I like going on hiking holidays, ascending the odd fell and enjoying the challenge of scrambling up crags and hillsides to finally be rewarded by the view from the peak. Sadly, the Flâneur Husband doesn’t really share this slightly masochistic fetish, so it’s a good thing that I can now enjoy all the thrills of a scrambling hill-climb in the privacy of our own kitchen when I want to make my morning coffee:
Getting to the kitchen sink this morning was quite a climb – and perhaps not very dignified to look at, had any spectators been around – and I sort of wish I could have had my coffee FIRST and THEN climbed Mount Debris!
Indeed, we are spending the Easter week tearing out the old kitchen – though we won’t be installing a new one just yet. We have to re-plaster walls and ceiling and then change the floor boards before we can install a new kitchen, so it’s quite a project and we will get through it by the tested approach of “step by step” (“Ooh, baby”, as New Kids On The Block would have added when I was a pre-teen). The Flâneur Husband has this weird notion that the two success criteria are:
A: We get a new kitchen
B: We have fun doing it
Whereas I am much more realistic in my approach and define my criteria of success as:
A: We get a new kitchen
B: Neither of us files for a divorce
(This sort of DIY job is always going to put a strain on a relationship in my opinion, even more so than, say, going to a family reunion or a trip to IKEA.)
Anyway, I’m sure you will all be glad to know that I made it safely to the sink and back (and got only one rusty nail up my foot while climbing the daunting Mount Debris) and am now reclining in the safety and comfort of the sofa!
So, not much gardening in this blog entry – but then there’s still snow on the ground and nothing to do in the garden anyway. However, the solitary cobea scandens seedling that I posted previously has now been joined by one other seedling – and a third seems to be craning its neck in preparation for emergence, so that will have to do for “spring” right now.
On Saturday, though, I’m heading up to the garden anyway to spend some time chopping up the trees that the Flâneur Husband and his friend took down last weekend. I haven’t been up there since the first weekend in March, so it’s about time I went and gave the weather a good talking-to and told it to spring-up and be done with snow and freezing temperatures day and night!
Wish most of Northern Europe start to spring up soon! Good luck with the new kitchen. Despite the initial mess it must be exciting to know you’ll have a new kitchen soon. It’ll be worth it 🙂
I’m sure it will be lovely once it is all done, but right now it’s a right old mess, and since we live on the 4th floor it all has to be carried a very long way down – and when we buy materials and units we will then have to carry them an equally long way up… Good exercise, I’m sure, but hard on the lallies!
Climbing a fell or climbing mount debris…. I’d go for the fell anyday!
True, but then we’d still have a crappy old kitchen, so I guess this will be worth it in the end… It’s all about the goal, not the process!
I’ll think of you tackling the kitchen this Easter whilst we’re decorating. We’ve embarked on a whole spring clean/decorating the entire house combo. The weather has been so rubbish here, bitterly cold and snow that we’ve used weekends to work our way through the house. The final push is this weekend and then everything will be done. There is always a point when you start something like your kitchen when the mess makes you wonder whether it was worth it. Of course at that point it is too late. A nice new shiny kitchen will be lovely though. So it’s not just the UK suffering a prolonged winter then. I’m getting impatient here. Feel like there might be a mass exodus of gardeners from the country if this weather continues. Have a lovely Easter. 🙂
Well, we’re taking it slow so there will also be time to relax and enjoy some days off… We’ve now cleared out the old kitchen and removed the tongue-and-groove panelling from walls and ceiling so we can actually see what we have to deal with, and next step is to get a plumber in to move one of the building’s main hot water pipes so we can conceal it under a new plaster ceiling. Then comes all the wiring, because that was definitely not up to building code standards – let alone common sense safety standards!
So this project will continue through April, and if it runs into May then so be it. We’ve left the sink in place, we have a cooker, and the fridge is standing in the dining room, so we can still cook.
Today, though, is set aside for seeing good friends – and Friday is set aside for a hangover.
OH is on-call for work this weekend so we can’t do a great deal so it makes sense to do the painting but we are off the theatre tomorrow night. Have a great time.
Ah the home or garden projects and the relationship strain…been there. No gardening here as the snow melted and it is too wet, but some blooms are appearing. That looks like a quite a job.
The snow has nearly completely gone here, but the ground is frozen in most places, so I will have to see if today’s plus temperatures will thaw it enough for me to be able to plant some stuff or whether it will just be a tidying-up day…