Just too busy this week

Its been a busy week with lots going on.
Plenty of work and calls to sort out and I haven't had much time to get on here to update,sorry.
I will get some pics off my camera today and get some on here later on today.
Its been a funny old week being the first week after the holiday it was always going to be manic on the work front and it sure lived up to my expectations, only most of the carpets that should be here didn't turn up which made choosing which jobs to do first a whole lot simpler!
Friday I went up to St Martins for the day to do a couple of jobs and a measure.
It went ok, the first job was a lounge carpet in a holiday cottage at Signal Row.
I needed to put down grippers and underlay before fitting the carpet.
When done it was time for the carpet, when I had unrolled it it was 4 inches short, which left a dilemma of what to do.
I could join it or turn it around and put in a metal doorstrip or do the right thing and offer to replace it..
Obviously I offered to replace it as it appeared to be my fault for not measuring correctly in the first place...I must have misread the tape measure.
Its the first time I have done this in my 17 years of carpet fitting.
So I have a nice carpet for sale if anyone is interested!
Then I went on to do a measure up at Churchtown Farm.
Followed swiftly by down to middle town to do a kitchen vinyl.
I was well looked after at this job and keep happy with an endless supply of tea and a huge wedge of yummy sponge cake.
Its a hard life I know!
It wasn't long before it was time to catch the boat home and off I went.
I came home and sorted out the last few bits of work for the week and did a couple of orders, and then went for a stroll down to my old house where I grew up.
It was great to go home I haven't been down there for a few years and it was good to see some of the things I recall from my childhood still present, like the rope swings in the pine trees and a daffodil garden that I planted with my sisters when I was very small!
I have some pics of the views from here and I think they are some of the best on the islands, but then it was what I saw every day for years so maybe that it is the memories of the views rather than the view itself that i so good!
Any how I have one last carpet to fit for my good friend Sam, so I'd better get going!
I'll get some pics up later today.....

A couple of days and a Helicopter.

Well Tuesday was something of a blur, particularly as I sit here trying to recall what I actually did!
First thing was my second son Brandons birthday, so we were awake early for the inevitable present and card openings and then off to email Radio Scilly for a birthday announcement (Thanks Keri!)
It was off to school for the boys, not always ideal on a birthday but they were happy as they were having their favourite cheesy pasta for school dinner today.
I went off and did some work, but to be fair not much got done due to another load of phone calls to make and receive and also my head was still not really back into the swing of it all!
Fortunately I finished the vinyl that I needed to do and a couple of other small jobs and finished in time for the birthday cake and tea after school!
We had the family around and when they left we had a quick bit of tea and got the boys off to bed and then I was out to play pool.
It was a good night with our team taking on the Porthcressa Team playing at the Scillonian Club.
We won 8-1 and I did win my singles and doubles matches!
So that was Tuesday...weather wise a calm day with sunny spells, I got a couple of pics down at the harbour to remind myself of the lovely start that it was!

WEDNESDAY.
So the day started more or less the same only today it was an email for the outlaws wedding anniversary instead of a birthday!
I went off to work full of enthusiasm only to realise that I had nothing booked in to do!
So I thought that it was probably time to get myself organised and went back home to sort out lots of jobs and book in what I could with customers.
This took most of the morning as I seem to be chock a block with work!
Finally I escaped out to Westford House where I am doing all of their en suite bathrooms in new non slip vinyl.
A fiddly job that I have to admit have been putting off just a little as there are 7 pieces to fit and bathroom vinyl is not my fave job!
I managed to get 2 done today before it was time for footie practise with the primary children.
Our pitch is still very boggy in places, so we marked a smaller area than normal in order to maintain the grass as best as we could.
It was the first footy I have done in ages and I really enjoyed it.
I think all the kids did too..
So then it was home for a nice bit of tea and then settled down to watch Liverpool take on Real Madrid.
Having been converted into a Liverpool fan by my eldest son it was good to see them come away 1-0 winners on the night with an away goal to take into the second leg.
A good day on the whole and I feel so much better in myself having sorted out just how I might be able to get my mountain of work done!
Oh by the way...on the way home for lunch I spotted a helicopter in up at the airport, being a grey old day it seemed a good photo opportunity.
I got there just as they appeared to be preparing to leave, I got my pics and was just about to go when they fired up the engines...I went back to see them fly away and decided to video clip them leaving and I am so glad I did.
The heli lifted just a couple of metres from the ground, appeared to give me a bow and then left the airstrip hovering very low before turning down the entire runway and following it right to the end before lifting sharply to 1000 feet or so in a matter of seconds.
Very impressive.
I'm sure the pilot did it just for show, I like to think that he did it just for me!!
The video is going now up onto you tube and should appear on the sidebar here soon!
I think the helicopter was a royal navy lynx. Must have been from RNAS Culdrose.... or maybe a nearby ship....







By the way if you click on the image it opens a bigger photo that you can see much more detail, this is the same on all of my pictures on the blog,here and Scillywebcam,images can be used for your own personal use or if published elsewhere please credit me, George Kershaw with the picture and let me know where you have used it.
Cheers George.

First day back to work, Harbertonford

Today was the back to reality day.
After a relaxing Sunday and a fantastic holiday,it was a struggle getting my head around the mountain of work that needs to be done.
It seems I have told everyone to give me a call when I get back from my holiday and sure enough I think they all did today..
So i spent allot of time on the phone today.
I did manage to complete my first job which was a hall and lounge carpet/
The job went well and was nice to get back to work despite the idea of it!
There was no one in the house, so I was able to get my phones mp3 player going and I had a good sing along with myself as I worked.
Its fair to say today was a busy day although I kind of eased myself into it rather than going head first,flat out!
It seems that the jobs are arranging themselves with some people being in more need than others to get their carpets done.
Obviously holiday lets and b&b's get the priority with domestic jobs having to wait for a few days or for a space in the schedule to get done.
I think it will all work out ok, but I won't be taking on any more work now unless it can be done in April or after Easter.
I didn't manage to take any pics of Scilly today, so I have put on some pics from my holiday starting with the flight ot Newquay from here and Geevor and St Ives.
Then snow at South Brent,Harbertonford bridge and church.
Also a pic of our hire car a Jeep Patriot which is a SUV with a 2litre VW TDI engine that was actually really good.
And I just had to put up a pic of the Proven wind turbine that I spotted outside the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth for my mate Paul up on Raasay who has a much better model on his croft.
I shall post more pics from my holiday as I sort them out but probably as a separate holiday post more for my own record as much as for any one else's pleasure, although I'm sure someone out there will like to look at the pics!

Slapton Sands and Hallsands

A foggy and quite eerie day actually really suited the trip to Hallsands that is a hamlet that was washed away by a storm on 1917 due to the removal of 650,000 tons of shingle to create Devonport Docks.See below sign for more deatils...

Well hello there.
I am back from my holiday and I can tell you that it was excellent!
I can highly recommend a holiday in the South Hams down in rural South Devon.
We were based at a place called Higher Poulston Farm which is near Halwell Devon,but was nearer to a small village called Harbertonford.
A quiet spot that used to be a working farm since the 10th century but now has all of its farm building converted into holiday cottages.
They are done out to a fairly high standard and the farm has most activities available.
So we spent lots of time playing tennis,pool,bowling,football,swimming,golf and trampolining.
When we got tired of all those games we went out to the nearby places to go.
Such as Dartmoor,Slapton Sands,Torquay,Paignton,Totnes,Newton Abbot,Exeter,Plymouth,Teignmouth,Dawlish..
With these places within a short drive we visited Paignton Zoo,The national marine aquarium,Living Coasts,Holiday on Ice at Westpoint, and various other days out to nearby beauty spots and villages.
We spotted loads of places that we want to go back and see more of, so it looks as though we will try the same holiday again next year at a similar time.
I will put a few well chosen holiday snaps on here later on tonight.
We had good weather, arriving just as the snow was just stopping falling but the roads were clear and everything was white and only had a couple of day of rain in the while 2 weeks.
So a really good trip for us!
Its really good to be home and I have 1 more day off until I have to hit work pretty hard to try and catch up, lots to sort out and messages to catch up on plus 300 odd emails to trawl through!!
So when its all done I shall attempt to locate my finest pics of the holiday!
Its good to be back!!

Just too busy!

Sorry for the total lack of updates but I was really busy yesterday and will again today and tomorrow.
I am away for 2 weeks tomorrow and I'm not too sure when I shall do the next update..
Sorry again.
Cheers George.

No snow today!

Well I guess the day after the snow was never going to be much fun...but I think I could have done without having a south east gale and rain as a replacement!
Today started dry, but a late start meant a quick drive to school as we had no milk for breakfast again!
I am definitely a breakfast kind of guy, don't even bother trying to get any sense out of me until I have had my Frosties!! :-))
So after the school drop off I went back home as it was dustbin day and time to clear out our guinea pig hutch.
We have 3 guinea pigs and what great pets they are!
We have had 2 of them since they were just a couple of weeks old,and they were both girls and both had babies.
We kept one of the babies and gave the other 3 away as they would have been overcrowded.
And we thought at least 2 of the others were boys!
So with that done it was time for work and I headed off up to finish of yesterday stair carpet.
I had done that by lunchtime and had time to pick up the youngest little one from nursery too.
After lunch I had a large lounge carpet to do, again it was straight forward and I had a clear room, so was done in just over an hour or so..
Then I went to pick up the boys from school,take my dad up to the health centre, pick up my sister from her house and take her to the airport.
And then pick up my sisters in laws and take them for a special St Marys tour.
I'm getting the hang of these tours and I am now rattling off the facts while showing the sights to any willing passenger!
With them safely dropped home, I went back up to the health centre to collect my dad and take him home, bless him he was waiting for ages!
I went home,thought about what to have for tea...took wifey to a meeting and then back home to make and have tea.
Then back to pick up wifey and then sort out what we need to pack for our hols!
I am ready to go away now, and have had plenty of driving practise today!!
I like to drive and will be doing about 150 miles on the first day on the mainland.
Not much you might think, but when there is only 9 miles of road in total on my whole island it puts it into perspective!
So today was a bit of a blur and I really think the islands look quite boring on this cold,wet and windy day!
I didn't take one picture, because it just looked so uninspiring after the snow of the past two days!
I had time to reflect about the snow of which the majority of people really hate for some reason...
And I guess it is because of the damned inconvenience of it, if you need to go somewhere and the snow is not letting you.
Probably anyone that has prolonged snow to deal with must get fed up with it quite soon.
But for me it will always be magic!
And the reason is because of the way it makes the islands look and how it never ever lasts long enough for you to do all off the things that you wanted to do!
I hope it snows again sometime, when I can be more prepared and then maybe we could go sledging like I did when I was a child!
But I do understand those who don't like the snow because of all the associated problems that come with it.
I have seen one van today that looks as though they had a bit of trouble in the snow, he has lost a whole drivers side wing! Ouch!
I guess I was lucky during my driving in the snow....
I'm going to get some pics of my guinea pigs now as a blog without pics just looks to boring!!
I shall add another couple of pics of the snow too just for good measure!!

Tuesday 3rd February MORE SNOW!!

Well if yesterdays excitement wasn't enough, yesterday evening the snow started again!
At first it seemed to be just a shower, but again it was cold enough to stick straight away.
We got the boys off to bed and looked out to see lots and lots of snow falling and it didn't stop.
It snowed on and off all evening, sometimes small powdery snow and sometimes huge slow falling tranquil flakes.
It was like a scene from a movie!
I can't remember a time when we have had such a snowfall.
Certainly last time we had decent snow in 1987 it was blizzard like conditions that you really want to go outside in.
Back then apparently we had 23cm!
Last night we were close to 10cm (4inches) in places..
I had 3 and half inches on my car roof.
I went on a photo frenzy and I have taken at least 500 pics and might be sometime sorting them out.
I have a few beauties!!!
So after playing about in the snow and pushing a huge ball of snow from Old Town Cafe right back home to my garden, I finally got in around midnight
The temp was around zero, and the forecast was for the wind to change direction to the west which would bring warmer weather.
I knew there wouldn't be so much snow in the morning, so we set our alarms for 6.30 and hoped for the best.
When the alarm went off the whole house came alive!
A couple of us had a quick breakfast and then it was off out in the snow.
It was certainly starting to thaw already but the sheer quantity that fell meant that it was going to take a long time to go all together and there was a good 2 inches lying everywhere on the ground.
We went down the Old Town beach again...I must have been down there at least 10 times in the first 48 hours to see the snow!
There is something really quite magical about seeing snow on palm trees and certainly on a beach that you never see snow on!
It was great to look at.
We had done a snowman based on that big ball of snow I collected last night.
We had had a snowball fight.
The only thing now was sledging!
On looking around to see what we could use, not much came to hand...
We thought that the little ones toy boat might be ok, so put it in the back of the car and headed for the nearest hill!
Which was on the road the leads up to the airport..
Cars had already been up there and it looked ok, so we had a go on the hill up there.
It was quite tough going, all the boys had a turn and the youngest one was the fastest with Michael just clearing all the snow as I pushed him down the slope....we needed a bigger gradient!
Nearest place we thought off easily accessible was Carreg dhu gardens, at the top of the garden on the path that goes down the hill.
Sure enough Brandon was first and went down a treat.
They all then followed, it was brilliant!
We could of done with more space, but there wasn't time to go anywhere else as today we decided the boys would be going to school.
Now I have never before driven in snow and seeing how I might be faced with it again this weekend when I go away, I thought that I had better get some practise.
I also wanted to take some pics elsewhere on the island.
So I took the boys home to get ready for school and took a drive up to the golf course as yesterday it looked great in the snow.
The drive up Telegraph road was easier than I thought it might be, it was made easier because several cars had already made the journey.
As I turned off Telegraph road I was into fresh snow and the first car to go down the road...lovely!
I had fun taking it easy down the road.
Fortunately my car has new tyres and anti lock brakes and I'm sure that it helped lots!
I didn't have any trouble and got to the golf club and took my pics.
Then went home because it was time for school.
The boys were waiting for me, but it was getting late, so we drove the short distance to school through the slush that had quickly changed from white snow.
There was still plenty of snow about and kids were having great fun with snowball fights galore.
Great scenes..
I really needed to do more work today than yesterdays poor efforts and I had taken lots of pics.
So headed off to make a start, I was very easily distracted all the way when driving, seeing views and scenes that looked fantastic.
Some very hard to capture,so I didn't really try!
I got to work and today I had to do a landing and stairs.
I also had lots of calls to do,phone calls and measures.
So a busy day really.
By lunchtime we had had another couple of snowy,sleety,light hail showers, but the sun was out and the temp rising and on the drive home for lunch there was hardly any snow left on the roads and the thaw was evident everywhere.
Quite a surprising amount of water dripping off roofs and running down the roads.
After lunch I finished off the job and did a few more calls and orders.
By the time school pick up had arrived the only snow left was in the odd hedgerow and a few fields that hadn't seen direct sun,also a few roofs in Old Town too.
I went back to work and worked until 5.30.
Then home for tea and puts the boys to bed, before getting ready to go out and indeed going out to play pool.
We took on the Bishop team tonight and at one stage the score was 6-1 but somehow ended up 6-3 to us, after a late come back!
As always a good evening out and here I am typing away again!
I really must have a look at all those pics, but I have so many I really don't know where to start!!

2nd February 2009 SNOW SNOW SNOW!

Wow!!!
SNOW SNOW SNOW!
I love snow and was more than happy to be woken by the phone at stupid o clock time of 6.45 to look out of my window and see lots of white stuff and more falling.
Normally the snow we see here does indeed fall...but normally just melts!
A quick look at the outside temp revealed it was -1 which was why the snow was sticking.
Great so we all got up and were out by 7 to play and walk about in the falling snow.
It wasn't long before it stopped but it was still cold enough to hang around for a bit!
Michael was enjoying just being in the snow.
Brandon was having a go at throwing snowballs and playing with his ride on quad bike, well for about a minute until the wheels got stuck with compacted snow!
And the little one was quite amazed by the whole event and not too sure what to make of it!
He wasn't at all interested in being in the snow as it was falling from the sky and didn't touch any for ages after it had stopped!
I guess if you have never seen snow before it must be quite an adjustment! Bless him!
We took a drive to see how other places were looking after we had looked at all our familiar sights around us.
By now the snow was already starting to thaw and driving was very safe as the roads were almost completely clear.
So now it was a search for remaining snow.
We found plenty up at the golf course.
The ducks down at Watermill seemed to be enjoying eating the snow!
The trees by the pond were just beautiful.
The pics don't do them justice!
Onwards the to mother in laws house via Holy Vale.
We arrived at mother in laws and there was only a bit of snow left on the ground and a fair bit on a couple of cars there...and my own car too.
Just enough really for a quick snowball fight!
We then went home as by now it was 10.30 and really I should have been at work and the boys at school! Ahem!
To be fair they were a bit under the weather today and didn't really get out of the car much.....
So off to work I went..
Today's job was a stairs and landing/hall in a house up Carn Friars.
By the time I got here it was now 11.15.
So I did the stairs and went for lunch.
Lunch for wifey and boys was pasties from Steve Griffin Butchers.
Lovely and just the job on a cold snowy day!
i had lots of snow pics to download, but got caught up checking out weather forecasts and enjoying other peoples pics of the snow, on facebook and the internet in general.
It was nearly 3 by the time I was back to work.
I stayed at work until after 6!
Late for me and I was glad to come home to a nice Tikka Masala that wifey had slow cooked this afternoon. Delicious!
On the way home it had started to snow again and it was sticking again now that the sun had gone an the temp was dropping below 2 degrees.
After tea a look out of the window revealed that it was snowing some more and was looking like this morning all over again.
The temp right now at 8.40 is at zero and should drop a couple more degrees so I expect to see the snow when we wake up in the morning!
Any more showers overnight should add to the existing snow.
I really hope so because then we can try our hands at sledging!
Something I haven't done since 1987!!!
I can't wait and I'm not sure how well any of us boys will sleep knowing that there is an inch of snow already lying on the ground outside.
I reckon we need another 3 to make sledging viable!

Just looked outside right now and the snow has stopped for a while and we do seem to have an inch of lying snow in my garden!
Great stuff! I LOVE IT!!!!

Sunday 1st February

A nice easy day today.
Didn't get the expected lie in as we hoped as we had to see to our youngest son who woke us up too early for my liking on a Sunday sometime around 8ish.
So once awake, we all thought that we may as well get up and have breakfast and there was a few household jobs to see to,such as washing,etc..
It got to about 11 when I decided it was time to go out.
Until then it had been rather cloudy,the wind was a fresh easterly and you could just tell it was cold out there even though the house was warm..
So we went out for a drive not sure where we were going.
There was talk of not having a football match today,so we didn't bother going up there.
By the time we were in town we realised that it was more or less lunchtime and Mike had to get to his panto at 12.45.
So went went into the co-op and got some sandwiches and had an impromptu lunch in the car parked on the rechabite slipway overlooking the harbour.

At times the sun broke though and it looked great,otherwise it was quite grey,windy and cold.
When the sun was out it was a great time for photography and the light was just great.
I took lots of pics and I think a pic of every boat in the harbour today and I couldn't decide which ones to put on here, so they are all on!

After lunch we dropped Mike at panto and headed home.
On the way back home the waves at the back of my house looked superb in the sunny spells, so Brandon and I went down there and I took some quite atmospheric pics.
It wasn't long before my hands were freezing,so I headed home for a hot drink.
Then I needed to drop off my sister in law and family to the panto.
With that done I was home until panto was finished.
I did a bit of work in the front garden as it was getting a bit full of junk that needed sorting out, and we were spurred on into doing something about it when our rosemary bush fell down in the strong easterly wind.
I was just about down in the garden when father/mother in law turned up for a visit.
I was more than happy to stop and have another hot drink!
While we were chatting, we started talking about the weather as it was feeling very cold.
I have got a neat little weather station that tells all sorts of weather info.
But it hasn't been working lately so while talking about it.I set to work on fixing it.
Luckily the shop on ebay that I had got it from had sent me replacement parts some time back in November.
Today the batteries had gone in the display that had been working OK, so I replaced the whole lot.
Screen and wireless transmitter were swapped and it was all working again.
We watched intently as the temperature gauge went from the indoor temp right down to 5.5 degrees.
So it was as cold it it felt, and a quick look at the forecast showed it was going to get a lot worse.
It wasn't long after that and I was back into town to pick up Mike and the rest of the family.
Then it was almost time for tea.
By now I was looking at the weather forecast again and it is looking good for some snow.
I am really quite excited about it and really hope we get some.
It hasn't looked this promising for having snow for a long time.
After tea we all just relaxed and watched the footie match.
We were very pleased to see Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 at home and then it was almost time for bed.
It turned out there was a match over here today with the score being 2-0 as well..
By now it was feeling a bit cold in the house so our heater have gone up a notch and my weather station is showing that it is now 2 degrees outside add on windchill and I bet its more like -3!
I really hope it snows, if it does and it settles I will be out like a shot to get pics.
I will also take the boys out of school as if it does settle it will be the first time they have seen snow on the ground since they have been able to walk by themselves.
Last time was back in 2001 and that didn't last past 10 in the morning.
So here's hoping I get my wish!!!