Scrub that.

Today was possibly not a gifted choice of days to use Peter's ute - with a roof-rack to transport my beehive planks and a workbench top. It is, as you may possibly have gathered, sometimes just a little breezy here on Flinders Island. Driving into a half-gale (and later, worse, across it) with a lovely big wing on the ute roof... I was wondering if I'd see King Island from the air before blowing half way back to Africa. It was not one of my fast trips, with the ute hopping like a demented rabbit.

Now, Nangetty has huge North Facing windows... well, huge windows, but the entire North wall is glass from mid calf to over head height, with little bitsa wall between. Lovely for winter... not very good for the varnish on the wooden floors, or the rubber seals on the windows. We've tried to get the only guy on the island with a floor sander, to no avail so far (Piet-promises - to use an expression the South Africans will recognize, and the rest of you can guess at.) So while Barbs was painting walls (and making the white turn blue with her comments about the paint the salesman had talked her into getting as 'just as good as' the one she wanted, yours truly was having a go at the stains on the floor with some Pledge and a scrubbing brush. I had zero expectation of any success, assuming only major sanding would work. I was taken aback to find it was working... because I was scrubbing off the varnish. Anyway, some hard scrubbing and several square meters are back to unvarnished wood. Unfortunately there are a LOT more square meters to go, and my hands are feeling quite raw and sore.I'm wondering about the wisdom of an orbital sander with a scrubbing brush attached by cable-ties... Need to keep it well clear of any water tho'

Page proofs for DOG AND DRAGON have arrived. Just what I need to help the writing and moving along! Ah well.