Acquiring Records

Since I sold the record collection, I’ve not really missed them. In fact, in a way, it feels like they’re still with me, so deeply embedded in my psyche are they. Because I can, one way or another, still hear the music any time I want, it’s like they’ve never gone away.

I still have the record deck of course and there’s no faking the pleasure of the physicality of putting a record on. I’ve kept a select handful of favourites and plan to acquire some more, perhaps no more than 30. So kept the Mountain records, some Tull and Soft Machine, setting it up in the corner of the living room, as it begins to take shape. We’ve now got curtains!  And though there is much to do, including painting the walls, you can see the destination from where we are.

One decision has been to paint one wall in a sort of mustard colour. We had an orange wall in the last place but painted it all neutral to be more acceptable to sell but now we don’t have to worry about such things.

The front of the house is two areas of wild flowers which are in full bloom at the moment, so much so that they make people stop and look. It’s a mass of orange/yellow poppies. Blue, purple, burgundy and mauve cornflowers, blue bee tansy, pale pink opium poppies. I realised having a front-facing garden is only partly for us, it’s as much for passers-by to enjoy.

The studio is painted and insulated now and Dawn has plumbed in a sink and is putting up shelves and creating a space to paint along with a lounge area. Amazing to see it come together. It’s felt like it's taken ages but it’s only been four months. Still much needs doing inside and outside but it’ll come together in time.

We’ve an infestation of black fly on the nasturtium, we need ladybirds to eat them all. We usually get things into a good balance after a year, attracting pests and predators but we’ve not really had a chance yet so they’re eating anything soft and fleshy, so must remember to not to go out without trousers..