Day of the Triffids and a whisky lamp

Somewhat of a ramble tonight. I haven’t had a chance to browse the news for days, which is probably a big part of the reason I’m much more relaxed now.

Also I had a day of gardening. Well, greenhousing anyway. I know at least two will tell me it’s too early to prune a grapevine but this isn’t pruning, this is stopping it tearing the greenhouse apart. Pruning comes later when it’s in a state where it can be pruned. I have the main trunks moved from behind the uprights, the escapees trimmed and most of the glass back in place and there is still much more to do.

There are a few cracked panes but I’m just going to silicone them for now and sort that out properly in spring. I suspect nobody has checked the bolts in years so I’ll have to do that too, before putting any pressure on by cleaning them. Next year I’ll look into the possibility of replacing the glass roof with polycarbonate. Safer and less leaky than glass panes.

In the process of playing Indiana Jones in there I discovered there are in fact three vines. One very old one that goes up one side and right along the roof, a less old one that is still pretty big and another that looks like it was cut right down and then ignored so it had grown back up the inside wall and was hanging over the telephone line! The damn thing was about to cut me off!

I’ve taken a lot out of there and there is still a lot to do. But it’s a fine-weather job and needs good light. I don’t want to cut the wrong thing and wreck the vines, but I want room for other things too.

Also, the half-metre-thick granite wall that runs down the centre of the house makes WiFi difficult and mobile phone use almost impossible, at least with the one I have. A different phone company might work better here.

So I have installed some WiFi boosters to help with that.

A tip: The booster setup gives you the option to give each one a different name – but if you give them all the same name, your WiFi devices will be able to pick up the nearest one easily when they lose signal from the one they were using before.

I need to get back to finishing the books so won’t ramble too much tonight. Instead, here’s a great idea for all those empty whisky bottles. You will need to empty the bottle first, but it’s probably best to wait a while after doing that before attempting to drill a hole in it…