This week the highlight, if you can call it that, was accepting an offer on one of my brother-in-law’s properties. I’ve never seen it except in pictures. The tenant, who has lived there 24 years, decided to buy, and after some negotiation, made an acceptable offer. Now the wheels of conveyancing will start to turn, and I’m hoping there’s no bumps on the road. One down, four to go.
Another highlight of the week, or at least a ‘notable event’, is the heat. On Saturday and Sunday, we basked in a heat wave. When I drove home on Saturday after being in Thurso for the morning, the thermometer in the car indicated 30℃. The temperature gradually fell as I approached home, where it was a more reasonable 20℃. At least the car wasn’t like an oven when I got in. It has a very nice feature where it can be programmed to achieve a certain temperature prior to departure.
Umbellifer and grasses
At home, the windows were opened and the blinds pulled down. In the evening, the skirl of pipes could be heard, from the Wick Pipe Band giving a performance. Having the blinds down keeps it from getting too hot, something I learned to do this while on holiday in the south of France, where houses are shut up for the day to keep the cool in and the heat out. It works, too. Alas, even if I shut all the blinds, it can’t prevent any hot air from rising to the top of the house to my office. This is the only time of year when a fan is needed.
Summer tapestry
During the week, I started a sewing project, the first since last autumn. True to my word, I shopped from stash, choosing some very fine black jersey to make a pair of trousers. The fabric has been in the stash for many years. I bought it online, also to make trousers, but when it arrived it was far too fine for what I had in mind and was set aside. Now, with a different pattern in hand, I thought I’d use up the fabric, and it didn’t matter if I didn’t like the result. The trousers can be ‘at home’ wear.
Poppy heads
I started the sewing yesterday and was in trouble from the first seams. Being black, very fine, and also not marked adequately, I managed to sew the inseams of the fronts together, and then the two back inseams together. It should have been one front and one back together. The stretch stitch was too difficult to unpick, so I trimmed off the seam and its 0.25” allowance. And then sewed the pieces together properly. After that, things progressed more to plan.
Also to plan, I’ve been zipping down the gansey sleeve. The plain knitting is far quicker than the patterned sections and I can get up a good head of steam. It’s starting to look a proper gansey now. The cuffs will slow things down a bit – they will have cables alternating with panels of k1 p1 rib. But it now feels as if the gansey may be finished in the near future.
Good luck with the sale and the sale of the others Margaret. My sale of my mum’s is on hold until executorship is sorted out following the death of my brother. I envy you your weather this last week. I believe we have similar weather coming and it’s going to be quite a relief after the steaming and baking we have been through. It’s also not often I envy your weather.
How frustrating, Dave. We had similar with the aunt’s Estate – her bungalow was sold six weeks before C died, but then it took over a year to have the accounts finalised. HMRC/Capital Gains/Inheritance tax etc.
That’s a neat feature to have on a car. It is still tropical here in Maryland.
Good going with the sewing.
The gansey is gorgeous. That pattern on the sleeve pops!