Tag Archives: hornet

Thursday 28th June 2012 – ONE OF THE REASONS …

… and there are many of them, to be sure, as to why I keep a blog is that I can refer back to it and find out when I did something.

I forget all too easily these days what I’ve been up to and when I was up to it – and just remember, before you start laughing, that you will be as old as me too one of these days too.

So I looked back and found that it was exactly a week ago today that I planted the courgette, cucumber, gherkin etc seeds, and sowed some lettuce seed in pots.

And while I was sorting out the herb buckets (those nice heaps of oregano and tarragon have gone – cut down now and hanging up to dry in my attic) I happened to notice that the lettuce were growing.

Blimey! That was quick!

So they had a really good watering, and they need it too in this heat.

And so, out of curiosity, I went to look at the beds where I had planted the courgette etc seeds.

And guess what?

Absolutely! They are rearing their pretty little heads too.

There’s even some beetroot from what I planted a week earlier, but the carrots are once again doing nothing at all.

Anyway, it seems to be all go in the garden again.

I didn’t manage an early start today, unfortunately. It was so hot that at 03:00 I was still up and about and I would probably still be flat out on my back right now if a hornet hadn’t come in at about 08:45 and chased me around the bedroom.

Still, makes a change from Percy Penguin, who doesn’t feature in these pages half as much as she deserves, chasing me around the bedroom.

This afternoon I started to draw up the plans for the next stage of construction work, and began to make a list of the bits that I need. Right on cue, Rosemary rang me up and asked if I would be interested in going to the Brico Depot in Montlucon.

Seeing as how it won’t be very easy getting all of this wood onto Caliburn’s roof rack all on my own, and it’s no skin off my nose whether I go tomorrow or Saturday.

And when I heard that half a day’s gardening was the reward on offer, then that was it, mercenary that I am. It’s a good job I emptied out Caliburn yesterday, wasn’t it?

In between the surveying I dragged out the tabletop washing machine and did a load of washing seeing as I had a pile to do, it was gorgeous and warm, and the water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load for the surplus solar energy was at 60.5°C.

To finish off the day I treated myself to yet another solar shower seeing the temperature of the water in the black plastic solar hearing box had reached 41.5°C. And that was gorgeous too

It’s all go here right now, isn’t it?

    

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Wednesday 11th May 2011 – That blasted hornet …

… flew into my attic at 06:45 this morning. GRRRRRRR. I’m not standing for that and after a while when it settled on the floor I dropped an atlas on top of it. After a few minutes it staggered into the air a nd staggered out ouf the window, which I then closed and went back to bed. And I’ll close them again tonight when I go to bed. I’m not having this again.

home made balloon frame greenhouse les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd after being on the computer I went to hunt down some old demi-chevrons that I had lying around and made one of the sides of the greenhouse. This is how it will look, but with some diagonal sloping facings from back to front.

You’ll see that it’s divided into a front and back section. The front sction is for a window and the rear will have a door in it.

Building the four sides like this, fitting them together and then installing the windows is how I intend to do it, but if you imagine that instead of fitting windows I were to clad it with OSB and then put overlapping thin planks horizontally over the OSB, then that’s how you build a North American balloon-framed house.

Once you master the technique you can build anything out of it. I started off by building the beichstuhl as a balloon-frame and then graduated to building the verandah. After the greenhouse, I’m going to build a garden shed and then I might even graduate onto a double garage. You never know.

Late this afternoon we had clouds – and this evening there was some rain. I thought at first that we might even have an amount of rain worth collecting but it didn’t last long. I’ve given up worrying about the rain anyway – things will just have to take care of themselves.

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Monday 9th May 2011 – I WAS CHASED …

… around the bedroom this morning.

And not by Percy Penguin (who doesn’t feature in these pages half as often as she deserves) either, but by a blasted hornet.

And at 07:3 too. Does it have no respect?

Yes, the blasted thing found its way in all right, but could it heck find its way out. And so it decided to awaken me. And by a few of the things that I said to it, you’ll understand the definition of “a rude awakening”.

So having had an early start, I was able to have a good crack at things in here and be out in the garden as early as 11:15. That’s not something that happens every day either.

I managed a really good day in there too and accomplished quite a lot. I even managed to have a little shower too – and it would have been a big one had the water not run out – Brain of Britain having forgotten to fill it the last time.

So a nice, reasonably-clean me headed off to the Anglo-French group.

Back here though, my blog host is down for maintenance. So you age going to have to wait until tomorrow to read this rubbish, aren’t you?

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