Staff relations….

     Introducing my rodential travelling companion, Claude Van Mouse….

    Now he may be a tad upon the small side and able to travel in the cup holder of my carriage d’ work (that will be my van then), but he is a cute little sod and is company whilst I travel from job to job. He has been complaining though about the cold of late stating in his own high pitched voice that “it has been cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey and it is high time that I had more consideration for his working conditions!”. I am use to his whinging but I did not realise that he was so nautical in his choice of words. I reminded him that he is just a stuffed mouse after all and that the cold has no effect upon him whatsoever. His response was a quite appalling dialogue that would make a navvy blush with the only repeatable word being, and I quote “bollox”. After this I decided to make amends for my lack of employee care and have provided him with appropriate PPE….

    He is still not happy though complaining that “he cannot see a bloody thing”, there is just no pleasing such peasants is there…

John

Knackered be I ….

     I have been trying to post and reply to comments upon my previous post for a couple of days now but to no avail. Truth be told that the thawed white shite, er snow now means that I am now bloody knackered playing catch up with folks gardens, and by the time I’ve showered and eaten I am buggered if I can put my one typing finger to use! 

    So just to let you know good folk that all is well (apart from the knackered bit that is) I’m scribing these few lines and also have replied to said comments before I head up the wooden hills to bed shire. Speaking of comments, I also deleted my first spam comment, must be getting popular or something. Oh and quickly, I took delivery of my first lawnmower to be repaired in t’ workshop so things are slowly moving in that area.

   Right two percentage of power left on me iPad (much prefer me pc to be honest which is strange because I am not a very pc nor certainly not a woke type at all) one percent, bugger. Take care and I shall endeavour to provide a decent read over the next day two…or three..

John

Idle musings...

     Well all work 'til at least Tuesday has been cancelled for the moment as the ground is rock hard with the ice and snow showing not much sign of receding as of yet. Though surprisingly, although still bereft of finances, I am coping rather mentally well at the moment.

    Today I have given the workshop clearance a miss and spent a quiet yet productive day with my G. We have booked two weeks holiday down in Cornwall for my impending month of May 'big birthday', although gawd knows how we are going to pay for it if this monetary stagnation continues. I actually braved the torturous bathroom device to weigh myself and have unexpectedly lost five pounds in weight (have not got that amount in sterling pounds) in just under two weeks, even after our visit to the chippy yesterday (miracles can happen!). I tried in vain yesterday to find any books on Tai Chi in the library as I want to find something different than my physically challenging work to help with my bodies 'modification', so I guess I will have to search the rabbit's hole of You tube for some instructional videos, though I did come away with a rather hefty tomb of one hundred classic ghost stories and a book on the Viking history of Britain.

    I have even managed today to get around Facebook's marketplace way of stopping people advertising their services, such as my own machinery servicing and repair sideline, with a cunningly worded advert. I have to admit that more and more things seem turned against the small sole trader like myself. I cannot advertise my services upon Facebook. the council has banned sole traders (well any traders) from using refuse sites, it just feels like that there is no support for small businesses like my own whilst large conglomerates can reap as much as they want from the world. Apologies as I don't usually become 'political' but sometimes frustration at the status quo gets the better of me. Anyway, already today I have the promise of three lawnmowers coming to the workshop this week, though I do not count my chickens until they indeed arrive. It appears that all the effort of late clearing part of the workspace may well begin to payoff. Hopefully this will mark the start of the Orc's Workshop becoming a profitable source of income running alongside my gardening adventures. Keeping upon this theme I have a website that I originally setup for the gardening business though I have not kept up with it for some years now. I am considering revamping the website and use it to advertise the Orc's Workshop. The workshop, in the long run is not going to be solely dedicated to garden machinery maintenance but rather split between that and other projects such as wildlife home construction (bird boxes and the like), furniture and hand tool refurbishment/upcycling. Basically using my skill set to its full limits from my engineering skills to my artistic skills. Perhaps your thoughts upon this proposed venture would be appreciated?

    So tomorrow will be spent once again in the Arctic coldness of the workshop with even more of the hokey cokey of moving, sorting and organising the sodding mess that remains there. Oh and I dug out my old bridge camera today so hopefully (after I learn to use it again) I will be able to share some half decent pictures of my adventures with you. So for now stay warm folks.

John

Visitor from the past?...

     Well I must say that I am now finding this weather bloody tedious at the moment and it is causing me to struggle keeping positive somewhat. I mentioned in a previous post about my lack of finances after yule, a problem no doubt felt by many, but not actually being able to do something about it because of the weather and unable to see my out of this particular hole anytime soon is a bugger. I must admit to feeling that it would not take much for me to drop to the point where the Black Dog will begin gnawing upon the bones of my mind. I suppose one positive is that at the moment I am still aware of my state of mind and the cause of my gloom. It is when I become unconscious of my state of mind the issue becomes a very major thing.

    With these gloomy thoughts I headed up to the workshop to hopefully clear some more small space. I leave the door open when I am in residence at the moment, hopefully the view of the mounds of  "useful items" seen through the entrance, piled very high now as the nerve center (the bit where I sit, think and drink copious amounts of coffee) becomes more steadily more clear, will deter even the most determined thief from pilfering from me. I actually am beginning to think that said thieves may even take pity and start offering donations for the restoration of the Orc's Workshop, well a Welshman only can dream. There is another reason for leaving the door open though it alerts my neighbors that I am in residence and a couple of them do like to come over for a chat once in awhile, usually to escape from their wives I believe, so it is nice to provide a useful public service. Also as previously mentioned the workshop is in such a bloody cold hole at this time of year, I think that the open door may even make it warmer some strange and mystic way.

     As I dragged another box to be sorted the piping call of a Robin could be heard, looking up I espied him upon one of the roofs rafters. I am one that believes that Robins perhaps carry the soul of a loved one lost so I am always warmed to see one, especially when one is very near me. I moved over to one of the boxes of wild bird seed that I fill my feeders in the garden with and place a handful of seed on its lid. Literally the cheeky sod was on the box before I had taken two steps away and quite happily began feeding as if I was not there at all. The present spat of weather is obviously being hard on the wildlife as well as my mind. After a few moments watching him I returned to the box I had dragged out to sort to find it full of my father's old tools that had been there since I had cleared his shed out after his passing a few years ago. Normally the sight of them would bring me pangs of regret and sadness at his loss but as I bent over the box I looked up to see that the Robin had flitted to within a couple of feet and was regarding me with his bright eyes. Coincidence possibly, I honestly do not know and as we regarded each other I just felt good inside, I have no other words to describe it but just "good inside". Within a few heartbeats he returned to the box lid and I resumed my sorting but with perhaps the smallest spring in my step, make of this what you will but I have a feeling that not everything can be explained with logic nor with science.

Workshop visit 

     As for the workshop,  well at least one area is now clear enough for my to start actually being productive so after posting this I shall be advertising my garden machinery servicing and repair service upon Facebook market place. I am also going to sort out some of my timber this weekend, for pieces suitable  for the construction of bird boxes, starting with sparrow terraces, and general roosting boxes (both bird and bat) m'thinks. So at least I can now be occupied with that and hopefully the pennies will start coming in again.

Space to breathe at last

    Tomorrow be another day (obviously duh!) and G is off so I think a visit to the local fish & chip shop is in order and we can also spend time together planning the year ahead (she does like a list does G). Yes I know a visit to the chippy restaurant may not be the healthiest of options but I am not sacrificing small, once in awhile pleasures as these are the things that help life bearable at times. Also sitting in there people watching, especially in Wrexham, can sometimes be hilarious and also the majority of the clientele are of the blue rinse brigade and it is not often I can go somewhere this days and feel positively spritely.

til the next time be good or at least careful..

John

It is bloody cold...

     Well that is just bloody typical is it not?, I spend months, nay years moaning to clients, neighbors, Bramble in fact to anyone is foolish enough to get within hearing range of my perpetual whining, about how we are losing our seasons and that the effects upon gardening and indeed upon nature are becoming more and more serious. Then we get bloody snow....in Winter for Odin's sake! Not only do we have that one type of weather that really does stop my gardening business in its tracks, tonight's forecast is for minus (yes bloody minus) seven degrees Celsius, with more of the same until at least the weekend. Hellfire its just not bloody well right, not right at all. To tell truth I do welcome this cold snap and the return of a season to something like it should be, but there is the timing of it….just after Yule, when my finances resemble those of a church mouse that has just been robbed of all his cheese by a scrawny band of weasels and now has the curds and whey tax collector banging at his little arched doorway demanding his due! I know that the Northern gods are a cruel bunch of buggers at the best of times with little care for rotund gardeners, but it would have been nice to have a least a month of earning before they decided to bring back Winter, makes you wonder if the sods care at all.

    Faced with another day of trying to avoid working in my bitterly cold, un-heated, un-insulated and very drafty workshop, I despaired at my ill fortune. Another problem this brings is that I am trying to eat differently and also increase my physical activity in order to shed the odd pound (re stone) or two, and moping in the house does not aid either. So, rather grudgingly I trudged up the path to my workshop's entrance (my grand estate, ahem, lies betwixt two roads, with the driveway opening onto the smaller, never to be cleared by the council one) to observe that once again community spirit within the village has albeit died a grim death. The  majority of the residents along this road have managed to use just enough salt from the council’s “do it your bloody self” provided yellow receptacles to enable the release of just their own vehicle from the snows icy grip. Those who are not physically able to clear their own drives and the road adjacent are left to fend for themselves. With a shrug of my shoulders I pulled my wheelbarrow and shovel from the van and began my "every time it bloody snows routine" of  clearing and salting the areas along to road that have been left to the gods (have I mentioned about the Northern gods lack of care lately?) to hopefully make access easier for all. To be honest my next-door neighbor 'Baldey Man' is usually beside me at these times but he has only gone and damaged his back, there will be no sympathy from me I can tell you. Another neighbour , whom I hold in quiet disdain (long ish story) did actually come out after a while and offer to help but to be honest he was about as effective as a pair of breasts upon a mackerel. But all was not lost as at least I got a physical workout (very physical) and it kept me from snacking upon all that tastes soooo good, but then conspires to fatten me up ready to be a pagan sacrifice.

    After this I dragged myself back to the house for a protein biased meal (that does seem to fill me and lasts longer before my belly begins its hungry lies) and the obligatory cup of tea. Feeling sated I returned to the workshop and braved a couple of bitterly cold hours before having to pick up G from work. G is from that foreign land down south, Londinium I believe the soothsayers call it, and in her years of driving has not really encountered the white stuff and lacks a little confidence when it drops. Therefore tis my duty, nay honor to ferry her back and forth to work at these times (do not get me started on t'other drivers at this point). I did not achieve a great deal in this time, just more tiding, finding the majority of missing mower parts and I have stripped down the rear roller of said mower to try and find a reason for a drive bracket failing (the original reason that it turned up in the Orc's Workshop nay on two years ago).

    Unfortunately no fault with the internals of the roller could I discern, but at least it will be cleaned, degreased and put back together on my next venture into the freezer. And that is about it for this ramble, tis time to make myself a hot toddy for my sore throat (honestly?) and then head to the land of nod, I wonder if I shall dream tonight, probably of frostbite if I do. 

    'till the next time take care and be kind folk,

John

Rambling on...

     Funny things dreams are they not? Some people believe that they are omens for future happenings, others that they come from the past and some folk just do not give them a thought either way. For myself I tend to remain openminded, perhaps they are born from memories past or even that they may sometimes stem from things beyond our knowledge, so I treat them with some skepticism but do not entirely dismiss them. What has brought this line of thought to these pages? Well it is always been the case of the last decade or so that the festive season proves to a most difficult time for me mentally, with the threat of my depression swallowing my mind. This year though has been different in some ways, yes the feelings that feed my issues have been there once again but at night when I slumber dreams have come to me with an intensity that I have rarely known. The scenarios that these dreams bring to me are orientated around my father usually as the central character. There are many things in these dreams that have not rung true to actual life experience's involving the rest of my family, but my father's appearances in them are always true to how I remember him. I will not go into detail about my family and the reasons for myself gradually being ostracised from them in the years after my father's passing but these reasons account for a lot of my downward spiral at this supposedly festive tine of year. But the dreams with my father within seem to have steadied my mindset a tad and this year the mood has been a smidgen lighter m'thinks. Perhaps there is something in these dreams that is there trying to reach out and help me, maybe or it just may be coincidence I am truly not sure.

    Todays snow has but paid to any outdoorsy type activities and tomorrows hedge lowering looks like a no go as I write. I guess that tomorrow will mean a brass monkey day in the Orc's Workshop with me ruing once more not insulting the bloody cold hole that it is this time of year. I should not moan though (though moaning is my forte) as I have complained many times of the last couple of years that the seasons are all shot to hell with flora and fauna not knowing what season they are in. Tis actually nice to have a decent cold snap over winter and I hope that it continues for sometime.

    I did mention in my previous post that I would perchance be scribing about my garden, well with today allotted as a rare day off I was hoping that the three hundred canes would be implemented within my small plot but the snow up here has certainly put paid to that escapade and its subsequent lofty story telling of the reasons for them. Well you will just have to wait I am afraid, but, just as a taster warning it has something to do with feline miscreants.

    Well that's another musing that really does not gel, but at least it is keeping me writing here, which I do enjoy somewhat. But please don't tell anyone as I have my reputation to consider.

John

Time to shed….

     Well day one of a new year and it starts in disappointment for I decided to check myself on what may have been described as a barbaric device of inhumane torture in days of yore….the bathroom scales! Now I know that I am slightly, ahem, over what could be called a healthy weight for one as short as myself but this mornings results have surpassed all expectations and according to the NHS website I am clinically obese. Though to tell truth I was already at this threshold before the festive season but I appear to have gone above and beyond all predictions and shall now consider changing my name to ‘Blimp’ as in a gas filled zeppelin. So I guess now I will have something else to ramble on about here on these hallowed pages…short Welshman struggles with black dog whilst juggling copious amounts of lard, well it could be an interesting read.

    After the torturous scales had burst my bubble (oh there is irony), myself and G took ourselves out for a New Year’s Day meal to the Red Lion in Penyffordd (yes perhaps not starting the year as I should). Tis the first time that I had graced this establishment in many a long year and certainly the first time since it had opened its doors to food service. I can heartily recommend it, well presented, friendly service, reasonable prices and the food was bloody lovely…by Odin’s beard it is going to be a tough time for moi reducing my waistline at this rate.

    The rest of the day saw G getting ready for her return to work on the morrow whilst I attacked Bramble…I have not seemed to get around to clipping the bear for sometime and she had started to resemble a sheep that had avoided the shepherd’s shears for a couple of seasons.

She didn’t know what was coming

     After a titanic struggle with a very uncooperative spaniel the following outcome resulted…

The incredible shrinking bear

    I must admit to have been slightly shocked at how much fur accumulated on the floor around the struggling bear….

    But at least the birds will benefit from all the fur this coming nesting season. I really should not have left Bramble this long without a trim but at least now she will feel much more cooler and comfortable, if only I could shed my amassed lard as easily.

    Oh I also received my order of 300, one foot long, garden canes t’other day the use of which will possibly be in a forthcoming post. Suffice to say the post also will contain cats, my garden (yes I did actually start on it last summer), probably a lot of Anglo Saxon and possibly some photographs of said garden only don’t get your hopes up about it been a spectacular garden, I save that for clients.

    Well that’s about it for this evening, I have already stayed up too late as work beckons tomorrow which will consist of re-felting a shed roof and the chopping of logs for the same client (weather permitting ).

John