A good week

View from the front door
(better without Indian Chief I feel)

Thankfully things slow down in Stoke Bruerne during the week.  I've taken to sitting outside on the step to have my mid-morning cuppa and have met a number of local people all whom approve of the work I've undertaken (well had done for me).

I still cannot get my divan bed up the stairs so it looks as if that is a non-starter now - bit sad about that.  Tom the builder came round on Monday to do the snag list - there's a few things need doing but the vast majority of the work is excellent and I am very happy with the outcome.  I have rearranged the sitting room (at towpath level) any number of times but think I now have something that looks good and suits me.  I haven't put anything up on the walls yet (apart from a mirror) as I want to get the feel of the house fully before committing to that sort of thing. I have also cleaned out the 'hole' where the kitchen windows go - that looks much better now.

A lovely summer scene looking
in the direction of  the tunnel

James (next door) kindly invited me to a BBQ on Tuesday evening which was very pleasant and very kind.

I have still not registered with a doctor.  The one of my choice in Towcester seemed to have no one at the reception desk for the 20 minutes I waited there so, as it was so hot, I gave up and will go back later.

There's still some work to do on the windows - have found there is no motar between the repaired frame and the wall and the frame and the window sill on the two top windows but has been done on the lower window.  I'll have to find out why that is.

I am getting used to going up and down the stairs (having lived in a bungalow for 27 years) and am sure it will help with my cardio vascular system! (Or so my friend Sue would say).

One of the things I find very useful is the mile-upon-mile of retail outlets in Milton Keynes (just 15 minutes drive away).  I think they look awful - just big amorphous corporate buildings but they have everything you could wish for and I console myself in the knowledge that just 15 minutes up the road is a little oasis of calm called Stoke Bruerne!

I was sitting on the step this afternoon (Sunday) and started talking to very nice elderly lady.  It turns out she was the daughter of a gentleman called Jack James who lived at No3 and started the Canal Museum off in 1963.  She was most interesting and told me a little about the layout of the house. The lower ground floor as the coal and wood store (now the kitchen), the towpath level was the living room cum kitchen with a large pantry at the back.  The second floor had two bedrooms (currently one bedroom and a bathroom) and the top floor was the big bedroom (and still is).  Other facilities (loo etc) were behind the house in the area I now park the car.

Shortly after this I was standing on the steps and along came Rob Locatelli who I know very well from Basingstoke and River Wey Navigation times - what a small world.

Off for a few days now to go to the IWA National - don't particularly want to go but I think a break from the house is perhaps a good idea.