And food.
"O stop, stop," cried the Mole in ecstacies: "This is too much!"
"Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat seriously. "It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it VERY fine!"
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| Paddy or Phil? You be the judge. |
Next morning was balmy and pleasant, and some of us were up very early. Others eventually trickled through, and breakfast was a do-it-yourself affair. Kay and Edwina took turns with the hay-making on the front lawn while the others set up trestles and whatnot. Then, with Phil briefing the team, and leading by example, we spent the day scraping, sanding, and priming weather boards. I say "we" but some did more than others. Kay, Claudia and I found ourselves on an essential excursion to Cheviot for extra equipment, and later Edwina and I had a very successful expedition to the Macintosh-Harding lockup. All this time, Phil and Ian were the stand-out workers du jour, which was no mean feat because most of the day we were being gently pot-roasted at about 30 degrees.
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| Inspecting the east wall |
To elaborate on the visit to Mac's shed, I need to explain that Ed had some keys, but she wasn't sure if they were the right ones. Of course, the padlock was stiff, so even when we had the right key in it, a great deal of persistence and teamwork was needed to ease the thingy out of the whatsit - especially given that we didn't know whether it was the right key. It was a great triumph to get inside.
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| Look at that smooth greensward! |
Then, what treats in store! I'm sure the shed really was very neat pre-earthquake... But on this day it was about 100 degrees and full of cobwebs and (sorry Ed), chaos. The big frustration for Ed was that she (or someone) had lost the keys to the car parked inside. This had been the source of much speculation and, dare I mention it, marital friction. We peered through the car windows looking frustratedly at suitcases of belongings that couldn't be reached. I went through every key on Paddy's bunch in the hope that one of them would open the car, but no luck. Sooo, we gave up on the car, liberated a few priceless items from the shed and were about to leave when, glory of glories, Ed spotted the car keys on a shelf by the door. (This find was a mixture of unknown quantities of intuition, logic, and luck. The existentialist in me wonders about the secret life of missing objects - sitting waiting to be picked up for two whole years, and oblivious to our joy.) Anyway, there was much delight as Ed was able to OPEN the car and GET STUFF OUT. Happy reunions ensued.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, good progress was being made. We all laboured on until it was time to down tools. The evening was one of those you look back on with incredulity - great food, perfect weather, and no arguments.
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| A perfect evening |
The next day, the weather came from the east in that coastal way that is very hard to like. Fog and drizzle set in with single-minded determination. Ian and Phil continued to chip away at the last, east-facing wall - it needed extra work because the paint had cracked and hardened - while the mizzle drifted sideways very wetly. The rest of us were of course occupied with difficult and tedious indoor tasks such as drinking coffee and hoovering up flies.
So, to summarise for those who weren't there (lest we forget them), we had a successful bee. Thanks to all who attended and thanks also in advance to those who will come after us to finish the prepping and actually paint. We're legends!
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| Million dollar view, with dead pine |
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