My nephew Jake and his mate Tom are here for a few days so Ed’s got them to work in the gardens. They’re snow drop splitting; taking established clumps, splitting them in 2 and replanting to make more. They split around a hundred today to cover the bank under the sycamore tree in the paddock. One of the many banks of snow-drops we hope to create.
This being Scotland, we have a storm door and an inner door. All very useful given the weather. However the only bell for the house is a buzzer between the two. So since we moved in, we’ve been living with a bit of scruffy paper pinned to the front door that alerts all visitors to this rather unsatisfactory arrangement.
Today at last we dispensed with the buzzer (and the paper) and replaced with a much more seemly antique servants bell inside and a new brass bell pull on the outside wall.
The brass handle of the bell pull is lovely to use – heavy and sleek – and as it smoothly slides back into place a satisfying tinkling follows. We soon discovered though that a ‘tinkling’ isn’t going to stir many souls inside. On that front I’m afraid the electronic buzzer wins hands down. So now we need to find a larger bell or … hire a butler!
A Castle in the Sky 