The Rest of the Week

On Tuesday morning, I woke up early again because of a lot of noise right outside my bedroom window. More excited than annoyed by this, though, as it meant they were continuing the job of taking down the scaffolding... (Cf. my Monday post) 

 

I had a sneak peek out of the window now and then (and raised the blinds just enough for the camera lens to have a quick look too), but on the whole preferred to keep the blinds closed until they were finished... (Luckily my flat runs across the building which gives me a bit of flexibility... When noisy on one side, it may be quieter on the other.) Although I know by now that they probably know what they're doing, for an amateur onlooker it's still kind of scary sometimes to watch them dangling big heavy pieces of equipment right outside one's own windows...

On Wednesday, they had moved on out of sight for me, but kept working away; and by the end of the day, all of it was down and neatly piled on the lawn. Now I was just curious whether they would also remove everything before the weekend. And if so, if that would collide with my Thursday grocery delivery...

On Wednesday afternoon it was Laundry time for me again, and as the lift installers were still busy down in the basement, I took the stairs when going down to the laundry room. When I came down the second time, though, one of the guys told me that they were done now with the lift in my entrance, and I could use it. Some finishing 'cosmetic' touches inside will not be added until after the summer holidays, but meanwhile, it's functioning again. So I may have been the first tenant to give it a try. It does run a lot smoother than the old one (which was a bit jerky). And it Talks! A voice (female) now tells me what floor I'm on when the door opens... (Giving me the sensation of being in a skyscraper rather than a building with just 3 floors + basement...)

On Thursday morning I slept until around 8:30, and when I got up and looked out of the windows, I hardly believed my eyes: Every pile of scaffolding stuff was magically gone from the lawns, on both sides of the building! How on earth they managed that without waking me up, and in just around 1½ hours, I'll never know! (I suppose I've got rather used to a bit of background noise during these past few moths, though...) 

When the grocery delivery van arrived towards noon, there wasn't a single thing or vehicle in the way - and even the lift was working! 

Tuesday through Thursday, I've also been working on 'reclaiming' my balcony - removing the winter tarpaulin from my wooden bench, sweeping builders' dust off the floor, washing the outside of the living room windows, and even giving the inside balcony railing a bit of a cleaning. I've hung the strawberry boxes on the railing, laid plastic mats on the floor (it's a hassle getting it done as they have to be fastened so as not to blow away when it's windy - but it's so much nicer to have them there in the summer, as I can then walk out barefoot if I like), taken up my chair and a table and parasols from the basement storage. I wanted to get it all done before today (Friday) - not just because it's Midsummer weekend, but also because we've been warned that today (Midsummer Eve) we may be hit by the first major heat wave this summer. So I wanted to have my parasols and other things in place.  

 

 

Cherry tomato plant

 

First tiny strawberry getting red...

Today I woke up early and decided to get up rather than fall back to sleep. No tropical night had hit us yet, so the morning was still cool, and I decided to bake some muffins as well as make some preparations for lunch, so as not to have to bother too much about that later. And then I might also be able to put in a blog post before noon, before the afternoon sun hits the windows of my study... 

Whether I'll also go off on some kind of Midsummer adventure this afternoon still remains to be seen. It really depends on how fast and how much the temperature is going to rise... If weather forecasts are correct, it may be too hot for me to walk very far from home. (11:20 am -summertime- when I type this, and the temperature does keep steadily rising...) 

Well, "whatever"... For now, I wish everyone Happy Midsummer!