I will have to polish the toaster

We live in an area called Herron-Morton place. During the civil war the whole area was a Union army camp – and a prisoner of war camp for captured Confederate soldiers.

It is close to the city and has many very old homes – some of which are a bit dilapidated - and many – such as ours which have been lovingly restored to their former glory.

Our house was originally built in about 1900 and was known as the ‘Wishard Mansion’ after Doctor Wishard who owned it – and after whom a local hospital was named. We have installed a ‘Wishard Mansion’ plaque on the front porch.

It has a long and sometimes sordid history. At one stage it was divided into apartments - and this probably accounts for the seven bathrooms.

It then fell into a state of advanced disrepair and was restored over a couple of years by a local builder – who lives just down the road from us.

The exterior looks much as (we think) it did when it was built. We are having a local historian rustle up some information – and we hope some photos of the house it its early days.

Inside has been completely renovated – and we are not sure what – apart from the front and back stairs – is original.

Anyway - the local Herron-Morton Place association has asked us to participate in the annual ‘historic homes open day’ and we have somewhat hesitatingly agreed to this.

I think this will involve a lot of cleaning, dusting and gardening in preparation for the event. I will certainly have to polish the toaster.

All in all it was a good day

The deck (unstained)

I have of course seen very little of the Tour de France – and saw none of the golf. Household duties intruded on my plans and since Saturday we have been painting the deck.

This has gone almost according to plan – in that the deck and most of the surroundings are now dark oak. The paint sprayer is a fabulous piece of equipment and the bits that I could use it on were finished in very quick time.

I had one unfortunate incident with some knockabout rose bushes that were innocent bystanders – but I think they will survive.

But of course most of the deck is lattice and other tricky bits which involves fiddling around with small brushes.

Today I have been painting the ceiling of the pergola. This is a particularly difficult job because I have to stand on scaffolding and reach up. As anyone who has painted ceilings will know – this enables the paint to run down the brush and down your arm.

And is it is actually an oil stain it has to be slathered on so I finished the day pretty much the color of dark oak.

However – I did not fall off the scaffolding – so all in all it was a good day.

He could be Prime Minister

Bohusland Sweden

Life is very busy at the moment.

First we have the Tour de France which is on from 8-12 in the morning US time. And now the British Open has started. This goes from 8-3.

In my spare time I have to shop, cook, wash, iron, garden, erect cat barriers and paint the deck. This barely leaves time for lazing about on the deck in the sun with the cats.

I have recovered from the Lance Lying Bastard Armstrong affair and am now confident that the Tour is as clean as it ever will be.

Certainly Aussie Cadel Evans was clean when he won in 2011 – anyone raised on Vegemite does not need drugs.

The LLBA thing knocked me about for a while as I had spent years defending him from the accusations of the French.

Turns out they were right all along. I recently read ‘Cycle of Lies’ which is the definitive account of LLBA’s sordid history of lies, treachery, character assassination, misogyny  and bullying.

He could be the Australian Prime Minister.

The garden lady finished her work today. My only job now is to keep them alive. I have bought extra soaker hoses and sprinklers.

I may bring them all indoors this winter if we are going to have another one like last year.