Pointing of the Front ended

The lovely lad, full of many pints of tea, has completed the pointing of the front of the house. As he has done it very well, G has decided that the north side should be re-done too. So in about 4 weeks, scaffolding will appear there and it will be returned to the state that was intended by the builders in the 16th century.

The West gable has these pretty windows. The upper was added in the 1960's but the date of the lower is any one's guess - inserted into a wall 3 foot thick. The whole gable needs repointing but the bit the wee lad has done was the worst. The colour of the pointing will change as it dries. It was only done today.

Pointing the front of the house and other matters

Just a few jottings.

The main (oldest) part of this house was built of stone in the 16th century. The original mortar was the right, sandy mix for stone. At some time in the 20th century, it was repointed with a hard cement and in about 1930 an even harder mix was used round the front door and window, when they were enlarged. The middle strength has done the most damage. It was put on to cover the stone in many places and level the surface. When done like this, the rain can penetrate under the cement, especially with sandstone as in this case. Then, when it freezes it expands and loosens the cement and damages the stone. As more damage is done the worse it gets, because more rain can get in. We have known for a long time that it would catch up on us, and the time has arrived. The damage to the stone has reached a serious proportion.
A lovely young man (38 yrs old), arrived for work at 8.45 on Saturday morning, and started to remove the offending stuff. A lot of it almost fell out and he made good progress, despite a prickly pyracantha overlapping the work area and a climbing rose. Then he reached the first window and found the very hard stuff. He had to use a machine to cut it out and then chisel against the stone. A slow and painstaking job. He didn't get any tea cos I was out till lunch time. He did get some then, and a very big mug kept for the purpose. He thought it was great.
He was back again on Sunday, ending up by clearing up as much as he possibly could and putting his bits and pieces away as tidily as possible. He won't be back till next Saturday. Easter week he has holiday so he will be here all week. Tomorrow, the scaffolding arrives, and we have to make sure he makes it wide enough, despite the Pyracantha - which I have cut back quite hard - on one side and a Lonicera nitida and Holly on the other.

On Monday I made my way to the Leisure Centre in Gateshead. Sounded easy. Decided to go up the bypass almost to the Angel of the North then turn down into Gateshead. Next thing I knew I was whisking over the Reddiheugh Bridge into Newcastle! I kept my head and managed not to get lost. Found my way to the Swing Bridge and popped over back into Gateshead and soon found the Leisure Centre. A large number were gathered for the Inaugoral Meeting of Northumbria in Bloom. Most of the judges and lots of entries. Had a good meeting - the Chairman of a village which won a Gold Medal in last summers National - Britain in Bloom - gave an excellent presentation. A chap from Green Flag told us about that. Green open spaces are their speciality. We overlap somewhat. If anyone wants to know more about it, just ask in the comments.
After a 3 course lunch given by Gateshead Council, I set off for the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for a hearing assessment. Got there an hour early, so had a read while I waited. The assessment showed a small loss at the top of the range. This effects the clarity of what one hears, so combined with my tinnitus, is the reason for my not always hearing properly. Far from a hearing aid though.
That'll do for now, so see you, diary, in a day or two.

Gardening today

This morning, I had to go to the surgery to see the District Nurse, to have my ear syringed to get rid of a bit of something (she said skin) that could foil a hearing test that I am to have on Monday. After that, I went to my favourite garden centre. There are others around that many would think much better. Plants yes, but acres of other things. This one has some of these other things, but not too many, and far more plants and garden extras. I was led astray from my carefully written list and got some crocus in flower - the mice have eaten so many of ones in the garden. These will go out there and I will buy some corms too at some point. I also got a few tulips for the same reason. I went to the garden centre to buy 2 new things for the ends of my hozes and some JIP 3 and Vegetable seeds, having procrastinated over filling in the order so long that now it is March.
This afternoon, I used some of the compost and some seed compost that I already had. I pruned the Abutilon Nabob that G had wheedled out of the Head Gardener at Wallington, cutting it very hard back as they had done in the past. This meant that I had lots of pieces about 3 or 4 feet long. I cut the ends of, about 4-5 inches long, trimmed them, removing the leaves and any flower buds and pushed them into the compost in a 3 inch pot. 12 of them are now in a propagator on the shelf in the greenhouse. It does not work any more, so no heat, but there is a cover, to stop drying out. It has a lovely dark red flower. I already have one young plant that I repotted today - a nice single stem. When it is tall enough it will come into the Conservatory, to replace the more mauvy, lighter one that has been there for years. If todays cuttings take, they will be sold for the WI or some other charitable concern and I will keep one as a replacement.
When I was in Wales last summer, for my brother's 60th birthday, I was given some Fuschia cuttings by a specialist, in who's barn we were staying. All of them took. Mostly they have reddish leaves and wood but one is variegated. Of the red ones, one is going to be grown with 2 horizontal branches, as it is already doing naturally. One will be a standard - again heading that way naturally. The rest will be bushes. I had already pruned them the other day, but today I potted them on into bigger pots. They will go out in the frame later on and be planted out next year. After that I shall just have to keep my fingers crossed. We are much colder and exposed that their Welsh home. I may keep the standard in a pot/container.
I did not get anything done outside today because it was blowing a gale yet again. When is it ever going to stop for more than a few hours?