Yesterday morning, I pottered about doing various domestic duties. I hung out the washing (no, you are not going to see a photo of my smalls!) and chopped up some strawberries and cherries, adding some soft brown sugar and a splash of fresh orange juice
a quick zap in the microwave, and I had a lovely saucy, fruity base for puddings
Malcolm headed out for the morning, and I went for a much later than usual shower. I had just got dressed and was drying my hair when the phone rang. It was a delivery driver, asking for directions to the house, as he had a load of logs for Malcolm. Having told him how to find us (we live in the middle of nowhere on a road that doesn't have a name!), I went out to the front garden to wait for him. I took the camera with me, and took some photos while I waited.
The birds haven't eaten all the cherries yet
these are little fuchsias that I bought last year for the old sink - I didn't expect them to survive the wimter
horses in the field across the road
I heard the lorry before I saw it, as it chugged up the hill
the pallet of logs, with the trolley jack ready to raise it so it can be wheeled .......
........ on to the platform to be lowered to the road
and that's where it all went a bit Pete Tong! Having got the pallet off the lorry, the driver attempted to push it up the drive, but it was too heavy. So he started to manoeuvre it to the side of the drive ........ and the pallet tipped over, spilling logs all over the road! (I know you are wondering why the next photos shows a cyclist, I'll tell you shortly). Being a helpful person, I rushed off to the garage to fetch the wheelbarrow, but Malcolm has it hanging from a chain, and it was too heavy for me to lift down. When I went back to the lorry, the poor driver was on the phone to his boss explaining that there had been a bit of an accident! We set about lifting all the spilled logs and stacking them on the drive. Quite a few of the neighbours drove past - they had to slow down and drive partly on the verge to get past the lorry. Some stopped to express their sympathy, others glared at me ........ and Marion, who breeds the Jacob's sheep, stopped for a blether, as she hadn't seen me for a while. This really enraged one of the neighbours, who had already gone past with a sour look, and was then, on her way back, held up for about an extra 30 seconds as Marion reversed out of her way! Eventually, the logs were shifted and the driver went on his way. I retrieved the camera and went to step into the road to take a photo ........ and had to jump back as the cyclist whizzed past!
fortunately, the driver had managed to right the pallet before he left, and I swept all the debris off the road, in case the crabbit neighbours wanted to complain about that as well (the one who had a face on her that would have soured milk has obviously forgotten that when they built their house last year, we were inconvenienced on countless occasions as huge lorries delivered their building supplies!)
the pile of logs which we had to shift off the road
of course Malcolm didn't arrive home until after all the commotion, and was able to spend a leisurely afternoon stacking the logs in the woodstore