Seb Palmer

It’s wonderfully warm and sunny out, today. So we spent a bit of time in the garden.

Ah, the simple pleasures! Heinz cream of tomato soup with buttered toast, in the garden.

Each year the wisteria growing over the green room frame gets more established. It hasn’t flowered yet.

We love how sunlight enlivens the structure; the glowing natural lines of vegetation contrasting with the man-made geometry of the structure.

I think we’re due a bumper crop, fruit wise, this coming year. Certainly the apple, pear and fig trees are all pretty fecund.

And the bees and other pollinators seem to like the garden as much as we do.

This afternoon I removed the masking tape, from the newly repainted feature wall, started to repopulate the room with all the stuff.

Jus ol’ Tom back up on this wall, so far. There’s a filing cabinet in’t corner, that needs to come out, and live elsewhere. I also need a better way to store the bull fiddle.

The main light in the room is an ugly glaring naked bulb. That needs sorting, ASAP! I wonder, can I get something that’ll attach directly to the thread visible in this pic?

Blah…

The feature wall in the drum room was supposed to be ‘Dragon’s Lair’ blue. The same as the Guest Room. But summat went awry, and, as you can see below, we wound up with two different shades of blue. Bummer!

At the top of this post is the final shit I took before turning in for the night. Turned out well! The above, by contrast, is the first pic, aka ‘Making a Start’…

So, I’ve obvs gone with a different colour, for this re-paint. The change was prompted by the moving of two full sets of bookshelves, out of the drum room. The colour is ‘French Mustard’, once again from B&Q’s Valspar range.

The lighting in this room is awful. And it’s cramped beyond credulity. Which makes working in there pretty hard going! Still, with Frog Tape and plenty of patience, I’ve got one coat down.

I’m glad I opted for a full tin of paint. I nearly went with just two sample pots. That’d’ve been less than half the cost. But it wouldn’t have been sufficient for two coats. And as you can see, this needs at least two coats.

I did wonder if I should’ve done a white undercoat? Painting on top of the dark blue was bound to create issues. Esp’ so as it’s also two differing shades of blue.

We’re now watching One Million Years B.C. Raquel Welch is mesmerising. Stunning! At some point, however, I’ll be off upstairs to do another – and I hope final? – coat.

It’s 11pm, and I’ve just finished the second coat. It’s still looking a bit uneven. But let’s see how it looks Tamara.

It’ll also doubtless look a lot better once the room itself is better organised. We’re in a permanent state of flux, at present, getting the Blue Room ready for Antonio, with lots of stuff floating around whilst we try and reorganise.

The above was an accidental snapshot. But I’ll keep it, ‘cause it shows the colour, to some extent, with less distracting detail.

Back to One Million Years B.C. I have to say, I like this film a lot. Esp’ for certain aspects, such as the soundtrack – both sound design and music (much grunting, little speech – fab!) – various aspects of visual design, and stuff like the dinosaur animations (Ray Harryhausen). Oh, and of course, for Raquel Welch, in a furry bikini!

It’s nearing midnight, and the volcano has just erupted (in the movie; that’s not a euphemism for r reaction to Andress!). The film ends! Brilliant. Must’ve been something special back in the day.

We had dinner in the garden yesterday evening. Lovely!

As the light started to fade, Teresa had an inspiration…

The moon was out, looking alien yet lovely. After dinner, some vintage Partridge. Lovely stuff. ‘Not my words, the words of Shakin’ Stevens.’

Went to bed about 10.30-‘ish. Slept very quickly. That in itself is unusual. Pooped from all the DIY, furniture and book/stuff moving, I reckon.

Butt… woke up at 2 am. It’s now 4.15 am. And I haven’t slept at all in that intervening two hours plus.

Arthritic pain in left hand first finger remains excruciating. Regular co-codamol only dampens it. It’s not reducing the inflammation

Mind is active. I’m thinking I’ll re-paint the drum room feature wall. The blue in there isn’t working. For starters there are two non-matching shades. I think I’ll go instead for a mustard yellow:

B&Q opens 7am. Think I’ll be awake till then. I’ll buy some Valspar French Mustard, and some masking tape.

Maybe just read until then?

LATER…

Well, I eventually fell asleep, around 5am. It’s now 9.45. So I got in a good shift of sleep after all.

Friday, and this promises to be the final day – day eleven!? – of this built-in storage build. It’s been fun!

This upper area is theoretically for suitcases, and suchlike. But having seen the enormity of some of Antonio’s cases, I think they might be better on the floor!

The lower area is subdivided, as can be seen above. Food related tech gubbins at right, clothing and other misc storage at left.

The picture directly below is how it looked during the touching up (paint) and masking tape removal stage, earlier today.

We can and probably will do more. In the fullness of time. Poss’ doors, maybe even another shelf, in the top part? And maybe doors and a little set of (shoe?) shelves in the lower left section?

And/or a curtain – poss in this vein? (above) – to draw a veil across the whole lot, should the tenant or guest(s) so desire.

After a short delivery shift, around lunch time, I stopped to read a bit in the environs of, and generally admire, Crowland, or ‘Croyland’ Abbey.

Really enjoying this latest book.

The main stained-glass window here is pretty spectacular.

I came out, into a beautiful sunny day, and sat under a tree, with this terrific view. And there I finished the chapter on St Paul’s, and the fires of 1666 and The Blitz.

I’m growing to love and appreciate graveyards better, as I visit more and more churches.

I took the above shot by accident, as I was putting my iPhone down. I went to delete it, and then thought… no, that’s actually rather lovely.

As is so often the case, a visit to an ecclesiastical building proves well worth the effort. Lifting the spirits.

Mixed up some ‘mud’, and started filling holes n’ cracks, etc. The biggest was the one in the coving, at top left in the above pic. Aside from that it was all little ‘uns (screw-hole recesses, etc).

Having filled in most (but not all of) the various holes, I got out the Frog Tape, and masked off everything. Ready for an undercoat.

Masking stuff off can be a bit time consuming. And it doesn’t even always work brilliantly. But it’s all part of the process. And there’s a certain satisfaction in doing a job right, step by step.

And then it was simply a matter of slapping down a coat of ‘brilliant white’. I love how paint transforms a project. It really looks so much better now (below). And almost finished.

As anticipated, both the coving and the framework of the storage unit look sooo much better, now they’re painted. And the various multi-segment sections don’t show as such.

I also did a few dabs of Dragon’s Lair blue, to tidy things up. The next (and almost final*) step, for now, will be a brilliant white gloss coat, on the wood only.

We may add a curtain, or doors, at some later point. But for now it’s just going to be an open structure.

* I still need to add the pole(s) or rail(s), for hanging clothes from. I’ll most likely do that tomorrow.

LAST THING…

Well, we went for a curry, to The Hippodrome. That’s an historic thing in itself. As we haven’t been there for over fourteen months.

On the way there I bought the metalwork parts for the clothes rail, from Screwfix. Teresa encouraged me to get this done, before calling it a night. One less job for the morrow.

I had to add a ‘thickening’ disc, to the partition wall. Otherwise the ply wouldn’t have been thick enough to mount the pole-holding fixtures. Having done one side like that, I opted for symmetry, and did the same on t’other side n’all.

The working space was uncomfortably tight. It was nice that Teresa helped me at this stage. And took a few action snaps!

And just to get a feel for how it’ll look/work, I put in a couple of coat hangers. Very little left to do now. Mostly tidying the room, in readiness for Antonio’s arrival, on Monday.

Crivens… sh*t’s gettin’ real!

I love Santana, and I love Alice (and John Coltrane). They’ve both made some truly sublime music. Mostly separately. But also together. ‘Going Home’, off 1973’s Welcome is a case in point.

I’ve finally acquired a hard copy of this, after many moons of only having it on mp3. Prompted primarily by a FB post on it, by my best buddy, Dan Ellis.

This is a Vocalion SACD reissue (poss 2017?). But today I listened to it in my car. Not ideal. But I was working. So needs must!

The stellar ensemble includes Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Armando Peraza, as well as Santana, his keyboardist of that period, Tom Coster, and, on soprano sax and flute, Jules Broussard.

Alice Coltrane not only plays harp and keys, but supplies one composition (?), and handles the fantastic string arrangements. And her Wurlitzer solo on (?)? Bonkers!

Phew! This is, I think, astonishing. Musical perfection. Beautiful chords, on what sounds like a Rhodes. A triangle. And a beautiful half-time shuffle, with fab roto-tom fills.

T-shirt du jour:

A Chinese lady in Waterside Antiques had this groovy bag. Trying to find one to buy in the UK isn’t proving easy! Apparently it’s based on illustrations by one Alison Oliver, for BabyLit, a series of books that render classic literature in a form for babies!