My Shop Front.

Such an exciting day is worthy of a post even if it is out of sequence with lots of other stuff. This summer I have really stretched my budget to get my shop front tackled professionally rather than just bodged by me as I originally intended.

In June I spotted the guy over the road up scaffolding doing a beautiful job of replacing the rotted sills on his bay window so I nipped over and admired a bit more and ended up booking him to rebuild my bay which was always a big flaw to the property as it was very grim and had bits missing. Andy started in July and a £600 quote became a £1,300 job as more and more rotten wood was revealed. He had to take it back to the interior panelling but it is now strong and beautifully rebuilt. I had fun putting on the colours (although Andy did insist on doing the tricky top bit on the upper layer of scaffold)

Then it transpired that the son of a neighbour is a canal boat signwriter, who again coincidentally is based at Cooke's Wharf. He came down and drew the letters freehand giving exactly the right 1930's feel that I think Ethel would prefer!

I have spent the last week giving the sign many layers of varnish and finally, yet again thank to Andy and his scaffold tower, it went up yesterday evening when I was out sailing. It was so exciting to come back late and see it. I just ran down this morning to see it in the sunshine. I am so pleased with it, finally my shop looks real not just some rented shed space. Yipee. I may not have money to eat or to restock ready for the Christmas shows but...Yipee!

and a little bit more!

Work has also gone on in the kitchen and even though the floor is still not fully fixed, awaiting the electrician and the plumber the overall effect is sort of visible. The lovely wide floorboards were reclaimed from the old Naval Bakehouse down at the port and I really like their grey colour and will try and find something similar to repaint them in. I am keeping the floor as uncovered as possible to try and let some of the insidious inherent Portland damp escape.
The roof light is really fun and now the sun can shine right through into the very dingy bit by the bottom of the stairs. However, the room is still only 9' by 5' so try as I might I can come up with no natty scheme to make it look anything other than a tiny room with a single row of units.

It felt such a hole, damp smelly and 18" below the floor level of the rest of the house, ugh.

 At least now it is dry and dusty and much lighter with the floor raised by 9", if only I didn't have to fill it up again. The tiles are quite pretty and Mummy would have loved the blue walls. Unbelievably when stripping off the peeling paint I found that the whole room was once painted in the darkest of aubergine shades. Wow! Not a vintage trend I will be recreating.

Progress, a little bit!

Today I helped Bob build the unit to house the wash basin and then with the floor swept and the last floorboards fixed down it really started to look like it may one day be a useable room. Its still chaotic around the bath waiting for the shower to be fitted and I need to organise some panelling for the bath. Its encouraging to get a room that is almost to a merely domestic diy chaos rather than a holes in the floor, walls and ceiling type of scary chaos. The room does look huge though and I think it may need a chandelier and a chaise longue to complete it.

It looked like a room to start with...

 ...and then it looked like a derelict building....

... and now it looks a little bit more like a house, or at least a work in progress!

Summer.

This gorgeous weather has allowed us to make the most of having Noggin within walking distance. We go down after work, usually its a diet coke but on Friday we strolled down with our lovely neighbours, again, and celebrated the start of summer in style. great to fit all four of us into the cockpit and our little table really came into its own. Now we can't wait for the engine to be fixed so we can go out pottering around the harbour an evenings like these. Our friends with the new racy boat have nipped across to Cherbourg this weekend and the boat that is usually behind us has headed off for a three month cruise to the Baltic, amazing! 
Tonight we saw big mullets under the boat, they seemed to be lying just under the surface with their dorsal fins showing above, surely this was sunbathing? also silver fish in medium, small and tiny sizes in large shoals near the shore and one who looked like a domestic escapee with a bright gold body and black head. There has been no wind so the water goes mirror smooth and picks up the sunset colour, just bliss. 
The bowl on the table has olive oil and a tomato and wine and garlic mix I made up for dipping bread. Yum.

Barrels on the beach

The lovely warm weather has brought in some rare visitors to the waters. Heading down to Noggin in the marina we saw this chap quite happily swimming around. He was huge, at least 18" across by 3' long at the most conservative estimate and was right in amongst the boats. I was glad I wasn't one of the crowds of people heading out on the dive boats even though these big Barrel jellyfish are not the stinging sort.
This pic also shows just what a lovely colour our sea is down here, and so clear we can sit and watch the fish swimming below us.

Ross' birthday

Although Ross was away playing trains with the Hall Craggs for his actual birthday he came down to me on the Tuesday and we had cake and supper at the Cove Inn after a successful shopping trip to Mabbs in Dorchester to get him a gorgeous, outrageously striped summer jacket.

Euro vision.

Power to the Sheeple! We will never remember but that was Power to the People was the chorus of this years unsuccessful Euro entry. I thought it would be good to put a fun picture on my various social media sites and here it is for you to see too.
We had a happy evening with our lovely neighbours and various euro themed food and our international bunting left over from the Olympics. Emily and Ross also had Euro vision parties, it seems that this is how we cope with our total lack of success, ironic parties. Mind you any excuse for a party has to be good.

Small steps.

Work on the flat is progressing, there have been lots of runs to the tip with rotten wood and the kitchen units etc. Bob and the plumber have been in a good deal but it still is very much a building site and although we do a bit each weekend its never very much...the sun shines or there is some event on, so I can't really quibble that its going so slowly lacking the drive of the Hill Farm team and having to also make sheep and garden in a rush of Spring fever, but...

So nice to get rid of the rotten old units and the lino, there literally was shiny patches of water underneath, the plan is to let as much air into everywhere as possible now. The new floor going down in the kitchen should really make a difference. The skylight is already making the room so much nicer and brings light in at the bottom of the stairs too.

Part way through the bathroom works and the rotten floorboards here have been repaired, very glad we didn't just run a bath an jump in, we would have ended up in the room below. Unfortunately the plumber has had to pull up a few more boards and obviously that is not his forte, I mean I know I'm not an expert but he does seem to have cut holes in the wrong places and has yet to lift a board without ripping it. Luckily this is the one room where the boards will be covered by some sort of vinyl.

Organising Mother!

Emily and Rory decided to take me in hand, I think they are worried that I'm not on top of the whole doing up the flat thing. Em required A3 paper and coloured pens, which surprisingly I had, and then made a couple of massive charts. Her head girl experience and Rory's project management techniques produced a suitably Micawberesque result...outgoings £11,930...money available £12,000. I can buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate when I get the first booking.
It was rather challenging but a great result and many thanks to both. Ross sat in as moral support!

Give a girl a big sheet of paper and some coloured pens and she can put the world to rights!

Social media.

What a lovely excuse to escape on Friday after noon and take the sheep down to do some pretty photos of the thrift and the sea. The causeway is amazing at the moment with vast sheets of pink, I need to take more pictures when it stops raining. I can never believe that with all the people who take photos of the rocks and sunset that no one ever seems to post any of the flowers which are truly extraordinary.
On the way down the road I met about five groups of girls doing a survey on flood damage and how I had been affected. As there were very few other people around I think my answers may make up a large percentage of the results.

Sheep helping out with a survey

Horace and Daphne have Fun by the sea.

Easter Visitors.

It was lovely at Easter to have Emily, Rory and Ross stay over, although Portland sadly decided to have its only deeply wet day after weeks of waking up to blue sky, so we couldn't get out and walk but we still managed to have our first Pimms of the season. They left early on Monday morning so that Em could catch her train back to York to finish her dissertation, she gave herself four days off to restore sanity .

Food, and lots of it, the menu sounds like one the Water Rat would recite with egg sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches, rice crispy cakes and Easter Sponge with little sheep on and Prosecco as well as tea.
 I love the way in this one that Ross is trying to open his eyes by lifting his eyebrows rather than his eyelids...definately time for an afternoon nap if only Mother hadn't insisted on having a photo taken!

Sue and Richard joined us for lunch and it was great to have a catch up as although Mark goes over quite regularly I havn't met up with them since Mark's birthday in Feb...we had a great big Salad Nicoise after a weekend of lots of food and chocolate, though pudding was the first of this years rhubarb.

After that there was just time for us to dash over to the club and take part in the evening racing in lovely sunshine and a gentle breeze. A good weekend that as ever went too fast.

Happy Easter!

I have re done the planter on my front wall ready for Easter. In such a small space it really has an impact. There are several houses in Weymouth who do the most gorgeous Easter/Spring displays in tiny courtyards which inspire me to do just a little bit of fey fun. I hope that if it catches they eye of all the mums and children who walk down our lane then they may look at other plants too and get inspired, you never know!

Easter display

Even though the rest of the shop is stuffed to the gunnels with furniture waiting for the flat to be finished I managed to squeeze around and revamp my window display. I was just pondering where to find an Easter tree on treeless Portland when someone came out their side gate carrying a pile of shrub prunings. Perfect, though I see in the photo it has a distinct list so may need redoing tomorrow if it falls over tonight. I'm very picky about my Christmas tree decorations but the Easter tree has a wonderful selection of very vintage chicks, really old felted ones, a smattering of cutesy 70's ones, a craft fairs worth of 80's fuzzy caterpillars, a few well worn lady birds and a lot of rather faded paper eggs that Emily made years ago, and two of Mama's palm crosses tied up with some of her rainbow wool that she and Emily put together. It is great having the kitten free shop to put it in, also home is distinctly short of space for vast table centre pieces these days.

Ewenique achievements

I went to a farm sale with Rory and Ross, it really felt like very extreme 'vintiquing', and managed to pick up a ladder for just £5. It will eventually be transformed into shelving for displaying my Mirabelles at shows. It just fitted into my car, lucky that Rory and Ross were self propelled or they may have had to walk home.

I took advantage of the glorious sun this week to blitz my back yard. For such a tiny space the amount of stuff it contains is huge, not helped by everything getting randomly piled up when we had the side wall rendered in the autumn. Topped off with a few split sacks of coal and it was a horrid job lurking on the to do list. It took about five hours but at last it was in a fit enough state for me to have a belated but sunny lunch with Freddie sunbathing at my feet.
Well worth it in the end...and now I can reach the washing line again!

Before, or actually part way through...

and after. The poor plants looked so happy to be clear of all the rubbish at last. I removed so many slugs and snails it was unbelievable.

What to wear?

I ordered a mass of fleece with some of my show takings. Normally I am allowed to go down to Devonia at Buckfast and choose my own but they have a new policy so I had to rely on them to send it up. I had it delivered to Moatt's so Mark came home tonight with a HUGE sack of fleece which, on opening has revealed the most glorious 'pretties' as well as twenty luscious cream sheepskins. Here is Little Mo who came home from the show with me and is waiting to go to her new home with a stylish new cream coat. Freddie is unimpressed. He tried chewing a mouthful and is now sulking at the influx of OTHER even fluffier objects.

Something for the weekend Darling?..........What shall I wear?

Top of the morning!

Top of the tree, King of the castle...or just owning the lamp post! He looked very pleased with himself, I wonder if the ladies were impressed?

Belle View

An early walk this morning down my favourite road, if it is still a road when its steps all the way. I love that all the residents obviously work hard creating a beautiful overall impression. Behind the window box wall all the houses have lovely productive vegetable gardens. This is all despite being in one of the most exposed parts high up in Fortuneswell and facing North West. The scent was strong from the wallflowers, stocks and hyacinths even at 8am. So many Belle Views don't live up to their name but this one does with magnificent views right along the Dorset and Devon coast which was shining in the sun today with mist billowing distantly up the Axe valley 20 plus miles away.

Spring cleaning

Yes, obviously this is about the allotment not the house!!! Mark had an Enterprise Association meeting on Saturday so I made the most of a free day and spent it all up the hill. The allotment had got rather neglected this year with me being unable to garden for so long. Lovely sun and the soil just the right damp but crumbly texture was great for weeding. I tackled all the beds that were tamed last year and harvested my carrots, parsnips, swedes and spinach and picked a lovely bunch of scented narcissus. Seed sown was carrot, boltardy red beetroot and chioggia stripey beetroot and a back up row of broad beans. Onion sets and chitted potatoes, Maris Bard in the lowest bed and International Kidney, (which would be Jersey Royals if planted on the other side of the water) in the next bed up. Five roses form Lydls, though I think one has died in dormancy, fennel, some rescued aquilegia and an icelandic poppy are in a bed of pretties behind the composter and two lonicera which Poundbury garden centre were selling off for 50p each have gone in as a proto hedge to protect my soft fruit bushes. I've underplanted them with lavender hoping that will also shelter them a bit but still allow me to harvest any fruit, I'll keep hoping!

Country Living Magazine Spring Fair

This is a shot of my little stand as it was set up on the first day before we (my neighbour Michelle with her Baa Stools) moved to our lovely 5m x 4.5m stand and people could actually see the sheep...and buy them all. I learned several useful lessons at the show. Firstly, location, location, location and secondly that yes, size does indeed matter. I had somehow persuaded myself that it was enough just to be present at these big shows wheres being in an area of high footfall and having a long enough stand frontage for chatting browsers to actually notice is hugely important. I have provisionally booked for Spring '15 with a still small stand but in a really good position, I will need to sell twice as much but given that I lost the first day trading and had no Mirabelles left for the fourth and fifth days I feel that should be achievable.Also, having been forced by circumstance to listen to all the 'start up' workshops and sharing with the very professional Baa Stools it has resulted in Ewenique Furniture on facebook and twitter and the new name which can go in show guides and really say in two words what my work is all about. Em is doing a great job as my social media intern and running the twitter page for me...a retweet by Homes and Antiques yesterday got my name out to all their 16 thousand plus followers, its and intriguing thing.

Getting totally papered!

Now that the electrics are finished we could finally get the paint and paper up in at least part of the shop. It was the maddest, brightest paper I could find and I love it, though the lime green needs to tone down a notch, B & Q were having issues with their paint mixing machine. The pale bright blue background is a wonderfully cheering colour and I've got paint that matches so I can carry the colour onto some of the other walls too.

Finally I'm getting to work here, its lovely to have a proper space to make my sheep even if it is still very muddly overall. It gives me hope that one day the flat will also be useable.

A wet day - the solution.

Sometimes when you have been expecting a day full of gentle Spring sunshine and twittering birdsong all you get is grey and wet and windy. Nothing for it but to curl up with good company and wait for things to get better! Never has that cushion been appreciated so much!

A change of plan

After asking both architect and plumber it seems that despite the ease with which property programmes on TV talk about popping in an ensuite, or swapping rooms around, my grand scheme of moving the loo from one end of the bathroom to the other and separating off a small back bedroom is just not viable even if I pay to have the soil pipe taken out through the wall as the roof of the downstairs bay window is just too close to the upstairs window.
Sigh, I will have to give up the dream of the extra rental income and get a nice sofa bed in the main front room and then give visitors the benefit of a comparatively huge bathroom. It will certainly make it a nicer guest suite for friends and family when they come to stay, and I can always go down there for a long hot soak since our bath here doesn't have a proper water supply, durr!
It is going to be a challenge to make a sensible layout as everything will be queued up along the outside wall. The loo can stay in exactly the same position!!! (though not the strange yellow one with the even stranger chrome loo seat). The bath will lie lengthwise where the sink is so I can get a shower fitted above it and I think the basin can go in front of the window if it is mounted into a cabinet rather than a pedestal to match in with the slightly lower window sill. The cabinet will also be useful in hiding the drain from the bath.
I just need to do something with the entirely blank planked wall opposite, someone suggested a sofa!
At least this option should work out cheaper than my original plan, fingers crossed!

A symphony in primrose, with a future as water storage up at the allotment!

The other bad news from the plumber, altogether a rather gloomy harbinger of doom, is that the old gas boiler is really beyond the pale and that as the overall heating system is old it should all be replaced, at 'only' three or four thousand pounds. Ha ha, or not! I think I am going to ditch all the gas, it doesn't even heat the hot water system at the moment, and get nice familiar night storage heaters. I know its not a cheap option to run but assuming it costs £100 extra a year in bills it would still take at least twenty years to repay the extra £2,000 installation cost, and who knows, one day I may afford solar panels! Even with this diddy renovation project there is seldom a dull day or a quick fix.

The offending and offensive boiler!

Oh dear.

There's something nasty under the stairs. I pulled back a layer of grotty carpet and then some very old lino to find whole ecosystem of woodworm and the edges of the timbers could just be crumbled. It is bizarre as the rest of the floor boards seem in really quite good shape so I'm not sure if its just the original strip that ran along the damp, uphill wall, rotted out and then was replaces by these planks overlaid at right angles. When I poked about with my screwdriver the actual underfloor beam felt solid so hopefully its just that this has been kept soggy.
fingers crossed. On the plus side, behind the ply covering the surrounding wall is a really nice original tongue and grooved planked wall in just the smoky teal colour that I want to repaint it, spooky! Again the floor is double carpeted, synthetic dark blue laid over, well just really, snot coloured industrial quality carpet tiles, of a texture more suited to cleaning saucepans!

The windows arrive

Two wonderful window installers came yesterday, Big John and Little Dave, well I had to remember their names didn't I! They have made a start on the upstairs bay window. The outside of the frame is pretty rotten in many places but I hope that when it finally dries out I can replace some bits and fill other bits with epoxy resin. I know the window guys, for a price, would replace all the exterior with upvc but I love the style of the original. Also I will be able to paint it something other than endless white.

My workshop appearing.

After so long there is finally real progress being made down in the shop. At the weekend Mark and I painted the walls with a second coat, it may still need a third, and yet again shuffled all the stuff around so that this week Bob can build me a workshop. ts interesting how things seem to evolve. Originally I thought the other back corner would be better but after seeing how the lights reflects into the shop off the buildings opposite (there is no direct sunshine) I realised that this side of the shop is much brighter. The aim of the partition and roof is firstly to contain all the dust and chippings and also to provide a lovely high storage area for the bulky rolls of foam and the sheep fleeces. The electrician rang today and will come and restore the power and bring it up to date so, wow, it will really be a functioning space.

Noggin Arrives.

Monday was a big day for us. We had planned to sail Noggin round from Poole to Portland but what should be a pleasant day's sail was assuming epic proportions. None of her potential crew was in full working order and nor was Noggin, too much winter wet had scuppered the engine and her mast was down waiting for the new rigging to be fitted, and also it has been impossible even to reach her down the swollen River Frome where many of her fellow boats have come a cropper riding up onto the banks where the flood tide has lifted the moorings, so Mark got what must be one of the more unusual Birthday presents,the services of  a big lorry!
Noggin was towed down the river to Ridge Wharf and lifted onto her big friendly lorry....

....and then driven in fine style down to Portland where Mak, Ross and I waited to greet her and watch an even bigger machine lift her off and launch her in the amazing clear greeny blue...um, aquamarine even..waters of the harbour. The Frome is very clean and healthy but so silty that you couldn't see more than two inches below the surface so it is extraordinary here that you can look down several metres and see the fish and seaweed, more like a really chilly swimming pool.

  It was the sort of very grey day that Portland doesn't do that often but does very thoroughly once it gets started!

Then she was towed yet again by a boat with two seventy horsepower outboard engines!!! Noggin's full complement of horsepower is eight, even supposing they were working! Now she is settled on her pontoon in the extremely smart marina with the unimaginable luxury of a step aboard mooring. Mark and I have been popping down every day to open her up and just to chat to her. After years of horse ownership it felt awful to be responsible for something that was in a risky place and that I couldn't check up on for months at a time. Now there really is precious little excuse for not doing all the little jobs we have put off, not to mention the more major ones of getting her mobile again both under power and under sail. Roll on spring and roll on the re opening of The Boat That Rocks.

We toasted her arrival with Prosecco and will soon have the gin installed ready for those sunny summer evenings onboard!