The Back Window

... the broken pane ...

The north facing wall of our kitchen, the one that looks out into the back yard, is all paned window.

All paned until yesterday when only 14 of the 15 panes still had glass in them.

Only a trip on the leg of a chair, a stumble and a hand held out to catch one-self was enough to shatter one of the panes.

The good part is that the arm and the hand that went through the window did not even require a bandage.

A clean entry through the glass and a clean exit.

A call at about 6 pm to have someone come and put in a pane of glass, resulted in a labourer doing it at 10:30 at night – pitch dark out there, except for the lights of the kitchen.

... get me my spade... I will take out those weeds ...

Duncan, Steve and I watched the work done.

I watched in horror.

No protective gloves on his hands, no safety glasses on his face, a hammer, just knocking out the glass by putting his arm through the hole and then taking it out, just hammering at any piece and then letting it fall where it may or tugging at it with his fingers until it fell.

He finished by scooping out the dried putty, putting in the glass and fresh putty and settling up the account with Steve.

“Have you had a chance to listen to the game?” Steve asked.

“No time for that, I have to keep going,” he said and off he went to more broken glass, I presume.

... table and chairs for 4, for a backyard picnic ...

And that is how I made my first visit to the back yard this morning – a chance to pick up the smaller piece of glass.

I hadn’t seen the wooden picnic table for four out there on the patio, nor walked down the path made of gravel and stepping pads, made of rounds of logs.

...ivy on the pergola ...

I had a chance to get my camera up under the pergola, so I only have images of sticks with a few leaves on them, not the greener view that I see on the top floor when looking down at the ivy that encircles it.

Arta