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The state of my year? I am still here, which
is the good news I suppose at my age you never know, so I am thankful for every
day. Enough of these morbid thoughts, always look on the bright side of life.
Now that would be a good title for a song: I know, someone did it already.
Something positive: the wild meadow next to my garden grew again. One of those “keep nature alive” efforts our local community. As it is a Swiss wild meadow, it is an organised meadow. It is not allowed to be mowed down until sometime end June/beginning July to ensure that the seeds find a place in the earth for the next year germination.
This year has been a year of organisation. Someone once said live as if you would move house every week. A very good motto, which now and again is neglected, but I do my best. I have a washing room in the cellar for my washing machine and washing lines. This room had never seen a coat of paint except for the floor which was painted green. I hate green and this year I decided now or never. I commissioned a painter to paint the walls white. Afterwards I had the floor tiled. This all happened by May/June and now I am the happy owner of a nice clean washing room. Not that we live in the room, but it is done. Of course, I had to shift a few shelf contraptions out to make room for the workers, but these went to the cellar in the meanwhile.
I then realised that the cellar could also do with rejuvenation. We are not messies, and have an organised unorganised cellar, so that is the next on the list. We discovered that our collection of wine consisted of bottles here and there. There was no organisation. We are now the proud possessors of a wine cellar, which moved to part of the washing room as the climate is cool and we had the room. Not that we have bottles of Henri Jayer Richebourg Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, France laying around, or give dinner parties every week to the crème de la crème of society, but you always find a special offer at the local supermarket, or receive a bottle here and there as a gift. I must admit I do not even like wine very much. I am partial to a Montepulciano (which I call cemetery wine as it is a heavy red one and I find it has a strong earthy taste). I also like a lambrusco, which the experts look upon as a fizzy nothing to wash the food down. However, our wine collection has now been organised.
Back to the cellar: I have not yet found any skeletons, or dead mice (the mice are usually deposited in front of the window during the night by my felines to show how clever they are). There is a rolled up carpet in the cellar. Mr. Swiss and I are still debating whether to keep it. I tend to throw everything away, but Mr. Swiss finds it might come in handy. I grew up in a family where we lived with things that might come in handy. They were everywhere, so I now tend to throw everything away. A small dispute arose and the carpet is still there.
We also have a hobby room in the cellar. It is ideal for keeping things that are too big for the apartment. It has a window and this year I eventually had a laminate flooring laid. Actually when we took over the room it had fitted carpet. I do not like fitted carpets. Unfortunately a year later we were flooded by continuous rain for three days and nights and the carpet had to be removed (I was not sorry). I will not go into details, but having three centimetres of water in a room is not fun. You have to pump it all out, find somewhere to put the furniture until it dries. Anyhow now the flood problem has been fixed. It was more or less the complete basement that was affected and a drainage system has been built.
So now my hobby room looks good: another organisatorial improvement in the Angloswiss household.
During the renovation and clearance operations Mr. Swiss asked why I have almost one hundred flower pots in the garden cupboard. I used to think they would come in useful, but I decided Mr. Swiss is right; my gardening days are now dwindling due to various back pains, leg pains, and lack of enthusiasm. My garden is now a collection of perennials, the ones that grow every year, or plants which seed out themselves. Each time we fill a refuse bag I always put 2 or three pots in the bag so the collection is dwindling. Unfortunately I have six eternite flower boxes as well. These are now in the cellar waiting for my oldest son and Mr. Swiss to pile them into the car and transfer them to the rubbish dump. Yes, even the land of mountains, cows and super cleanliness has rubbish to dispose of.
So that is my year up to now. Personally things are OK. I have more grey hairs, the thumb on my left-hand has a dodgy suspicious pain now and again according to how I move it, and I am on a watchful diet to keep my sugar levels under control. It seems Mr. Swiss and my diabetes doctor were right. Eating crisps/chips every evening complemented with salted peanuts and other such cholesterol filled goodies is not exactly the way to go. I have reduced my average sober sugar level before breakfast in the morning from 12.0 to 7.0 if that says anything. I am not on the needle (yet), but my tablets have increased in strength.
Otherwise the felines are healthy (getting fatter and well fed as always) and Mr. Swiss feels his back now and again, but it can only get better.
That is the state of thenation year up to now. I also intend to have my
best-selling novel published this year, but unfortunately I have not yet
started writing it, so I will probably postpone it until next year. I will
continue to Daily Prompt blog, although probably with a pause in October when I
visit my father in London. I hope you will not all be too disappointed as I
know it is the highlight of your blogging day It will only be a week of abstinence.
Something positive: the wild meadow next to my garden grew again. One of those “keep nature alive” efforts our local community. As it is a Swiss wild meadow, it is an organised meadow. It is not allowed to be mowed down until sometime end June/beginning July to ensure that the seeds find a place in the earth for the next year germination.
This year has been a year of organisation. Someone once said live as if you would move house every week. A very good motto, which now and again is neglected, but I do my best. I have a washing room in the cellar for my washing machine and washing lines. This room had never seen a coat of paint except for the floor which was painted green. I hate green and this year I decided now or never. I commissioned a painter to paint the walls white. Afterwards I had the floor tiled. This all happened by May/June and now I am the happy owner of a nice clean washing room. Not that we live in the room, but it is done. Of course, I had to shift a few shelf contraptions out to make room for the workers, but these went to the cellar in the meanwhile.
I then realised that the cellar could also do with rejuvenation. We are not messies, and have an organised unorganised cellar, so that is the next on the list. We discovered that our collection of wine consisted of bottles here and there. There was no organisation. We are now the proud possessors of a wine cellar, which moved to part of the washing room as the climate is cool and we had the room. Not that we have bottles of Henri Jayer Richebourg Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, France laying around, or give dinner parties every week to the crème de la crème of society, but you always find a special offer at the local supermarket, or receive a bottle here and there as a gift. I must admit I do not even like wine very much. I am partial to a Montepulciano (which I call cemetery wine as it is a heavy red one and I find it has a strong earthy taste). I also like a lambrusco, which the experts look upon as a fizzy nothing to wash the food down. However, our wine collection has now been organised.
Back to the cellar: I have not yet found any skeletons, or dead mice (the mice are usually deposited in front of the window during the night by my felines to show how clever they are). There is a rolled up carpet in the cellar. Mr. Swiss and I are still debating whether to keep it. I tend to throw everything away, but Mr. Swiss finds it might come in handy. I grew up in a family where we lived with things that might come in handy. They were everywhere, so I now tend to throw everything away. A small dispute arose and the carpet is still there.
We also have a hobby room in the cellar. It is ideal for keeping things that are too big for the apartment. It has a window and this year I eventually had a laminate flooring laid. Actually when we took over the room it had fitted carpet. I do not like fitted carpets. Unfortunately a year later we were flooded by continuous rain for three days and nights and the carpet had to be removed (I was not sorry). I will not go into details, but having three centimetres of water in a room is not fun. You have to pump it all out, find somewhere to put the furniture until it dries. Anyhow now the flood problem has been fixed. It was more or less the complete basement that was affected and a drainage system has been built.
So now my hobby room looks good: another organisatorial improvement in the Angloswiss household.
During the renovation and clearance operations Mr. Swiss asked why I have almost one hundred flower pots in the garden cupboard. I used to think they would come in useful, but I decided Mr. Swiss is right; my gardening days are now dwindling due to various back pains, leg pains, and lack of enthusiasm. My garden is now a collection of perennials, the ones that grow every year, or plants which seed out themselves. Each time we fill a refuse bag I always put 2 or three pots in the bag so the collection is dwindling. Unfortunately I have six eternite flower boxes as well. These are now in the cellar waiting for my oldest son and Mr. Swiss to pile them into the car and transfer them to the rubbish dump. Yes, even the land of mountains, cows and super cleanliness has rubbish to dispose of.
So that is my year up to now. Personally things are OK. I have more grey hairs, the thumb on my left-hand has a dodgy suspicious pain now and again according to how I move it, and I am on a watchful diet to keep my sugar levels under control. It seems Mr. Swiss and my diabetes doctor were right. Eating crisps/chips every evening complemented with salted peanuts and other such cholesterol filled goodies is not exactly the way to go. I have reduced my average sober sugar level before breakfast in the morning from 12.0 to 7.0 if that says anything. I am not on the needle (yet), but my tablets have increased in strength.
Otherwise the felines are healthy (getting fatter and well fed as always) and Mr. Swiss feels his back now and again, but it can only get better.
That is the state of the
Quite a busy and organised year. Living in rented accommodation as I do, any repairs that need doing get referred to my landlord.
ReplyDeleteI have just received an envelope with Swiss stamps on it.....I'm looking inside.....Honesty seeds!! Many thanks Pat :-))
Glad they arrived ok. Not bad postage, I sent them on Friday. Hope they grow, looking forward to the photos next year.
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