We have had a very busy day.
We leapt out of bed almost before dawn, at about ten o’clock this morning, because we had got so much that we needed to do.
We did all the usual morning messing about of emptying the dogs and going to the bank, and then went to Asda and then over to the farm.
I bought lots of things in Asda, even, I confess, some plants and some potting compost because of wanting to refill my hanging baskets.
Usually I grow things from seed, I almost never buy plants, because of hippy ideals about being at one with the natural green things around me, also because it is cheaper.
I have planted some things this year, but not much, and it has been so cold that not very much has come up. Last year I filled my hanging baskets with first year plants like lupins and poppies and freesias that I did grow from seed, because of it being a handy out-of-the-way place to start them off, and this year they are all splendidly well established so I have moved them into the flower beds. This has meant that my hanging baskets are all empty, and I have no successful starter plants to put in them.
Asda were selling off begonias cheap at twelve healthy-looking specimens for a fiver, so we bought some, which meant we had to issue dreadful threats to the dogs to make sure they didn’t jump about all over them before we actually got to the farm.
We were at the farm doing things to the camper van, which is becoming urgently in need of our attention.
Mark has been rebuilding bits of the engine, and we thought we might move it out into the sunshine to air and then do some inspired modifications to the inside of it.
He was not at all sure if he had fixed the engine problem, since he was almost entirely certain that the problem was that it needed a new engine, and the fixing done so far involved something to do with bashing valves and pistons back into shape which is the sort of thing you have got to do when you are on a tight budget.
It was extremely reluctant to start. At first he turned the key whilst I squirted something mysterious into a tube in the engine, but after a surprise burst of flame which singed the hairs off the back of my hand I refused to co-operate with that arrangement any more, and we swapped places and I turned the key whilst he did the lethally dangerous business with the flammable materials.
It still wouldn’t start, so he got the dumper truck and we pulled it out backwards into the sunshine, being careful not to run over the stupid dogs, where I opened all of the windows and he faffed about under the bonnet.
I hung the bedding over an impromptu washing line to air out, and actually it was all remarkably dry and not at all outdoors damp at all, and smelled rather nicely of garden.
Then I started to unscrew the kitchen unit, which we want to change because it is not quite right. It was built by Mark in France years ago, and although it was beautiful in a way that is personal to us but that everybody else thinks is indicative of a marked lack of taste, it is also bashed and scruffy and not at all camper-van-shop gleaming, so we are going to rebuild it.
The lack of taste problem has been because of the pink fridge and bright yellow shelves and stick on plastic vine leaf mural, which I have loved for years, but which makes other people either politely surprised, or rude, depending on how well they know us.
I found a nice looking sink at the back of his workshop, actually, that I thought we could use, but when I picked it up it turned out that he had sawn bits of the draining board off for use in his hydrogen generator, so we will have to get another one, because I do not want a sawn-off draining board in my newly lovely camper van.
Whilst I was doing this sort of thing Mark got the engine started, but after a while there was a surprising pop and the cam belt snapped, which made him swear an awful lot, although he said afterwards that another important thing still goes round, so it might be all right. I am not sure what the other important bit is, because I have forgotten, but he showed me and it does go round, so maybe things will be all right in the end and we won’t need to buy a new engine on his credit card, which is what he is hoping.
Afterwards we had got to tow it back into the shed with the dumper, which was not at all easy, also he wanted it to go in pointing the other way, so we had got to tow it up the hill and roll it back round the corner, and then tow it forward past the shed, and then up the hill again but pointing the other way, and then roll it backwards down the hill and into the shed, which we did.
I drove the dumper a bit, which was exciting because the brakes didn’t seem to work, and also there was a great deal of noise and black smoke, but it all worked out all right in the end, which was good, because a camper van is an awfully big thing to have stuck in a place where you don’t want it to be.
We had got to go then, because of getting ready for work.
When I got home I had got an email from Oliver which I have pasted here for your benefit.
mum horse riding was rubbish it felt like a dedention but on horse back we did not trot once
😤 me wanting to trot like this👉🏇
See you tomorrow.
