Last Wednesday I suddenly decided to replace the wooden internal window ledge in my kitchen with a while plastic one. I'd started the job about ten years ago but abandoned it temporarily when I realised I couldn't fit the new one on top of the old one because there wasn't quite enough clearance for the vertical blinds. So what I though was a nice quick job that would be finished in time for morning coffee turned out to be a day's work finishing just before 5pm.
However by this time I was in change mode. So ordered the new bed that I'd been thinking about for several years. Then I decided that although the bedroom had been recently decorated (in 2002 - I'm not a great one for change for change's sake) it could possibly do with a new coat of paint before the new bed came. So I emptied it and prepared everything for the painting to start yesterday. I was just intending to do the ceiling. I ended up doing the ceiling and the walls. Job finished. (It's all the preparation and masking that takes the real time). By 5pm my back and paint-brush-holding hand were aching so preparing dinner for Pat and Dave was a welcome relief.
We had a cracking evening and eventually stopped eating and talking around 11.30pm. All my tiredness and aches had gone with the food (possibly the wine helped too). It was a beautiful evening and I had no lights on in the house so we hadn't realised how late it had got.
So this is yesterday and this morning in pictures taken from the front of my house (unfortunately those at 3.40 am were taken through my windows because the midges were just too bad for me to be bothered going outside with so much flesh exposed).
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| Yesterday morning - 0750 - flat calm sea |
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| Yesterday evening - 2327 - almost the longest day |
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| This morning - 0344 - a beautiful morning in prospect |
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| This morning - 0709 - the mist and rain's set in. This is Scotland after all. |
Yesterday was a grand day. I got out and back long before the drizzle. It's siesta time now.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the new paint keep the midges at bay. They were pretty annoying yesterday but weren't biting very much.
Beautiful views from your side of the Minch.
Midges diabolical here today too, Adrian, 'cos no wind but not biting either.
DeleteGorgeous views as ever, with changing views like this, who can complain eh? Sounds like you had a very energetic and productive weekend!
ReplyDeleteVery productive thanks Serenata and I'm certainly not complaining.
DeleteRed sky in the morning GB. Shepherd's warning.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Viv, and accurate.
DeleteThat's what I call a worky worky day GB...you got a lot done that was not necessarily your intended work load for the day. Good for you to have got through painting your bedroom and yet you were still able to prepare dinner for friends in the evening.
ReplyDeleteI've got some painting to do here too.....are you available? Rates?
Lovely views no matter the time.
I don't mind painting too much, Virginia, so long as I don't have to wallpaper. I used to but not any more. As for preparing dinner that was a welcome relief.
DeleteStunning photos, GB.
ReplyDeleteThanks Frances.
DeleteEven with mist and rain, it looks spectacular, and I suppose you have found enough to do indoors so as not to miss being outdoors for the day.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on getting the job of painting your bedroom done so quickly and efficiently! My flat was redecorated in October 2009 (in fact, it was the last thing Stephen did on the day he died, to clear away his paint things) and it still looks good enough in my eyes to last some more years.
Meike I still had plenty of stuff to do in the bedroom even after a visit to town and even though the main painting had been done.
DeleteYour view is spectacular in any kind of weather - even fog. My favourite here is the 'silvery' sea and light in the first photo. But No 2 and 4 give a nice view of your garden too - and I think you must have put in some work there as well :)
ReplyDeleteMonica the warm muggy weather is causing everything in the garden to grow but as it also brings out the midges we have a Catch 22 situation.
DeleteWhat a fabulous set of photos! I am sure you can never get tired of your view. Like DawnTreader, I think I like the first one the most, although all are wonderful. It's just that the first one looks positively fairylike.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jenny. The first one reminds me of a print I used to have by a Scandinavian artist. I wish I could recall his name. It's one of the advantages of living by the sea with the view that I have.
DeleteOne of the Skagen group perhaps? Krøyer for example? (You can look up Skagen Painters in Wiki)
DeleteMonica I bought it after seeing the original in the National Gallery in London. I've just checked the name on the print and it is 'Axel Gallen 1906' Wikipedia article here. The painting itself is on the National Gallery websire here.
DeleteThe first two pictures are just gorgeous. Yes, it was a cracking evening. Good food, very good wine and extremely good chocolates! What more could we ask for. Thank you Graham. x
ReplyDeleteIt was my pleasure Pat.
DeleteWhat an unbelievably gorgeous view you have. It is still hard to imagine how far north you are yet with so much better weather than the same latitude in Canada!
ReplyDeletevisiting from The Last Visible Dog
Thank you VioletSky. I am exceptionally fortunate in having such a view. I never tire of it. Southern Ontario down on the Lake is my most visited place in Canada and our climate here on Lewis is so very less extreme 'though further North. We have the Gulf Stream to thank for that to a large extent.
DeleteGorgeous photos, GB. And I'm impressed with how much you've gotten accomplished in a very short time! We've been in DIY mode too, and just finished pulling down the wallpaper in the stairwell and repainting it (involving some scary scaffolding, but fortunately neither of us fell off!) and repainting the bathroom upstairs, and clearing out a bunch of drawers of stuff that I've been avoiding and .... well you know how it goes! xoxo DeeDee
ReplyDeleteThank you DeeDee. This is one of the few times I haven't asked myself why I started the job. I've actually enjoyed it. And yes, I sure know how it goes!
Deleteyou always manage to make the view we have look amazing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carol. It's not hard because it is amazing!
DeleteI came on your blog to find you Graham, no post for a week?? I love this blog but now I have left facebook I need to get my notifications via email. I'll set it up now if I can. These photos made me very homesick and has spurred me on to think about my next trip back :)
ReplyDeleteBack in touch via WhatsApp with my UK cellphone instead of my NZ one.
DeleteIt is amazing how the same view can change so much in different lighting and weather conditions. Sorry to hear that you are sometimes blighted by midges. I had thought that living so close to the sea the little devils would be whisked away on sea breezes.
ReplyDeleteYP, we are midge-free a great deal of the time because there is a strong breeze a great deal of the time. Unfortunately we've had a lot of unusual calm, muggy weather recently.
DeleteAh, there is always a midge in the ointment, isn't there.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about the blackfly season when I looked at your mesmerizing landscape.
Fancy smelling up your bedroom with the stink of paint [sorry, my bugbane, pardon the pun] when you have al that, admittedly bugladen, fresh air outside:-)
thanks for the visit jo-hanna. Much to my surprise the modern paints that I used are all water based and had no smell. I won't be back in the bedroom until next week anyway so there will be more small from the new carpet which is being laid this week!
Deletebugbear?
ReplyDeleteoops
The views you enjoy are spectacular and beautiful! Take care!
ReplyDeleteMersad
Mersad Donko Photography
Thanks Mersad.
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