The pair of us have had a weekend at home here at Bigland Towers but it could hardly be described as a relaxing ‘feet up in front of the telly’ kind of weekend as both of us have kept busy. Dawn’s been on a mission. Having borrowed a carpet cleaner from her parents (think of a Dyson, in that it looks similar, weighs about the same – but works) Dee’s been methodically going from room to room, washing each carpet. The cottage is only small but these things still take time. Whilst Dawn’s been occupied thus I’ve kept out of the way and worked in the garden or on the outside of the house. For once the weather’s been conducive to such activities – despite the tail the end of storm ‘Betty’ which brough gusting winds to the Pennines. I’ve managed to fill several bin-bags with plant based detritus, including the trimmings off a Jasmine plant which was blocking a lot of light from the front of the cottage. The only problem was as soon as I saw how much extra light was coming in through the windows I also realised how dirty they were! Cooking when the kitchen is stacked full of exercise weights and office equipment was fun but I still managed to rustle up a typical Indonesian Nasi Goreng which has kept us going over the weekend.

Today’s been occupied finishing off the chores from yesterday, with one major difference. Dee wanted to watch the football world cup match between England and Spain whilst she was working. This involved plugging herself into the commentary via her phone whilst having the video on her iPad. Me? I was outside up a ladder cleaning windows, which was quite amusing as the expletives and exhortations coming from inside the house made me think Dee had suddenly contracted Tourettes!

Now it’s Sunday night, the carpets are drying and the cottage is slowly coming back together ready for another working week. The kitchen’s no longer an obstacle course and all the rubbish has been taken to our local recycling centre so it’s time to relax. The only thing left for me to do is post a picture of the day but as the camera’s been tucked away all weekend, the question is what to choose from the archives. How about this one which is completely random and not related to anything I’ve been talking about?

I’ve been crap at finishing scanning all my old slides this year because other things (modern life, mostly) have got in the way. Well, that and trying to earn a crust. But, I have a stack of already scanned slides I’ve just never got around to editing and sticking on my Zenfolio site. This is one, from February 1998, taken just after sunrise at the ghats in Varanasi, India.

Tomorrow’s the start of another busy week (as if this weekend wasn’t active enough) so expect pictures from one or two locations around the UK that I’ve not covered recently…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312