Thursday, January 03, 2008

At last


The sun shone yesterday after the grey, wet weather and today is bright and cold. It gave me a chance to do a few jobs and play with a new Christmas present; a tarpaulin. It shows what having a house like this does to you when a good, strong tarpaulin gets you excited.

Friends bought this from the gypsies outside Volos who had folded it carefully to hide the fact that it was originally designed as a street banner to advertise the showing of "24". It is really good quality though and we now have the most colourful wood pile in the village.

10 comments:

Will said...

Nice shed.

The Plump said...

I love my shed. I keep my plastic Christmas tree in my shed.

Anonymous said...

Shed? In London an estate agent would call that a substantial detached family residence and want the GNP of a medium sized African nation in exchange for it. Don't you love living in the North (when you do, that is, Peter. And I mean the North of England not Greece.)

I'll be getting back to you on books of the year shortly. I note with alarm the number that I've read this year by Alexander McCall Smith - none about Botswana btw- and given the publication dates am starting to wonder if there is a factory in Edinburgh turning out easy to read, mildly amusing page turners at the rate of around one per month. Other than that, then that guy can write quickly. Glavin is certainly in there for best of the bunch at the moment.

Happy new year!

Anonymous said...

28 books including novels, childrens' books and academic texts since 1998. It must be a factory. And I think he's actually gathering pace.

Anonymous said...

McCall Smith has FIVE more scheduled to come out in 2008, and one "TBC". Mind you, I don't think that they are likely to be anyone's Book of the Year. But they are good when you are at a loose end on holiday. Apologies if I am taking attention away from your "shed" and I promise I'll stop this now.

Terry Glavin said...

How does your firewood dry out with a tarpaulin over it? Out here on the wet west coast, we stack it first, then cover the top to keep the rain out. Else it goes all punky.

All five of us toasted you with rum as promised on the 25th. And again on the 27th and the 29th, my kids having found it a means by which to gain access to the true water.

Anonymous said...

What about planning consent? I'm glad I don't live next door to you. ("And I'm even gladder that I don't live next door to YOU, so there!")

Who's this Alexander McCall Smith cove then?

Anonymous said...

He writes books. Shedloads (sorry!) of them. (Check Amazon if you don't believe me.) I should have been putting the book comments in another thread. I'll stick to sheds and tompaulins on this thread in future.

The Plump said...

Nothing like a shed to get people going.

Larkers, the neighbours' all have apothikis, which are usually made up of old breeze blocks topped with rusting corrugated iron to which are tethered goats. Mine is the height of sophistication.:-)

Mikeovswinton, is writing about books, such is the passion that sheds invoke.

Terry, glasses were duly raised in Milina and you have a new readership. The wood was previously covered by a knackered tarpaulin so it was nominally dry. Now it will be protected further. In the summer the covers come off and the sun roasts it, then I transfer enough for the winter's stay to the patio where it sits under more tarpaulins to stay dry, though my wood burning stove will burn anything - magnificent!

Back now in Blighty and all this shed talk has fair turned my head.

Anonymous said...

"Larkers, the neighbours' all have apothikis, which are usually made up of old breeze blocks topped with rusting corrugated iron. ..."

Don't! It reminds me of my old childhood home! (Exit stage left, sobbing.)