The Village Spring Clean! Part 1

The Village Spring Clean!

Things  have been manic here in Castle Coop this week! Sir Plym is organising a working party to clear away all the winter debris from the village. Ditches, verges, hedges… all are to be wiped, washed, dusted, polished and thoroughly buffed up on Saturday so that the village is shining for Easter.

 Everything was beautifully under control:

The Agent and the Chairman of the Village Hall are to cook a post-Spring Clean barbecue for Saturday lunchtime. I am just in the middle of preparing caramelised onions for the forty kind volunteers who have signed up to wield the shovels and brooms. Up to last week, I thought all was under control; the burgers and sausages have been ordered, the ketchup and mustard bottles have been refilled and there is enough wood to keep the barbecue hot. However, during a convivial (but unprofitable) game of Vingt-et-un last Saturday , Lady Egality told me the News!

An un-nerving offer!

Lord Eftie Nudge of Castle Coop Castle, has offered to ‘Open the Spring Clean’ for us. Gosh! Presumably, if they are really going to be spring cleaning with us, they might come to the barbecue too.

A general village Panic!

This week we have all had to set to doing a manic unscheduled preparatory clean- up so that things will at least look presentable for Lord and Lady Nudge on Saturday when they come to declare the clean-up officially open. On top of our general worries about how awful it would be if Lord Eftie were to rake up something unpleasant from a ditch by mistake or if Lady N were to step in something dubious, I am now in a panic about the state of our garden which they will see if they come to the Barbecue. Although the orchard is presentable ( & I am so pleased with how our tree pruning efforts turned out), the flower beds look a bit sad (after the weedkiller disaster) and the vegetable patch is a bad dream.

On Tuesday, I suddenly noticed the window boxes. Oh no! How could I not have realised how tatty they are! I’ve never driven to a paint shop so fast.. The words, ‘dry, paint and watching’ are not funny when one is trying to hurry things along. I’ve got tomorrow to finish them off so that by Saturday, I’m all ready to pretend that I wouldn’t dream of having anything scruffy in the garden. As long as no-one goes near the vegetable patch….or looks at the flower beds, or the greenhouse, or the garage, or the box-room or the attic or…

Yours in a panic,

N.B. Should the dress code be Black Tie?

What do you think?

LLH