I started doing this diary in June. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

     

I didn't open my post today, it's been too distracting recently, so I'm saving it for tomorrow when I can't really do anything about it. I had to go into town this morning to collect laundry, buy diner food and get a new grate for the raeburn, the old one having fallen apart yesterday. It's just as well no-one uses the villager stove much, I'd never be out of Downhome Stoves. As it was, I went in today and was one of the women who work there immediately said "He has been out to you, hasn't he, please tell me he's been out?" she was remembering the problems I had trying to get one of them out to fix the riddler. Anyhow, they had the grate in stock and I bought some fire cement so that we can open up the bend in the pipe to clean it out and then re-cement the cover.

Lisa phoned not long after I got back and asked me what I was planning on doing this afternoon. I told her I was intending to play with the compost. She then said she would come over with her brush cutter and do some damage to the brambles and nettles. The compost job turned out to be different to what I had expected to be doing. I very soon realised that before there was any point in building separate boxes I needed to make the whole area accessible by wheelbarrow. Inevitably that involved more work than you would have thought possible and a completely different set of tools to the ones I had brought out there initially. Lisa turned up just as I was resorting to a hacksaw and after a cup of tea started hacking up the eventually-to-be vegetable plots. I continued my fence deconstructing and then barrowed in a few loads of half rotted hay and horse shit. All of this was badly hampered by my arm which was being a real nuisance today, every time I picked up the wheelbarrow the socket was coming right down past my elbow and would have fallen off if I hadn't been wearing the 'two-way stretch' - stocking device. Of course every time it did that the sensors went nuts and it was randomly opening or rotating just when I didn't want it to. I had to resort to taking out the batteries every time I picked up the wheelbarrow and that was a real pain. Added to this was the fact that every time I used the wheelbarrow, or anything with a handle, pitchfork, crowbar etc., the small piece of covering which I broke weeks ago would come unhinged from its one remaining hinge and require mending as soon as I let go. All the pulling off was rubbing the back of my elbow raw and the sensors were being fired off by what were probably just small spasms in the tired muscles. By the time Clare appeared I was just wanting to take it off but she suggested giving Princess another halter training session for "just ten minutes" which seemed like a good idea. Princess was fine outside the ring, she walked along beside me quite peacefully but once we were in there and Clare had taken over (because I was by then incapable of holding the stick-flag device with the electric hand) she seemed to see it as a challenge to her natural privileges and didn't want to be told what to do, she went as far as having a big roll on the ground to show that she could. Clare persisted though and suddenly she seemed to just get the message and do what she was being asked to do. At that point I was able to come inside and take the arm off for a while.

Lisa stayed for a while, partly I expect, because little Jake was playing very nicely with Lauren at pretending to be dogs and other things. I actually overheard the following snippet,
"Ok, now you pretend I'm your dog. Well, actually I'm only a puppy. Ok, now you have to give me a tablet. You've got to force my mouth open, right."
I could just imagine Jake's face at being told to do this, but I expect he did it anyway. Meanwhile it was time to go and cook dinner, after which I was more than ready for a bath (although I had washed my hands between playing with the compost and cooking). When I took my arm off I noticed just how horribly stinky it was getting and did my best to eliminate the smell by wiping out the sweat as best I could and then putting in some essential oil. I chose Lemongrass because the smell is quite powerful and quite clean but I'm not sure that it was a good idea. When I put it back on after the bath my elbow was almost immediately sore, ok so it had been rubbed quite a lot this afternoon but even at rest it was sore to the point where I just took it off altogether. This is very annoying, I can't wait till I get a better fitting socket, and hopefully I can get some ventilation put into it, if I was in a hot country it would be a nightmare, the smell would be overpowering.

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