The day has finally arrived. My son is going to have his hair cut, with my beard trimmer!! He wants me to do it whilst his mum is at work, that way she can't keep telling us how to do it.
It's going to down to his sister and I and this is either going to go really well or really badly wrong. Guess which one we're going for.
I've mentioned before that I have a garden roller. It's a vintage cast iron garden roller that I have been going to restore since.. Well since I got it, and that was the best part of 35 years ago. When I got it, it had about a quarter of the wooden handle left and that was rotten, slowly it has rotted away until a few years ago I was left with about 2 or 3 inches of it.
Last year I made a new handle for it. Shaped it, stained it and fitted it, it looks really good.
The roller sits in the top corner of the garden virtually out of sight, that's because my wife thinks that it is a sight! It sits on a piece of decking that fits across a corner and I have had the roller on that. Well since we have been in lockdown I have gotten the roller out, given it a quick wire brush to see how it came up and since then it has sat on the garden path. Then I cut a wooden triangle to go at the top of the struts that go to the handle and have just about straightened them out. It's looking nearly there. The other day I was telling my wife that I'm looking for the badge that goes in the middle of the round feature just above the roller, she then spent at least 4 hours searching for one online, obviously to no avail. I've seen her looking again since (Think it's becoming an obsession), but now I just need to cut another piece of wood, a bit smarter than the one I did before, that was just a rough piece to help me straighten the arms, then I can give it a good rub down and paint it, a nice shiny green with red and black trim.
And whilst we thinking of the garden, we have bought ourselves a Trail Camera. We've been watching too much Springwatch, got carried away with it and now we're starting to join in!
The camera can either be strapped to a tree or it has a bracket that you can fix to the fence or a post, it is camouflage green (why, I have no idea, I'm sure it wouldn't make any odds whatever dark colour it is) and can either take photos and/or stream videos. We have set it up to film our bird feeders and hopefully any other interesting creatures that may wander into our garden during the evening or any time through the night. Only just set it up, so we'll have to wait and see what results we get!
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Lockdown is now starting to be eased and today all shops are allowed to open, so tomorrow my daughter is back to work in the book shop (Books on the Hill in St Albans). She went in on Saturday to prepare the shop ready for re-opening and although most shops weren't open, there were an awful lot of people in St Albans City Centre, so heaven knows how busy it will be from today when they do open! I expect it will just be queues all down the high street, all socially distancing of course.
Then of course there is this 'Bubble' thing, where you are allowed to have one person who lives alone to join your bubble; and that's not going to get abused is it! Means my dad can now come round my house, oh wait, but that means that my mother in law can't, because we already have someone in our bubble. Think I'll just keep doing my dad's shopping and saying hello to him that way it much easier and won't upset anyone.
Which leads us onto Fathers Day, because that is next Sunday and that always leads to the eternal question. What do you want for Father's Day? I don't know, I never know. More often than not these days there's a CD I fancy or more recently the vinyl version of something, but that's great. Although I usually buy it myself and give it to my wife to wrap up for the day, that way I get the one I want (I do the same for my Birthday and at Christmas). I'm not one for asking for anything that costs a lot, a token gift is all that's needed.
I've got mugs, key rings and pint glasses with 'DAD' on them just like most Dads, and they are a cool reminder that your family love and appreciate you.
Buying for my Dad is even worse! He never wants anything. I used to buy him DVD's or a book, but he never reads the books and he hasn't got a clue how his DVD player works, so he never watches any of the ones that he has got already.
He likes doing Cross Stitch. During the lockdown he has done a set of coasters and he's nearly finished a Spitfire that I got for him. He has an array of Planes on his wall that he has done over the years, so for Father's Day I have got him The Flying Scotsman. He likes trains as well. He's of an age where he used to travel on steam trains and as a lad collected numbers, so hopefully he will like it.
The other thing I like about Fathers Day, when there isn't a lockdown, is that we usually invite my Dad (and my Mother In Law) round for Sunday Lunch. That's fine, but guess who cooks Sunday Lunch, that's right, Me. So there I am on Fathers Day cooking for everyone!
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Surprise! The hair cut went really well, he really likes it and it took my wife the best part of 15 minutes to spot it. He was online with friends in the evening and none of them noticed, so it can't be that bad. I'm just dreading having to do it again in case it doesn't go quite so well next time.