"Bother!"

It was small wonder then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.

I read ‘The Wind in the Willows’ yesterday - really enjoyed it too. I had forgotten how good it is, how wonderful the writing is, how cleverly funny it is and yet has some beautiful moments.

Anyway today I almost got to the stage that Mole was at as I have spent a lot of the day cleaning the conservatory. I only do this a couple of times a year as it means taking everything out and then cleaning the 28 windows. I even went as far as removing the covers from the chairs, washing them and hanging them out. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to do this on what turned out to be a very warm, sunny day, but anyway its done and looks so much better. 

So my blip is the top of a coffee table which we bought when we first came to this house. We bought it at a wonderful, and expensive, store in Carlisle (it no longer exists) and we think it is French in origin. We paid far too much for it, but it has served us well and we still like it although it has long been relegated to the conservatory as it felt a little dangerous when we had young children and dogs about!! It has a glass top, which I had taken off for cleaning, and then I was looking at the design painted on it. Is it some kind of old mechanical clock - we don’t know.