Restored View

As you can see from the photo taken last February when the utility room walls had just been completed, there wasn't much view out the north window because of the mature fir tree that sat about a metre away. This weekend, Don had the fir tree taken down which not only restored our view of the Lednock Hills and the Melville Monument, but provides us with easy access to/from the front part of our drive. The second photo was taken at sunset last night, round about 9:45. The wee needle sticking up at the right of the picture is the monument.

As an aside, the Melville Monument honors Henry Dundas. For more about Dundas, see http://www.scottish-towns.co.uk/perthshire/comrie/melville.html. The town of Dundas outside of Toronto was named in 1792 for this man by his friend John Graves Simcoe, then Lieutenant Governor of Canada. Coincidentally, Don's late cousin once removed, Danny Strub, owned Strubs Pickles, which made big fat garlicky kosher pickles in the town of Dundas, Canada. When Henry Dundas became the First Viscount Melville and Baron Dunira, he then owned Dunira, an estate to the west of Comrie. Main Square in Comrie, where the posh Royal Hotel sits and where pipe band concerts are held, is formally named Melville Square.

Today was a red letter day: the roofers finished their work. Any day now Perth Scaffolding will send a lorry round to disassemble and cart away the scaffolding which we have lived with for many months now. Raymond Crambe came by this morning to let us know why the wallpaper isn't in yet (it has to come from Italy and they had to do another run of it as we needed 31 rolls, all from the same run, of course). It is expected to reach the London area by Wednesday and probably get to our supplier in Perth by Friday. Raymond says whenever it gets here, his crew will drop everything and come to us so we can get finished with papering and painting. Still no word from Bill on the studio cupboard or what will be done about the touch-up paint for our front door. He will, however, find out tonight when the joiners will be back to finish their inside work. We are so close now we can taste it!

The day started out cold and rainy. Temperatures have fallen by about 10 degrees, with the low being around 42 this morning. In the afternoon, however, the sun came out and the temperature rose. We are having barbecued ribs, chicken legs and thighs with macaroni salad and iced tea tonight. I'm in my bermuda shorts and sandals and hereby declare that it is summertime!