Odds 'n Sods

Sunday was a day of odds and ends.

After a leisurely start to the day, I refuelled the chainsaw, wandered up to the orchard and finished off the last section of the felled tree. I now have a nice pile of split logs that need to be stacked in the log shed. That can wait for another day.

Next on the list was to attend to the 5 Series. It has sat under cover since the end of May last year, but its sojourn will end in a couple of months.* It needs to be MOT tested, have an oil service and have its EGR cooler replaced.** It is booked in for these jobs on Wednesday and I needed to ensure it would start.

It was little effort to remove the car cover and I was delighted that I had taken the effort to clean her before I put her away. She looks great both inside and out and there are no nasty damp smells. I unplugged the battery conditioner and attempted to start her. After a couple of attempts she fired up and was soon running nicely.

It was no surprise to see an array of warning messages, mostly related to an overdue oil service and the recall. The other messages disappeared as soon as I had pumped her tyres up a little.

So the car is ready for the workshop on Wednesday and I am really looking forward to having her on the road again.

This evening we headed over to see Bubbles and Bobbyn with a takeaway from China Twon.  We had a lovely evening catching up on each others' news and probably ate far too much. Bubbles pulled out a bottle of Jammy Red and I know I drank far more of that than I should have!

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* The vehicle excise duty on the 5 Series drops significantly at the end of April 2025. The car will then be put back on the road. We have used the Defender while the BMW has been SORN'd as we really needed a workhorse that could tow the trailer and also handle rutted tracks to various fishing destinations.

** As part of a manufacturer's vehicle recall

Post Script

I forgot to mention that, while pottering in the orchard, I noticed that the bees were flying this morning. Today's fine weather had encouraged them out. It was lovely to see them around the hive entrance, especially after the disappointment of loosing one of the colonies back in January. Let's hope this is a good omen and the colony will flourish over the coming months.