pumpkinstrokemarrow

Which reminds me, having read about another skunk fuelled murder, to remind those who get cross about this sort of thing that if marijuana was legalised it would be much easier to control the sort of marijuana that was consumed. And since we do not seem to be able to control the quantity, even supposing one thought that to be a good thing, control of quality would be better than no control at all.

Back at the Wigmore Hall we had a programme which was rather unusual for us in that all of it was unknown. A flute quartet from Mozart, a string sextet from Glinka, some violin duos from Bartok and a string sextet from Dvorak. Enjoyed the flute, which I had never heard live in such quantity before. Glinka OK, Bartok a very pleasant surprise. But I don't suppose I will ever manage to get hold of them on plastic. Dvorak very good. What would have been a full house but for the strike very enthusiastic. So our speculation payed off on this occasion. Went past the Toucan on the way home, but was a bit crowded and with the strike thought it better to head for Tottenham Court Road down an Oxford Street with some very crowded bus stops. Chickened out and got a taxi to Waterloo.

Now well embarked on the new window project. This project has been on BH's wish list for some years now. The official line was that while the window in the side of the garage might be rotten, it was not going to fall out and there was no great hurry to do anything about it. However, now succumbed. Much thought about whether to get someone else to do it. Or, if I was going to do it, would we buy a ready made window or would I make one? Decided we were short of money, so getting someone else to do it crossed off the list. Explore buying a window, but put off by the fact that windows seemed to be intended to be double glazed and were expensive. Maybe £175 without glass for a two and a half light standard casement window. Standard meaning that it would not fit the hole in question, 4 feet wide by 3 feet high, this being the standard at the time that it was put it, probably some 30 years ago. The catch was that making a window anything like a shop one, and with casements that opened, was going to be a tricky business with hand tools. So settled for a window with no moving parts, much more within my carpentry compass, and installation of an outdoor socket for the lawn mower, needed if one was not going to be able to feed its power supply through the open garage window.

Outdoor socket turns out to cost the surprising sum of £60. A thing called a sentry socket. But it is made by a respectable company (MK) and it does include a built in trip which is rather better than the plug in one we have now. And with various help from TB, I think I know how to install the thing. Probably making my heirs liable for some frightful fine when they assure prospective buyers in a HIP that all electrical works have been carried out and documented by fully qualified electrical installation engineers (second class).

Ripped out old window, this taking about 10 minutes. Made temporary plastic cover against the possibility that permanent cover might be some weeks coming. Bought timber for the window from Travis Perkins, which cost a good deal less than the sentry socket. Made the sill, including routing out a channel on the underside for the mortar packing to key into. Quite a laborious business given that my router was nowhere capable of a channel of these dimensions and I had to use a chisel. But with a cutting guage to mark the thing out, a neat enough job at the finish. Measured up the window frame proper, a business which always takes a lot longer than I expect. Now got as far as cutting and fitting the six mortice and tenon joints involved. Decided to try the more fraught business of having all six mortice and tenon joints engaged at the same time when I am fresh on Sabbath morn.