In my weekly update this time, I need to tell you about Rachel’s eyebrows going up – in other words we have been discussing the latest colour scheme. We have also been to see Hannah and I’m still plodding on with the Quirky Museum.
Let’s start with our visit to see Hannah on Sunday. We arranged to meet her at the church she is attending, in time for the first morning service. I can see why she likes it; fresh, vibrant, contemporary worship and with a brilliant, heartfelt sermon. Sure, it was lengthy but delivered by someone who clearly loves God and is a gifted communicator.
Sometimes people think churches are old, dusty places which are irrelevant in modern society. This church was, by contrast, clearly a growing church with a wide spread of ages and backgrounds and definitely a church going places. They reach out into the local community as much as the local community reaches into them; this is a good mix.
Afterwards I did some DIY repairs for Hannah in the dubious cottage which has been provided for her and two colleagues. The kitchen bowl rail was falling off the wall. I drilled bigger holes and used bigger rail plugs – now on so firmly you’ll need an earthquake to shake it loose. We fixed curtain poles and I glued some kitchen chairs together as they were so loose they would collapse before long. I felt so pleased I could do these things, one way of expressing my love to my daughter. Later we went for a stroll along the the coastline where she sails: I do like to get a feel for her world, her working environment.
In the introduction I mentioned Rachel’s eyebrows. There are many things which can test a marriage, even the most settled and stable marriages, as deciding on a new colour scheme. Thankfully we have navigated the potentially difficult waters with no raised voices, no squabbles and a result which we both like.
You see our tastes are very different. Rachel leans towards the comforting, gentle, light and practical colour schemes. I like to be bold, adventurous and creative with colours. Maybe you can now see why this is an area where we might struggle and add my colour blindness into the mix, then you can see the situation. So when I come up with ideas for the latest colour scheme, I see Rachel’s eyebrows twitch a little. If they stay like that the colours might stand a chance. If, on the other hand, I see Rachel’s eyebrows going up then I know it’s not going to work. We have another cup of tea. We look at other colours. We come back to the subject tomorrow.
We have now completed the eyebrow twitching and have decided to go with the John Lewis mood board. It works okay, we both quite like it. The paint itself is from the Little Greene Paint Company which is helpfully stocked by our local Brewers store. Or two out of the three colours can be made up, so we might be buying paint mail order soon.
The thing about decorating any room here in the Quirky Museum, it is never as easy as painting the walls, buying a new carpet and curtain. No. Things have to be repaired first, or a job left unfinished from 40 years ago needs completing. Take skirting boards for instance. In some places there is a 1cm gap between the wall and the board and this needs filling before any painting takes place.
I am also making progress with the cellar. There are a couple of main rooms down there and one is becoming a workshop for me. The other room is unused at the moment. There is a smaller room which is a wine cellar and still has a number of homemade wines down there from the 1970s. the cellar seems a little warmer than I expected, although this might be helped by the residual heat built up through the summer. Or it might be because the heating pipes are everywhere down there!
Speaking of alcohol, which might seem a bit strange coming from a teetotaller, I found this bottle of brandy. I added quite a few glugs to a Christmas cake I recently made. It smells rather nice and, now they’re baked, I am going to add some more so it soaks in to the cake. I am sure it will evaporate off before Christmas, leaving that lovely warming, smooth brandy flavour behind. Mind you, one of my Facebook friends thought it was going to be an awfully expensive Christmas cake!