Thursday, September 02, 2010

I don't do windows!

Right. We have lived here for three years now, and in that time we have NOT ONCE cleaned the exteriors of the upstairs windows. I refuse to go up that high on a ladder, Gordon is lousy at window-cleaning, and on top of it we couldn't figure out how to get the screens off!

Finally, I laid it on the line for my hairy half: "For the love of all things shiny, let's hire someone to clean the damn windows!"

And so, after lot of procrastination on the part of a certain bearded husband, we did. My scrawled note on the kitchen chalkboard no doubt prodded him into snail-like action:



Now we have a houseful of clean, sparkling windows and I couldn't be more pleased. It makes bird-watching much easier, and it means I can take photos like these without a haze of filth obscuring everything:


Mr. Chippy raiding the squirrel-proof birdfeeder. The red squirrels are too heavy and weigh down the bar so that the feeding ports close, but I like the chipmunks so we have set the adjustable feeder so they can go ahead and fill their cheek pouches!

And our resident American kestrel:


That's the best I can do with the long lens I have. One day I'll buy a better camera lens for bird shots.

We always seem to have a kestrel (maybe the same kestrel!) sitting on our power line, looking over out fields. I read that, among other things, they enjoy tasty grasshoppers. We have lots of fat ones hopping about right now!

But the funniest part of today's window-cleaning was when Daniel, window-washing wizard extraordinaire, pointed out to me that almost every single window in our house, including the upstairs ones, is a tilt window. In other words, I could have cleaned ALL the windows from the inside of the house, no ladders needed, at any time over the past three years.

But Daniel did a better job than I ever would have!

Happy upcoming long weekend. I'm off to admire my clean, shiny beauties. (Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about the windows!)


4 comments:

  1. AH I am glad that we have an plethora of people looking to clean our windows cheaply. Just as well or they would never have been cleaned!

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  2. See, that's one of the things I like very much about the UK: you value clean windows! (And you have the best chocolate.) I remember being amazed, when I last visited my cousin, at how often she had her windows cleaned. By contrast, it was incredibly difficult to find ANYONE around here to do ours. Daniel normally only does commercial these days but he took pity on us and thank God he did!

    I don't think Canadians value clean windows (in homes) the way Brits do.

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  3. I don't do windows either - and most of mine are covered in little cat-nose prints!

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  4. Wandering Cat, I couldn't see the kitty nose-prints for all the dog slobber on our windows. :D

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Thank you for all your comments, which I love to read!