Stumping Up

I head back to Lighthouse...again. Are we incredibly inefficient or just hopeless? Finlay has the file out and I look around while he goes through the list. The lighting strip for the living room is cut and ready. The tally, $600 in credit. A total in my favour at last. Means I can choose upmarket, or at least, interesting, kitchen lights. But not the new $4000 Italian ones I see in a recent catalogue. 

After all the too'ing and fro'ing, I leave with fingers crossed. Time to get the lights in and move on. I meet Robyn on site and get her advice on claw foot paint colour- we settle on Pure Pewter. The windows are wide and I hear a door slam. It's Kahu's door and we can't push it open. No point climbing in the window either, there's no door handle. Meanwhile Kahu's doing a garden job I've been putting off for ages, extracting a Japanese Maple stump. A friend gave me the tree when Kahu was born and I planted it under the huge plum tree in the back corner. Like so many other trees planted in ignorance, it was getting too big so I beheaded it a couple of years ago but never got round to taking the stump out. With the tenaciousness of a sentient being, this tree clung to life and resprouted. Kahu works up a sweat with a small axe and a saw. It's hot and he's sweaty but determined to complete his job. I have a couple of forays and it lifts at last. The roots are large with a good grip on the only home this tree has ever had. Apologies, tree gods.