I'm so excited!!!



Newly decorated wall on the 'landing'
looking through to our bedroom

 So many things to be excited about . . . . . but, I have to admit, probably not that exciting for anyone else!

1.  I have been decorating - real decorating!  I know we've done the utility room and the bathroom, but they were plain, new walls.  In the last couple of days I have done the en-suite and the landing and they include old walls and ceilings with oak beams and purlins and it was so nice to see the way the new paint highlights the old, gnarly oak.  We do need to clean the oak up a bit to get rid of chalk and plaster marks, but it looks lovely already.

2.  Skimming phase one is coming on well - just a couple of panels in the kitchen ceiling, the long wall in the hall and a couple of little bits and pieces left to do.  We did the ceiling in the hall over the weekend.  I was dreading it, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought and looks fine.

3.  Forgot to tell you in my postcard from our 'olidays that we saw an adder on our walk.  It was sunbathing on the path and jittered away as we got close, but we had a good chance to watch it before it disappeared into the grass.

4.  Also forgot to tell you that one of the monks at Samye Ling let me bang the gong outside the temple for the evening service - what a priviledge.

5.  Tomorrow, the plumber is supposed to be coming to connect the wastes on the bath and the shower tray.  We moved the bath into the bathroom in readiness - now that is exciting!  Course, the plumber is a bit unreliable, so he may not turn up, but fingers crossed!

6.  The wren is sitting on the nest in the lounge.  We haven't seen them for a while and just this morning we had decided that they'd given up on that nest and were using a different one.  The next time Bob went in there the wren flew out right across his face!  When I went in a bit later I could see a little face looking out at me, but it didn't fly away and was still there later on.  We actually had a wren in the caravan this morning - must have flown in one of the open windows and Bob had to help it out.  Also had a chicken in the caravan who'd managed to get in through the lounge door and then flew out, over the wire mesh we'd put across the kitchen door to keep them out!  The woodpacker/nuthatch drama seems to have ended as a bit of a non-event - we haven't seen anyone on the beech tree for ages, but have heard/seen the greater spotteds across the lane in the woods.

7.  We were invited to join Bill, Maggie, three fairly grown-up children and a girlfriend from America for their Easter meal yesterday - delicious roast dinner eaten in the garden under a parasol - followed by an egg hunt.  Maggie and I hid over a hundred eggs of various sizes and then promptly forgot where we'd put the special bigger ones - think they found all but half a dozen little ones though, so not bad.  They'll be a bonus for whoever next does the gardening I think.  All good fun and lovely weather too.

8.  We have visitors imminent - Bob's dad (Arthur) and stepmum (Jan) are coming on Thursday afternoon.  They haven't been since last summer, before we'd even started putting up the oak-frame bit of the extension, so they should see a huge difference.  It'll be nice to show them around and have a chat.  Then mum and dad are coming for a few days from Sunday (staying in the local Travelodge) - a few changes since they were here too.

9.  Elvis laid her first real egg for about 10 days today - she had a few days of laying them, but forgetting the shells before we went away, then hasn't laid one for about a week, but managed one with a shell today!

10. Finally in my excitement list is that Carol (my sister) managed to get Bob a pair of Levi 501s for just £25 on her recent holiday in Florida, wow, Bob won't have to wear patched jeans anymore!

NOT on my excitement list is that the caravan is currently being bombarded by may bugs (or cockchafers - that name for them makes Bob squirm!).  They are huge, very solid and just fly constantly at the windows, banging quite relentlessly and loudly on them for about half an hour each evening from about 10 o'clock.  We have to make sure all the windows are closed by then because if they get inside they are horrible - really big and flappy/buzzy, a bit scary really!