Bush Begone!

September 22, 2009 8:39 PM

With the news yesterday of our visitor turning up before the week is out I thought that now would be as good a time as any to start tidying up the house so it is reasonably acceptable to guests.

First thing I need to do is extract the dressing table that we have stored in our workshop as it will be required upstairs for visitor storage. Since the workshop is at the end of the garden I thought it would be a prudent move to poop scoop first as the most viable route to get the dresser to the house is over the lawn. So, poo baggies in hand I start cleaning up and after I'd done that I then think well, since I'm out here anyway might as well mow the grass since it will probably be its last cut before the winter.

So I set about mowing and with that done I think to myself, hmmm, that flower bed is mighty untidy, I might just do a bit of hoeing to sort it out and the next thing I know I've done the entire thing up to the point where there is a big tree that has gone epic and has taken over one corner of the garden.

Hmmm, I think to myself. That tree could do with a trim, and the next thing I know I've got secateurs in hand and I'm snipping it back. But apparently that wasn't enough and yep you guessed it, the next thing I know I've got a reticulating saw in my hand and I'm cutting off branches and a vague attempt to shape the tree up a bit.

Finally I'm happy with what I've done (see pic) and I set about tidying up the gargantuan mess I'd made and continue hoeing the flowerbed now that I can get to all of it.

Then, just as I'm finishing up I notice that the rose bush we have is also looking very unruly, so that gets bush whacked as well.

It is only now that I finally get to move the dressing table out of the workshop and into the house and I plonk it in the lounge as there is not a cats chance in hell that I will get it upstairs by myself.

With all the outside work done I then do a bit inside and move a large chest of drawers into the newly decorated guest room because as nice as it is it doesn't have anywhere for visitors to put their things. The dresser downstairs once moved can then go into the 2nd guest bedroom and used as storage in there.

You see the thing of it is I could have gone to Ikea and bought some new stuff and that'd have been 200 quid off the bat. Why do that when we've got perfectly good stuff sitting around doing nothing that won't cost us a penny to use?

I also get a phone call from the Nuffield asking if I could go in for surgery this Friday on my knee, which took me a bit by surprise as you can imagine since I'd not actually received the results of my scan yet. So after some explanation the lady on the phone tells me that I have a meniscal tear which needs an arthroscopic procedure to repair, and since they'd had a cancellation would I like to come in at short notice. Ordinarily I'd have jumped at the chance but since we are going away shortly I didn't want to run the risk of being in a foreign country having just been sliced and diced so I had to decline the offer. They have made a note however that I'm available anytime after we get back from hols so if another opening becomes available they'll call me again. I have to say it is kind of a relief to actually know what is wrong with my knee since its put me in agony for the past 4 years whenever I walk on it for more than 10 minutes, and confirms my suspicion of exactly when I damaged it by trying to move a king-size mattress on my own. So let that be a lesson for anyone who thinks they can do things that should take 2 people to do!

Anyway, with all the physical labour of today I don't see that it's necessary to go to the gym and spend the rest of the day unwinding and doing bits of work in between, namely making more use of my photoshop pen skills :)