A chippy day

Well this was the day I’d been waiting for all week. A whole day of carpentry at the hands of Manu.   The man is a trained electrician, but he is finding more work as a general builder. And I’m all for it. He arrives early, gets his head down and just charges through the list.

Here’s the first shameful picture to get out of the way. Only when you see the before shot can you appreciate the ‘after’.   This small sloping terrace outside the studio has been the repository of all sorts of junk for months.   Things accumulate. But if you glimpse the blue sky in the corner you can see that it was a beautifully sunny but cold day. Perfect for getting heavy bits of wood and chipboard into the studio and onto the walls.

Manu started on the chipboard while I started on this mess. It took hours!

And I had to show the poor man just how dinky my design for the staging was.   He didn’t reel back in horror at my Heath Robinson type construction, but did dismantle them to make them more secure.

I have used all the last bits of wood from the ceiling in the living room of the main house – cobbled together, but they will do.

And while Manu was installing those I found all the pots and seed trays and recycled plastic containers and gave them their first ever scrubbing.   The kitchen ressembled an art installation. But I am determined not to put anything in this beautiful studio that isn’t clean, clear of pests and mess and orderly.

By the end of Manu’s day – and believe me by the end there I was asking for hooks in walls, extra strengthening of the potting table, and advice on how to cover the bench with lino.   The best 150 euros I’ve spent in ages.

I didn’t get the whole area cleared away. So will hold off taking photos.   And Leslie comes tomorrow to help with digging so I may not get things picture perfect until Sunday.

To finish the day I plodded down to the stables to haul out the deer cloches that I had enthusiastically stored away a month earlier.   The deer have had a good rampage through the veg alas.   And even eating the leeks down to their stumps. Which is a terrible shame as they were to be my decorative alliums next summer.   But at the rate they are suffering, I won’t get much next year.