Friday St Martins

So well it is all a bit of a blur now, but i'll try and catch up..
Friday started very early again with little Ben waking at 6.30 again.
It was ok though as today was going to be an early start anyway,as another day on St Martins was on the cards.
I needed to finish off what I started on Thursday, the rooms were so big that even a 5 metre wide carpet wasn't enough to do the width of the room in one go and I had to put in a join down one side
of the room.
Joins in this particular type of carpet are quite tricky and it took a while for me to do them.
When that was done I set about doing the 4 bathrooms.
I was quite lucky because the bathroom were clear of all bathroom fittings such as toilet and sinks,etc.
This makes life so much easier as then I only have to cut straight lines around the edges of the room.
So it wasn't too long before I had done all 4 and it left me time to finish off a job that I started weeks ago and just needed a small join finishing.
A very productive day on St Martins.
After the day of work I was very tired and was feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn't do anything at all after I got back to St Marys.

St Martins.

Had a good day up on St Martins today to do two very large rooms that are going to be used as staff accommodation at Churchtown Farm.
Going back tomorrow morning at 7.45 to finish off and do 2 bathrooms.
A busy day but not too different from any other at the moment really, i'll let the pics do the talking........

BUSY!

Well it was another start with little Ben waking up at 6.30 again.
I'm not really what you might call a morning person, well at least not until I have had my Frosties!
After that I'm not too bad..but 6.30 is about an hour and half to early for me!
The second morning in a row certainly wasn't welcome particularly as I was into bed late last night after the pool night..
It worked out OK though as today was always going to be a long day.
I was fully booked today, but was persuaded to fit in another job as well.
So I left the house at 8.15 and went off to work.
First job was a kitchen vinyl,through and hallway and into a WC in one piece.
If that sounds complicated then you will be glad to know that it was!
This job took nearly all morning and just about left enough time for a quick job in 1 Golden Bay where I needed to put down a metal door bar.
Then I was off to 4 Well Cross to do a bedroom carpet.
With that done I had to pop back to 1 Golden Bay to stick down the bathroom vinyl that I fitted last week, and finish the job off.
By now it was 3ish and time to head down to the pitch for footie practise.
It was a fine sunny afternoon and very pleasant conditions for football.
We had a good hour session that finished with the usual match.
I think everyone had a good time today, the weather certainly helps as does the pitch that has finally dried out after all of Januaries rain!
After footie we needed to go to town and get something for tea.
After tea I still had more work to do in 4 Well Cross, a hallway had to be done as I will be on St Martins for the next 2 days.
It took me about 2 hours to do and I finally finished just after 9.
So in all I'm pretty tired now, I have taken not even one picture today as I just seemed to be chasing myself all day today!
Definitely have pics tomorrow............

A productive day

Today started early after being woken at 6.30 a.m by our youngest son who clearly thought that we should all be awake if he was.
We will be buying a blackout blind for him VERY soon!
I used the extra hour or so to lie in bed and listen to Steve Watts ramblings on Radio Scilly, the first time I have had it on when the programme " Scilly Sunrise" started!
a needed to go to school to ask the teacher or someone a question so took a couple of pics on the way.
The usual suspects of Old Town Bay were present, a Little Egret and a Greenshank.
The Heron was about but I didn't spot him while I was walking.
After school drop off I went straight off up to Mincarlo to do the landing carpet.
It was fairly straight forward but took a while and I didn't really get done until nearly lunchtime.
It did look good though..
Then I took a trip down the quay to see if my 2 missing rolls of underlay were there and there they were.
I picked them up and headed for Wingletang Guest House to do a bedroom carpet.
There floor was a bit ropey and needed some attention before putting down the carpet.
I set about fixing the floor and left some special rapid hardening leveling compound to dry and went to lunch.
By the time I had had lunch and got back to work, the leveling was more or less dry so I could get on with the job.
I had it all done by 3ish and headed off to 3 Well Cross to do a bedroom and hallway.
This was fairly straight forward but not a straight wall in sight so took a while to get fitted.
I finished just about 6ish.
A long time spent on my knees today and lots more to come...
I have decided that once all my holiday lets and B&Bs' are done that I am definitely taking a few days off.
Probably to try and get my boat in.
Something to look forward to!
Tonight was pool night and we played at home in the Atlantic Inn.
We played the Mermaid "B" team and won 7-2.
It was a good evening as usual and as always nice to get out with my mates for a drink.
Tomorrow brings a mixed bag of work and football practise too..

On the countdown.

Well I reckon I have now less than 2 weeks until this madness is over.
I am still flat out at work doing holiday lets and bed and breakfast places.
Today saw a real panic when a I realised that I hadn't ordered the carpets for a job that must be done next week.
Normally a week is enough time to get a carpet here, but this particular company takes a bit longer.
So ok it was going to be arriving a bit later,no problem.
Then we realised that the Gry Maritha will be out of action next week for her annual service and general check up.
Which means that the Scillonian 3 will be providing cover.
Only as it is the Scillonian all deliveries have to be at the quay at 8.a.m or you don't get your stuff.
Not easy trying to get that sorted out, but my friends at the Carpet Warehouse in Penzance have managed to sort it all out and it will all be fine.
The day itself was fairly straight forward with a dining room to do at the Bylet guesthouse and after lunch a flight of stairs to do at Mincarlo guesthouse.
No pics from today other than a couple of a Linnet that I have had in my garden since I moved in over 2 years ago.
He's a happy but timid little chap that likes to feed on tiny bits of what the sparrow,thrushes and blackbirds leave behind.
I hadn't really noticed Linnets generally since I lived here.
They are pretty little brown birds and at present we have 2 in the garden, so I am assuming they are a couple as they follow one another around.
Hope you enjoy the pics, I certainly enjoy watching the birds.

Sunday Lunch

We went out for lunch on Sunday at the Bishop and Wolf to celebrate Mothers Day.
12 of the family all went along and we all had a great time.
The food again was top notch and this time we even had dessert!
Here are a few pics from lunch..
After lunch we went down to Carn Gwarvel pitch and played some football and mucked about on the skate park in the sunshine.
It was a lovely day and after the skate park we all settled down to watch Liverpool thrash Aston Villa 5-0!
So a good day again on the whole and was over all too soon, now I'm back to work for what will be my penultimate busy busy week! Yippee!!

Weekend already!?

Wow where did that week go?
It didn't seem to take long for that week to pass and here I am on the eve of a well earned day off thinking about mothers day lunch out again!
Today was yet another great day with sun all day, with just a hint of some cloud and murk towards dusk.
I got my delivery this morning so spent some time sorting it all out and getting all the right materials to the right places.
Then I was off to 2 Bay View Terrace to do 2 bedroom carpets.
They took me a while as they were a little fiddly.
The boys had a mate down from St Agnes today, so I played 10 minutes of football with them before going back to work this time a front room carpet.
It was all ready and I just needed to put down underlay and carpet.
Even though it was a fairly big room I had it done in an hour and then I was finished for the day.
On the way home I took a couple of pics of the Bishop and Wolf pub that has been having some work done to the front of it all week and it looking just about done now.
Hope so as we are in there for lunch again tomorrow!
And then on the drive home I stopped to take a pic of the church that was looking good in the afternoon sun.
Also got a pic of the clock that has been stuck at 12 o clock for a few months now since the main bell was removed.
The new bells will be arriving soon and hopefully when they are installed the clock will be operational again.
That's about it for me.
Sunday is mothers day so I am sure the boys will be treating their mum and looking after her very well!

Today started on a calmer note with only 2 jobs lined up.
Both of them were large carpet one being 8.50 metres long and the other 9 metres x 5metres.
So I actually started my day by washing by downstairs windows.
I have been watching a couple of Linnets in my front garden daily and really want to get a pic but as soon as I go outside or open a window they fly away.
The windows were a bit dirty making a pic through the window tricky.
Now they are sparkling, so next time I see the Linnets I should be able to get my pics!
It was another bright sunny day so I also washed the car that somehow had some oil up the side of it from yesterday. That is now sparkling too.
So with everything clean I went of to work feeling pretty happy with myself and set about doing the dining room at the Bylet guesthouse.
Its was a big area and took me all morning to prepare and fit the carpet.
After lunch I was spurred on by the weather to go and check out my boats.
I have 2 boats in the field my Bonwitco With 385"Springer" and my 14' GRP punt "Pirate" that needs a bit of work doing to her.
I intend to keep "Springer" the With in Town on a running line and should have her down in the next few weeks and Pirate will have some work done to her and with any luck shall be down in the summer at Old Town with a view to pottering around Old Town Bay for leisure and fishing where as Springer will be in town allowing quick and easy access to the off islands and fishing further afield, as she is significantly faster and better suited to island hopping for me.
So after the very pleasant boating interlude I needed to take a trip to the dump to get rid of some clutter that has been waiting to be dumped for a few weeks.
I spotted this Ladybird on one of the cardboard tubes that I was taking to the dump, luckily it had gone by the time i needed to load them into the car.Its the first one I have seen this year and was really enjoying the sun.
So with that done I headed up to Schooners Hotel to do a large lounge carpet that is right at the top of the hotel on the 3rd floor.
The lounge has stunning views across the harbour and is very distracting trying to work while the view is so good and frequently changing with boats coming and going...
The carpet was 9 metres long and was a huge lump that was actually delivered by crane through an open window as it was so heavy!
Thanks to Phill Deason for the pic he took on the 13th of the carpet being delivered!
I had a bit of help to unroll it and decided i could manage it then...well I did eventually but I have to admit it was quite a struggle and even managed to give myself a sore hamstring by pulling it into the right position.
It took me the rest of the afternoon to finish the carpet by which time the Gry was in and I had taken about 25 pics out of the windows of various different things.
Phil was giving the pontoon a wash off after running the inflatable onto the pontoon to give her bottom a clean, and getting rid of the seaweed.
It has been another cracking day and my weather station tells me that it reached 19.7 degrees at some point in the sun today.
At lunchtime it was 16 degrees without the windchill...there was little or no wind in my back garden..
So hopefully with the forecast looking good it should be a good weekend.
Pity I am working all day tomorrow.
On that note I going to head off to bed!

No Delivery....

I was on the go bright and early, well about 8.30 and off to the quay to see if all of my stuff had arrived.
And surprise, surprise there was nothing at all there for me!
It turns out the Gry sailed early for some reason and my delivery failed to get to Penzance in time to make the boat.
So a different day from what was planned for me then.
I went off to Spanish Ledges flats to do a bedroom.
It took me most of the morning as I really couldn't do too much today due to lack of materials and I had a nice chat to Todd who was also working in the same flat as me.
I went off to get my dad a paper just as he called me to remind me to take him to the hospital to pick up some crutches to help him get about a bit easier.
His right hip is really giving him jip and the crutches have made it easier for him to walk,well a bit easier.
He is having a hip operation in the next couple of months to with any luck we shall see a big improvement!
After taking Dad home and having some lunch, I went to Merrick a holiday let in Rams Valley to stick down a kitchen vinyl that I fitted the other day.
I had just enough adhesive to do the job!
With that one completed next job was a bedroom at 2 Bay View terrace.
It was all clear and ready to go so I got the underlay down and had the carpet done in good time.
Leaving just enough time to do another bedroom carpet in Warleggan Flats.
By now it was past 5.30 and time for tea.
Seeing that I had been busy all day more or less I hadn't taken any pic again.
So I made the effort to get some and took a walk up to the top of Carn Thomas which is always a great view.
Today was no exception and I have put on a variety of view from the top,
It was quite hazy looking west into the sun but not bad looking away from it,typical conditions we get with a fresh easterly wind.
On the way home I stopped off at Old Town to quickly observe some birds having their tea.
There was 2 Oyster Catchers and black headed gull and a Greenshank all looking busy feeding at the waters edge.
I did get 3 different birds in one shot, this isn't unusual for Old Town where you can often see Little egrets,Grey Heron, Oyster Catchers, Greenshank and all types of gulls on a daily basis normally at the waters edge on the incoming tide.
We are so lucky to have this beauty right on our doorsteps and it is great to know what the birds are and take a bit of time to watch them go about their business... a very relaxing end to the day!

Too many carpets,not enough time.

Today I have been all over the place fitting carpets.
First job was to finish off the flats in Harbour Lights.
This was dome by about 11.30 and then I went on to do a bedroom at Newfort House, that didn't take too long so then I went down to 1 Golden Bay to do a bathroom vinyl.
By now it was 3p.m and time to go and do my weekly football session for the kids down at the primary school.
It was lovely and sunny by now, after early mist and low cloud.
The session went well and we mixed it up quite a bit from what we normally do, so that was good.
After that we went to town to buy something for tea and then I went out to a meeting at the Old Town Inn for the Old Town Bay boating AGM.
I got my wish for an inner mooring down in the bay, so now I can get on and get my 14' GRP punt ready for the summer when I get some time, and with any luck have her in looking sweet by some time in May/June after she has had her gunwales replaced by Peter Martins and then a good paint job too.
Then I will be out around the bay catching fish for tea and maybe the odd lobster or crab too..
Sorry no pics today, just haven't had time to take even one!

Bryher and more work..

So the day started brilliantly with bright sunshine and a cool easterly breeze, I had a boat to catch a boat to Bryher at 8.40a.m so didn't take the boys to school and headed for the quay at 8.30.
I was all ready to board at 8.35 and the Firethorn appeared on time to pick me up.
It was a calm trip across and I enjoyed a chat with some local workmen who were also heading up to Bryher for a couple of different jobs.
I was up at Bryher to do a bedroom carpet at Bank Cottage.
I was picked up by Mac and his dog Gypsy who seemed pleased to see me and off we went to do the job.
This carpet was measured by Mac and there needed to be a join under the wardrobe and chest of drawers.
It was a talking point for a minute or 2 as I hadn't brought any means of joining materials with me..this is typical of working on an off island, you can be sure you will need the very items you left in the boot of your car!!
So Mac searched about for some duck tape and I put in a temporary join that is hardly noticeable now that it is under the wardrobe!
When I was finished I had a few spare minutes so Mac showed me around his garden in particular an Agave in very good condition and looking great, he was also keen to show me his Koi pond and one of his fish was huge and named "Jaws" after it nearly took his finger off while trying to feed him!
There was 10 minutes spare leaving just enough time to run down and say "Hi!" to Richard Pearce.
He has some great new paintings on display and I am heading back soon for another look, I like Richards paintings and will get him to do me a commission one day..I will one day.
I also really like Steve Sherris' paintings too, just had to add that as I have told him that I like his paintings allot and I wouldn't want him to think that I had a favourite!!
So it was time to catch the boat home,it was the Hurricane on the way home effortlessly handled by my mate Neil Jenkins. It wasn't long before I was back on St Marys and on to the next job.
As I walked off the quay I couldn't help but notice the new pontoon looking very neat alongside the quay, this will make berthing of small boats and visiting yacht tenders much easier than the previous arrangement of a set of steps and small patch of sand/rocks that used to be used for dingies and suchlike.
My first job to do wasn't really ready for me to do as my underlay wasn't here, so I went back to Harbour Lights that I started last week to do flat 12.
Flat 12 overlooks the harbour and is most distracting while you are trying to work.
The view from the top floor is just stunning and this particular flat has large windows to make the most of the view.
I was too busy to take any pictures and had the flat basically done by teatime.
I stopped for a break at about 3.30 and took a quick drive up to Star Castle as I knew my kite surfing friends had gone to Samson for the afternoon as the wind was favourable there toady.
Unfortunately they were out of reach of my zoom and you can make out the kites and that was about it.
They were over a mile away so its not too bad...
After tea I got ready to go out as is was pool night and we took on the Mermaid "A" team and beat the 6-3.
We had a nice evening but lost the "Gallon" that we play for money, so that was a shame.
the money we win goes in a pot and we always go out for a meal and a few drinks at the end of the pool season.

I noticed that the Sapphire was gleaming today after being laid up alongside old quay for a polish and general tidy up for the new season.
I shall be going out her a few times this year to go shark fishing but also bird watching too..I can't wait!