You’ll be pleased to hear that it was a much better week this week.

Reggie remained poorly though the first few days and by the weekend was back to normal. He did have a second visit to the vet on Wednesday and an injection that is supposed to stop the nausea but made him more listless than prior to the visit. Victoria opted for the blood tests and all through Thursday we were waiting for the results until we eventually called the vets ourselves, “the vets are very busy, they will try and get a call to you later” we heard. Eventually we did get a call with only a slight indicator on the kidneys but that was to be expected based on his condition.

Bridge with Alan on Monday and Tuesday was better than recent weeks. There were difficult boards on Monday, which was run by ECatsBridge for Aid 4 Ukraine, a simultaneous pairs event. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the scoring system after the first couple of rounds and we had to resort to travellers with everyone scratching their heads to remember how we used to fill these in. We had a brilliant last two rounds of hands and some great defence, I think some of the hands were mis scored, so probably our overall result was better than the below 50% that appeared when I looked the following day. I’ve since downloaded the write-up, and this should be an interesting read. Despite one bad round on Tuesday, we managed to climb above the 55% to a 3rd at 57.42%, much better.

ZNAPZ has won quite a large contract with our third water company and now I am working with Danny and Tadas to help shape the wireframes for the design of the initial release. This is using some of the work that I did last summer defining Maximo features that are commonly used. There is no point being too far in front of the updates to the wireframes as it is exceedingly difficult to visualise what you cannot see. Inevitably we are revisiting some of the comments I made several months ago which went unanswered, and I expect some difficult discussions in the weeks ahead, a tussle between a business feature and a feature of a size that we want to implement.

I did manage to add a further two articles to Maximo Bite Size and with two more I should be able to complete the first module area, Asset Management. Planning, Safety and Preventive Maintenance comes next.

On Tuesday afternoon ‘The Big Sweep’ arrived with his electric spinner, a device which is a modern version of a cat o’nine tails, using thick strimmer cord, I think connected to an electric drill at the end of the sweeps brush, I didn’t stay to watch. A lot of debris was brought down including a second lot nearer the opening that had been missed. There were still a few sparkly pieces further up where the chimney bends and I just hope that the certificate that was provided is sufficient to allow the marble fireplace to be installed. I sent off the photos as requested including a photo of the certificate, and now I need to keep my fingers crossed until Thursday.

Inevitably there was a black layer of dust, requiring the third dusting of surfaces in a week, although this was a lot worse than the previous two occasions. Again, we moved the TV and stand back into place, we’ll have to move it out again on Thursday morning.

Rod and his mate from Glowing Grates came on Thursday morning and were here past 6.00p.m. “The chimney is still a bit sparkly” Rod said, “but you have the certificate and that’s all we need”. As I disappeared back upstairs to my new study there was a sudden sense of relief, the fireplace will finally get installed today, fingers still crossed.

They did an excellent job; I think Rod must be a perfectionist. The wood burner is now centralised and is no longer at an angle, the flue pipe is also now vertical instead of being at that questioning angle where you wondered whether it was vertical or some sort of optical illusion. The flue pipe appears much shorter as the height of the hole has been reduced with the fire surround which looks as if it has been installed for years, which is what we wanted, it is only the oiled slate hearth without scuffs or scratches that shows the lack of age. We’ll now have to give the wood burner a good clean. Painting the walls of the fireplace around the wood burner will be a bit of a challenge to avoid paint on either the hearth or the wood burner itself, but this is tomorrow’s problem.

Thursday was a difficult day for Victoria and the dogs. Reggie was still lethargic, and they couldn’t spend too much time in the garden, and the bedroom was the only place of refuge that wasn’t full of items moved out from the playroom. I think a lot of reading was done. By mid-afternoon Reggie had started to pick-up and managed three-quarters of his normal dinner and a short walk.

While we were waiting to get back into the playroom for another round of dusting and removals it was warm enough to sit outside with a glass of wine. The wine was unfortunately also warm as the fridge was empty, we are nearly out of whites. I found the last couple of bottles and added them to the fridge, we are expecting Olivia and Harry later.

We were given 30 minutes notice as they turned off the motorway to the link road, Olivia announcing that they were starving. Fortunately, there was still one more chilli in the freezer. Badger was very excited to see his Mum and Dad but at bedtime he still took up his customary position lying on my chest with his paws close to my mouth, he was eventually prised away. I had a better night’s sleep than I had since returning from Lisbon, Reggie improving, fireplace installed and looking great, the long Easter weekend ahead of us, and end of Lent, chocolates, biscuits, cakes, crisps, and twiglets to look forward to tomorrow.

On Friday morning after breakfast, we had a tour of the garden, valley, and new hedge. Nearly all the saplings are now showing some green leaf, and those which were first to leaf are showing new height, many are now higher than the tree guards. I think Harry was a reluctant passenger on the trip around the estate and I have promised next time we’ll have some nice grass paths round the loop and through the valley. Olivia could see the valley’s potential.

We all went to The Masons Arms at Knowstone for lunch, one of the few places in North Devon with a Michelin Star, which they have held for many years. It is a restaurant where I do not feel as if I am being ripped-off, nor a need to go to the chip shop on the way home. For me it was a leek, potato, and haddock soup, followed by beef fillet with a spinach puree. I opted for the cheese plate afterwards, don’t know why, Victoria and Olivia had each pre-ordered a souffle, Olivia’s was part of a trio of rhubarb desserts. Coffee and petit fours to finish. It was all very nice and back in time to make a dash to the supermarket. A tank of diesel now costs just over £111 which was £15 more than the last time I filled up.

In the evening we had cocktails and played a few board games including Azul, where you collect tiles, and connecting squares count as points, which makes it quite a strategic game, no dice involved. In the last round I went from leading to being pipped into 3rd by Harry and we were both overtaken by Grampy assisted to a large degree by Olivia. It was a Singapore Sling for Victoria, Grasshopper for Harry and me, and Olivia had a G&T.

I was up early on Saturday, off to the butchers to get some bacon and a joint for Sunday. On the way back and close to home, within the space of 100 yards two hares crossed the road in front of my car. I love hares, not that common a sight, but progressively so over the last few years. Last year we had one eating a plant in our courtyard and another trotting down the path beside the house as we sat on the patio with Reggie who was fortunately not aware. In other years we have had a hare living in various scrapes on the grass path by the yew hedge behind the back bed. I’ve been as close as five feet to one previously, ears pinned back and motionless as our old white Labrador Sunny walked behind it oblivious to the spectacle.

It was our wedding anniversary on Saturday, an Easter Saturday as it was 34 years before. Victoria’s brother Pog, partner Reg and Frankie their puppy came for brunch. Frankie was now more interested in the other dogs, although Reggie was still unsure and hid from her attacks, Badger drew Frankie’s attention. Everyone departed at midday, Reg was working at the Thai restaurant in Lynton later, and Olivia, Harry and Badger were due in Oxford for another family visit. I needed to get to Bray Valley Wines for a restock on the white wine.

It was quite warm, and I decided to start weeding the drive rather than continuing the path, not sure why, as both were equally in the sun, it might have had something to do with seeing Badger piddle twice on the exact spot I would have weeded next, I need it to rain before continuing with the path. Late afternoon we went to the sawmill for a walk around the loop including Hoyle’s Wood and Filleigh Cricket pitch, I was very stiff from a few hours weeding. We all slept well Saturday night not being pinned down by Badger.

At Sunday midday Polly arrived. I had finished the weeding of the driveway and was making my way around the edge of the adjacent lawn trying to discover where the edge actually was. I remember I had cut the curve of this lawn only a few years back, but some areas resisted the use of the edging shears and I had to pull back the gravel and prise the grass away from the membrane. I’ll try and finish this off during the week after work, it is now light enough to do a couple of hours of gardening. I’ll also speak to Peter about trying to arrange a regular evening for playing a few holes of golf, I feel as if we need to make up for some lost ground over the winter.

Polly was equally enthusiastic about the valley and hedge particularly down the bottom of the valley where there were fewer stinging nettles and wild garlic. It does look as if there might be a show of blue bells in Spa Wood which will be a great bonus as previously over the last 20 years, we would not have seen them. The ferns are beginning to show some sign of new growth and the treetops are showing some bright green but not our large Ash trees yet, I do hope they aren’t dead, in the next two weeks we will know for certain. I’ll have to chase up when they will be doing our neighbour’s new filtration plant because I’ll need that to be finished before Mike comes again at the end of May, access through our field after then will no longer be available.

In the afternoon I made a pot roast with a cut of beef like brisket, I forget the name, it was in the aga for 6 hours on a bed of onions. For the last couple of hours, I added some carrots and then at the end blitzed the onions and carrots to make a sauce. It was all good, the meat flaking easily with a fork, most of the fat had dissolved so that it could be separated. We waited until Victoria had returned from the Appledore Pilot Gig club where she is learning sea-rowing before tucking into a roast with well risen individual Yorkshire’s, made easier with three large eggs.

There is a lot of change in the garden. While the Muscari are beginning to fade there are still other spring bulbs to appear, some miniature tulips badly positioned behind a shrub and some bluebells just beginning to take over. The rhododendrons and azaleas are just beginning to show flower and I spotted a small flower on the clematis. The star of the show at the moment are the lilies which Victoria split a couple of years ago, a great show of purple by the patio.

Victoria made the first cut of the lawn this week and I’ll soon need to get going on the strimmer. But the garden is on the turn and heading for some colour.