Saturday March 6thLast year I installed a bird feeder at the top of the garden adjacent to the bird bath. It was a conventional pole with a decorative cross beam at the top from which to suspend two bird feeders.
There was a problem. Birds dropped seeds which landed in the flower border. Big fat greedy Pigeons (aka. Flying shit machines) are ground feeders and kept visiting to eat the dropped seed and thus kept the border free of seed. But in so doing, they kept trampling Libby’s plants flat.
All attempts to deter the pigeons failed and I made a mental note to do something about it.
So last Saturday I turned a couple of lengths of 15 mm copper pipe and some solder fittings into a cantilever bird feeder mounted from a concrete fence post to suspend the birdfeeders well above head height over the lawn. The tits and finches now drop seed onto the lawn which the pigeons make a good job of cleaning up. It also eliminates the previous feeder post which was an intrusion in the border.
Sunday March 7thNow that I am a master-baker (spelled correctly!) – I make all our bread in a Russell Hobbs bread maker. After some experimentation I developed a recipe using Aldi strong bread flour which costs £0.59 a bag rather than pay £2.00 for the same size pack at the main supermarkets. The Aldi bread flour has slightly lower gluten content and requires less water.
However – neither my wife Libby nor I are brilliant at slicing bread perfectly - so a few months ago I made a slicing guide using plywood. It didn’t last because the plywood de-laminated.
Amazon sell one made from Bamboo which is a much harder wood but it is expensive at £30
https://tinyurl.com/3cr3ye2f .
I searched the web for bamboo sheet but it is equally expensive – but I discovered that Wilko sell bamboo cutting boards for £5.00 each, so I ventured into our local Wilko and bought two from which I made my own slicing guide which works fine. That kept me gainfully employed for the whole afternoon.
Monday March 8thAs you may recall from a post last year, Libby has angina and had an angiogram more than a year ago because she had developed not just angina, but a dull ache from her heart after even slight exercise. This revealed that she had 4 arteries which were severely blocked but the location of the blockages made fitting stents too risky and the specialist deferred taking any action until he had reviewed with cardiac colleagues whether to recommend a heart bypass.
Then came covid lockdown - and she heard no more in 2020. However – out of the blue - a few days ago she had a phone call from the hospital to advise they could do another angiogram on the 8th March to help decide what action to recommend. She attended yesterday, they found that one of the arteries was now completely blocked and they managed to fit a balloon stent. She is now back at home but banned from driving and on light duties for at least a week. I am her official carer (slave).
While she was at the hospital for the day, I needed something to do to occupy my mind, so I got stuck into tidying the garage and organising all my tools. It is my domain and accommodates not just my tools and DIY stuff, but our booze and my two deep fat fryers because for some strange reason she dislikes the smell of fish or chicken or chips being fried in the kitchen. Our ice maker is also in the garage because it takes up too much real estate if located on the kitchen worktop. The garage thus carries the heady fragrance of various DIY materials mixed with sunflower oil in the fryers. Pure heaven!.
Tidying the garage is still a work in progress and I have yet to organise the stuff on the shelves and tidy up the electrical cables – but is a lot tidier than it has ever been.
Once I finish getting the garage ship-shape I have no idea what to fill my time with. I'm sure Libby will solve that dilemma for me and keep me busy in both the house and garden.
