.
I like painting but I need to do it in easy stages and keep it simple. Perhaps that should tell me something!
New links
From time to time I delete a few links from this blog and insert new ones. Neither additions nor deletions are necessarily permanent. The idea is to limit the total number of links while still guiding my visitors to “new” blogs and websites that have caught my attention for one reason or another, if only temporarily.
I have been shuffling the links again recently and have added the following:
Karin Wells Studio - interesting content and not all of it art and painting.
Carolee S. Clark - a painter with an attractive style.
Twitter – needs no introduction.
Nick Robinson’s Newslog - a good source of commentary on UK politics.
The Cycling Lawyer - for expert commentary on the legal issues relevant to cyclists.
Cycle Social - a site with a difference for cyclists of all kinds, sporting, road, commuting, leisure, slow, whatever. The site is relatively new but growing steadily and looking forward to a relaunch early in the New Year. It has enormous potential for cyclists and local clubs who have the inagination and initiative to use it. I signed up (free) and put myself on the “Members Map” and look forward to meeting (and cycling with) other local members.
Watching for Henry
In theory, Henry (our tortoise) could emerge from hibernation in about two weeks time in the middle of December but exactly when this will happen is anyone’s guess. Some “experts” say that you should wake a tortoise after twelve weeks, otherwise there is a risk that his/her reserves will have been used up and he/she will be too weak to survive. Yet Henry has been known to hibernate for 14-16 weeks in the past without ill effects and has always woken up in his own good time.
Now that, at last, there is a risk of frost within days, Henry’s winter home (a converted rabbit hutch) has been moved from the main part of our garage – which is neither insulated nor heated – to a partitioned section of it where a thermostatically controlled heater keeps the temperature a few degrees above freezing. Within his house, Henry has tucked himself away in the middle of a pile of hay, and his house is covered by a couple of dust sheets so that it remains ventilated but free of draughts. How pampered can one tortoise get!
By checking daily from now on I will notice immediately he wakes up as he will emerge from his pile of hay. My guess is that he will reappear in the first week of January. Watch this space!
Keyboard troubles
Reading the Town Mouse blog today reminded me of my own, usually impatient, efforts to clean my laptop keyboard. Once, approaching the task with enthusiasm and a brand new yellow duster, I managed to remove half-a-dozen keys at a stroke. I never discovered a way to refit them but fitting a replacement keyboard was easy.
My present problem is much more irritating because this laptop is less than two years old and the problem started several months ago (but outside the guarantee period, naturally). Quite why T I O L and N should have been the first to wear away I don’t know but wouldn’t you think they could make a keyboard that didn’t do this? I never saw this problem after many years of use on any of the typewriters that I owned, and they all got far more pounding than any computer keyboard.
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