Little words of wisdom

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

Little words of wisdom

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

Surprisingly good news!

We decided that it was definitely time to get an electrician to check out the electrics at St Abbs when another bulb died in the living room ceiling light, with a decidedly nasty smell of burning!  I contacted RS Merriman Ltd on Monday and a very nice young man called Ryan came out the next day.  He was extremely thorough, as you might expect, and the upshot was that actually the electrics were all classed as "satisfactory".  Well, apart from the cable to the consumer unit from the mains that is.  That isn't actually as horrifying as it sounds, so don't worry LOL  We don't have enough outlets for it to be a problem and when we have a new consumer unit fitted, as per Ryan's recommendation (and something we had already thought of, incidentally), the cable will be changed for the correct size.

Ryan came back out again on Wednesday to fit new ceiling lamp holders in place of the old light fittings that we inherited.  I've now been able to put up my own lightshades, which made me very happy 😊

Talking of consumer units, Ryan asked if I knew where it was.  Adrian and I thought this white box was the consumer unit ~ turns out it is only for the storage heaters LOL  Ryan and I scratched our heads for a while. We could see the cables from the mains, up there at the right of the photo behind a little wallpapered panel.  Logically, it looked like they were going into the cupboard under the stairs so he had a good look ~ nope, not in there.      

Turned out that what Adrian and I had thought was just another section of badly papered wall was actually disguising a door, behind which was the consumer unit!  Funnily enough, it had been installed back in 1985 by Merrimans.....before Ryan was born LOL  Of course, now that we know that's where it is we are scratching our heads wondering why we didn't see it in the first place!

A week late, I know, but these are the lovely flowers Beverly bought me for Mother's Day ~ they are still virtually as good as they were last week.  Sam sent me an Amazon gift card which I've used already ~ he knows the way to his mother's heart 😊

Beverly's card to me ~ Sam doesn't believe in sending cards for any occasion LOL

Little words of wisdom

Doing nothing...

Well, perhaps today I won't be doing anything much but I was a busy girl yesterday LOL 

I'm still plugging away at the arbour seat ~ my word, it doesn't look very big but there seems to be an awfully large expanse of wood to stain when I'm actually working on the thing!  I can't do a large amount in one go as it makes my back ache too much, but the back and underside have now had two coats and the sides one coat each.  I'm thinking that perhaps it would be a good "belts and braces" exercise to give the whole structure three coats of stain.  Once Vernon has fixed it in place for me, it won't be very easy to get to the back, but hopefully the shrubs in our neighbour's garden will help to protect it a little from the Orkney weather!  It's been laying face-down on the front lawn since we got here, so the inside is pretty damp at the moment.  It did start to dry out when Adrian and I turned the arbour on its side, so hopefully it won't take too long to dry out properly.  I will probably wait until it is fixed in its new position before staining the inside. 

It doesn't really take much concentration to do the staining, so my mind was having a very pleasant wander around the planting possibilities in the front garden.  It helped that I was actually out there and could start to visualise what I want to do. I do so love planting up my garden ~ it was a shame that I didn't really get to reap the rewards of the work I put into the garden of our old house.  Still, this time I will be able to plan, plant and watch the garden here at St Abbs grow and develop 😍

I'm going to start the mammoth altering-and-planting exercise along the left-hand side, as you look at the house from the road.  The weather is starting to get a little warmer already, and the days are drawing out, so the weeds will soon start to colonise all that now-open soil ~ I suspect that the old overgrown hedge kept them in check somewhat!  I had a lovely time yesterday, engrossed in a website that specialises in plants for shade, and have placed an order.  I am now waiting excitedly for said plants to arrive LOL

I'm going to have a lazy day today, though ~ Beverly is on her way over to cook dinner for Mother's Day.  This will be the first Mother's Day we've had together since she moved up here, so it will be a special day for us ~ I hope you all have a super Sunday, too 😊

Happy Mother's Day...

Mother and Child (detail from The Three Ages of Woman c.1905)
image from allposters.co.uk

Happy Mother's Day, sweeties 😗

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)

A glorious day

view from our front garden

These past couple of days have been lovely, so sunny and calm.  Adrian, Matty and I had a super walk first thing this morning.  We went a bit further than usual and Matty had a fab time with all the new smells.  He was pooped when we got home and has spent a large portion of the day snoozing!

I decided to make hay whilst the sun shone, and have been staining the arbour seat we brought with us from our previous home.  

Naturally I've forgotten to take any "before" photos of said seat, which seems to be par for the course these days, but I managed to find a photo of it online LOL  I was so thrilled with how fab the wheelie bin store looked at our old house that I've again used Black Ash from the Cuprinol Garden Shades range.  I'll take some photos when I've finished 😊 

 

I'll leave you with another photo of the view from our front garden ~ just look at all that sky!

Great excitement in Orkney today!

https://www.facebook.com/sandayranger/

Living in St Abbs

Another photo-heavy post, I'm afraid!  I should have taken photos of the piles of removal boxes we had to unpack but I completely forgot.  Oh well, suffice to say there were an awful lot of 'em 😉

We have lovely views from St Abbs of the Bay of Ireland and the Orphir Hills.  The light constantly changes ~ oh, how I wish I could paint!

The living room is much larger than in our previous house ~ the TV is now a fair bit further away LOL  The boxes behind Adrian's and my chairs are full of books.  We don't have any shelving to put them on yet.

Once our new heating system has been installed we will have the old storage heater removed, and the sofa can then be moved to the wall opposite its current position.  Eventually we are hoping to have a small multi-fuel stove installed behind where the sofa is at the moment.

I do love having windows on two sides of the room ~ my houseplants love it, too 😊

I did manage to unpack some of the books.....my dolls' house, knitting and crochet books LOL

Matty seems much more settled now.

There is more space to move about in our new dining room.

I was very happy to get my blue and white china back in the cabinet.  Mind you, I had a serious cull as I was unpacking the boxes, only keeping the pieces that I really love.

The storage heater in here isn't working, so it's a relief to have the electric fire to warm the room when we need it.

I even have enough space for two of my dolls' houses in here, even if they are unfinished!

There is a terrific draught through this window, a combination of a rotten unit and cracked glass.  Oh my, I am so looking forward to getting our new windows installed!

I wasn't going to inflict photos of the bathroom upon your delicate dispositions, but thought it would be a good "before" and "after" exercise.  Well, it will be once the bathroom has been sorted out 😉

The walls are terribly damp.....

.....because the loft-space above is so wet.  This is the side of the house with the leaking chimney.  Like I said previously, the dampness runs right down this side of the house.  We will feel much happier once the chimney has been repaired.

The washing machine and tumble-dryer are a bit "in-your-face" at the moment, but eventually I'm hoping we will be able to make a little utility room by altering the floor plan of the bathroom.

I'm using the white cabinet (which I had in our old house) for its original intended purpose, as a little larder.

We are making-do for now with a mini oven and a hotplate.

I'm dreaming of one day having a double butler's sink 😍

This rug, quite literally, took up the whole of the centre of our old kitchen floor ~ it actually touched the base units!  I have never had such a large kitchen as this LOL

Hubby being very industrious at the computer 😉

I love the way the bannister curves round the stairs.

It will be wonderful when this window is replaced, too.  The cold air drops down the stairs ~ I sit at the computer with a blanket wrapped round my legs!

It does let in lots of light, though.

The guest bedroom is stuffed with all my craft things at present.

Arthur, Archie and Fred like to take life easy LOL

I've got plants spread out all over the house at the moment!

Jane has a lovely view out of the window, especially now that the tree has been taken down.

Belinda, Bunty and Bertie also believe in taking life at a leisurely pace!

Adrian has now stripped off the wallpaper in the boxroom.

More plants!

We had fitted wardrobes in our old bedroom, so I bought a couple of hanging-rails to tide us over until we get round to having built-in cupboards put in.

Our bed is opposite the window, so we face the rising sun each morning 😊

When we have had the new windows fitted, we will have some simple Roman blinds put up.

Yet another little group of houseplants!

And to finish off yet another photo-epic post, this little chap was found by Vernon when he was taking out the hedge in the front garden.  He got a teensy wee bit caught in the chainsaw and was altogether in a very sorry state ~ goodness knows how long he had been left abandoned in the hedge.

But look at him now!  I felt so sorry for the sad-looking little mite, and just couldn't bring myself to throw him away.  So I stuck him in the washing machine with a load of laundry and hoped for the best.  He came out looking so much better than I could ever have hoped for!  I need to do a little bit of surgery on Tiny Ted's burst seams, and I may have to give him new pads on his hands and feet.  He looks very happy to be indoors now, though, living in the bowl of shells 😊