Chestnut

Over the past few weeks, I've been getting on with some bits and pieces: mostly plastering the first floor. I'm nearly there: a little more in the front guest room that needs to wait; a little on the landing. The master dressing room is a weekend's work, because it needs to be emptied, the wallpaper stripped, and then plastered. The sewing room needs a lot of plastering, some onto stone, which I'm leaving for now. The chimney breast in the master bed needs plastering and painting. Then there's the whole floor to paint, and the window reveals to tidy and finish.

I've a lot to do, so I'm just chipping away at it all.

This weekend, though, was a 518 mile round trip to Surrey. We ordered a load of coppiced chestnut, which will form a fence along the edge of the herb garden (a wind break, and a better definition of where it ends, visually). This was cut over the winter, and was ready for collection, so I hired a Jumbo Transit van, and drove down yesterday. I got to Lodsworth (Prickly Nut Wood) at about 2, loaded up, and got back to Liz's sister in Farnham around 3. This afternoon, I've driven back up, unloaded (loading, with three of us, was much easier than unloading single-handed!), cleaned the van, and collapsed onto the sofa. The van was surprisingly easy to drive (rear visibility aside), and I was pleased to keep the fuel consumption as good as 29mpg. Ten hours of driving later, I've about a ton of chestnut poles on the kitchen patio.

Jumbo the Transit van waiting to set off (© Ian 2016)

The House in Prickly Nut Wood (© Ian 2016)

The van full of chestnut (© Ian 2016)

Starting work on the jigsaw puzzle they represent will have to wait, though. I've several weekends away coming up, and really I need to saw, split, and stack some/most/all of the firewood on the driveway to get space to do the work.