I am itching to try it out

Istanbul

Our lawns are a catastrophe and are so rough and pitted that since we moved in we have had to get a mowing service to cut them with a large mower.

But a lot of the worst part has been poisoned prior to being turned into a garden – and I have asked our garden person to patch the remaining parts of the lawn.

I can probably now manage the remaining lawn with a lawn mower – so bought one.

This arrived yesterday and I am itching to try it out. I did not do it today because I am cooking dinner for six tonight and cannot do this from intensive care.

It is an electric mower because I do not wish to mess about with mixing fuel – and – more importantly storing it in the garage.

There is of course a better than even chance that at some stage I will run over the cord – but I have checked and this will not electrocute me as the handle is insulated.

Our new TV has been installed in the bedroom. It comes with a keyboard. I do not know what I can use this for as I have not read the instruction manual – but I am excited by the prospect.

We are up to date with Game of Thrones and are praying that Tyrion will get out of his current fix – simply because he is one of the few people in the show that we can bear.

The tomatoes are in the oven

St Petersburg New Year's Eve

So on Friday at lunchtime Eric completed the deck floor and just as he did this a young lady from the Code Enforcement section of the County arrived to tape a ‘stop work’ order on to the deck.

As she had actually run out of tape I offered to do this for her after she had left – so she took a photo of me holding the notice against the deck.

I had not obtained the appropriate approval from the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission – and they were miffed about this.

Silly me – I thought that as I was replacing an existing deck I would not need this – but no – apparently you cannot do anything to a house like ours without approval.

So I spent sometime on the weekend doing a proposal – with elevations which I did on Excel – and yesterday went cap in hand to the IHPC.

They were very kind and set a hearing date for 27 May which I will attend. The architect I saw said that they were not likely to be any problems unless anyone objected.

In the meantime Cate got a message from a work colleague offering her two tickets to the Indy 500 on 25 May. She actually wants to go – for the experience – but I imagine it will be a one off – but who knows – perhaps she will develop a taste for speed – she certainly had that on the autobahns in Europe – to which her numerous speeding tickets will attest.

I regret to report that the cauliflower and chickpea curry was a failure. I think it is just a flawed recipe – and can’t see any way to fix it.

It is the dinner for Cate’s European colleagues tomorrow night.

I am making

Roasted tomato soup with coconut sambal

Honey chicken with Australian bush spices

Patates Brava

Bourbon glazed carrots

Parmesan asparagus

Key lime pie

The tomatoes are in the oven now and the smell of roasting garlic is wafting up from the kitchen. 

He is not half a bee

Austria

Eric – son of Deckman - is beavering away on the back deck.  He is a very careful and skilled carpenter and I like watching him work. He is the type of workman I always wanted to be but instead I have gone through my entire life without being able saw a piece of wood in a straight line or drive a nail in properly.

This has often been as source of concern to me – in days gone by – when I used to build things like bookcases and rabbit hutches. None of the things I built would have found a home in a furniture store – but perhaps could have been installations in the naïf section of the Tate Modern.

I really like  like cedar and when Eric has gone home for the day I go out and sniff it for a while.

I am still researching wood stain and have cast my net far and wide. Deckman was right about painting it almost immediately – because it is cedar. If it was not cedar we would need to leave it to weather for some months.

John and Antonio are here today installing a TV in the bedroom.

As with most other things – this has become a complicated exercise and John has to build a special frame to fit inside the hole which was made for the TV – but which in  fact is much to small – given that our bedroom is about 15 meters long. With a TV of the size the hole was made for we would need binoculars.

Tonite I am making a cauliflower and chickpea curry. I have done this once before and it was about 7/10. I have thought of some improvements to bring it up to a more acceptable 9/10.