MONO MONDAY - STARE OR STAIR

Stare : to gaze fixedly and intently, especially with the eyes wide open.

We spent three hours outside the new fence this morning, in the green gym, trying to clear away some of the Council’s bushes etc that we had had to cut down so that Alan, the fence man, could do his job.  He finished the new fence yesterday by about 6 o’clock, all but a small portion that he will finish off at the end of the week, but he has left it all secure, so we feel quite safe.

However, some of the dross outside had to be cleared so as the weather was reasonable - not too hot and not too cold - we decided to get out there and crack on, which we did - but it was jolly hard work.  

I had looked at the theme for today, which was “Stare or stair” and told Mr. HCB that I would like him to pose for me with a staring look - I leave you to decide whether that is a stare or a menacing look.   What I would say is that Mr. HCB has just picked up the bow saw and hasn’t in fact, used it.  I did, though, to cut down some laurel branches and very satisfying it was too.  He was nowhere near, otherwise I know he would have said he would do it, but I wanted to have a go, so waited until he was out of sight!

We do work well together as a team, but after three hours, we had had enough, so came back round and sat under the carport to have a well-earned cup of coffee.  As we were sitting there, I had a call from the man who is due to come and seal ours and next-door’s drive tomorrow to say he was coming to sand it today!  

It was panic stations then, as both our neighbours were out and one of their cars was still on the drive.  We do have a key to their house, so I rang Lynn, and asked if it would be OK for Mr. HCB to reverse the car off the drive.  She said she would really appreciate that and told me where to find Mike’s car key.  Having found the key, Mr. HCB then set about trying to move the car.  Bearing in mind that our car is an automatic, and Mike’s is a manual, first of all he had a job to find reverse gear - then having found that, he couldn’t release the handbrake - so back into neutral to try and work out how the handbrake worked.  Eventually, the car was moved and as I type, the men are now sanding the drive and we are praying for fine weather for tomorrow so that the job can be completed.

Once we got home, I realised that the road was rather a mess with clumps of mud from Alan’s boots and his van, so I swept that and cleaned the gutters - we don’t want the neighbours complaining!  We are both now cream-crackered and think we deserve a rest this afternoon and we might even have a little nap before our afternoon tea date with the neighbours!

"Individually, we are one drop. 
     Together, we are an ocean." 
Ryunosuke Satoro