Happy Christmas everyone

Hello, I'm back.  I am sorry about the lack of bloggery over the last few weeks.  We have had a very busy and very sad time.  Bob's dad has been battling cancer for the last three years and for the last few weeks we have been backwards and forwards to Peterborough helping him with various jobs, appointments and so on.  Very sadly, he finally lost his battle a fortnight before Christmas - we will really miss him.  He was an avid follower of this blog and, apart from the fact that we haven't really got on with anything I can write about house-wise, I really haven't felt like updating it.

Arthur's last visit to our house

Anyway, I'm going to try harder now, so here's a bit of an update of the last month or so.  We had a visit from Ben and Lucy - the first time they've been since June, so they noticed quite a difference (I hope!).  They stayed in the oak-frame room and had a blackbird as an alarm clock each morning.  When I went in there before they came I noticed some strange fluttery, muddy marks up the outside of the window.  They turned out to be made by a blackbird (quite young I think) which sits on the window ledge and then flutters up the window, lands and pecks and so on.  It does it each morning at about 8am - strange.  It isn't bothered if someone's in the room, but it did move away as soon as Lucy got the camera out.

Yeah, Ben can stand up in the kitchen.  At 6'7" tall, we were worried
early on that he wouldn't be able to.  We dug as much out of the floor as
we could, but we did then have to put 3" insulation,  4" concrete,
2" screed and 2" thick tiles back in, so we were quite surprised
at the headroom - still not sure how we managed it.

House-wise, Bob has made more wooden latches for the doors and has made two door-size window frames - one for the lounge-to-be and one for the end-bedroom-to-be.  They just need another coat of paint before they are fitted.  We have the glass ready to go in them stored in the caravan.  What seems like an age ago, I sorted out the door opening in the lounge building a low brick bit along the bottom and re-doing the pointing round the rest.  I had to re-do the pointing because we had a change of plan for the walls in there.  Originally, they were going to be insulated, plasterboarded and skimmed so I just slapped the pointing mortar in without tidying it up at all because ti would never be seen.  We have decided we still want to see the original brickwork round the window/doors and so need to point neatly and limewash the walls.  Course the mortar I used was quite good and it was a horrid job to pick it all out again.  Not to worry though, it's all done now and looks quite good.  It's surprising how much difference these making-good jobs make.

We had a visit from the Council Tax Valuation Officer.  When we very first moved here we got a council tax bill saying the house was a Band D!!!!  It had no roof, no toilet and one bedroom - how can that be?  So we appealed and won and they took the house off the valuation list and instead made an entry for the caravan.  When we moved out of the caravan we told them and they removed that from the list and so they then had to re-assess the house.  Given their last attempt to band it as a D, that is what we were expecting them to try this time.  A nice lady came round and we helped her measure everything and pointed out all the relevant points like the bridleway through the garden, the proximity of the working quarry, etc.  She was facinated at the thought of going up a ladder to bed and had to take a photo of it - not for the report, just for her own use!  She said she may have to give the house a temporary banding and then come back when it's finished, but we had a letter a couple of weeks ago to say it was a Band B with no mention of it being temporary, so we are really pleased and surprised with that.  Although I couldn't help a little thought popping in to my head saying 'What, surely it's worth more than that!' - I'm not really complaining though.

Before Christmas, the smallholder group had a meal out with a quiz laced into it.  Along with our team-mates, Phil and Ann, we won our champions title back again after it was snatched from us in a very close tie-break last year.

Marks and Spencer have extended my contract again and so I have a job there until the end of March.  They have reduced the contracted hours though which annoyed me a bit because I have never only worked the hours I'm contracted to do and I imagine they will continue to want more hours from us.  So I am left thinking I should get enough hours to pay the bills, but not able to rely on it which is not a very nice situation to be in.  Guess I don't really have much choice though and as they have only kept on three out of the 12 or so they took on, I should be quite glad.

My sister thinks I'm a real country-bumpkin!  We have stayed with Carol and Graham a few times on our many recent trips to the Middle East (Peterborough) and one time they were off to Cambridge shopping.  Carol said they were going to the Apple Store and I got quite excited with pictures running through my head of a dimly lit, wooden floored shop filled with baskets of all sorts of apples and apple products, maybe some cider to taste - how lovely.  The thought of Apple computers never even entered my little rural head.  Carol thought that was quite sweet really!

What an odd picture - a Buddhist nun straightening
her Mum's hair!!!!!!



And here's a rare sight - Bob and I looking smart!
I suddenly thought when we'd got ready for Arthur's funeral that
this is actually what we looked like when we first met and we had to
dress smartly for work - how strange.



We just had our very first Christmas in our cottage and very good it's been.  Instead of a tree, Bob and I went for a walk and collected branches of holly, ivy and yew and decorated the beams in the kitchen.  Mixed in with little red and white lights and some wooden decorations, it looks lovely.  Laura has been here since Tuesday and came with us to visit Mum and Dad in Norfolk, to Arthurs funeral last Thursday and then to Carols overnight.  Then back here in time to get the fire lit and some food cooked for when Ben and Lucy arrived on Friday.  I had to be at work for 6am on Christmas Eve - aarrrgh!  Still, once I'd got out of bed it was alright and I finished at 11am - much better than having to go in for the afternoon I think.  We had a lovely evening on Christmas Eve and I had a bit of an emotional little happy moment.  I looked around the kitchen and Laura and Lucy were sat at the table looking at pictures on the computer, Bob was stirring his risotto and Ben was putting a log on the fire.  We had music on and the christmas lights lit and everyone had a drink in their hand and it made such a lovely picture - just as I'd imagined it back in the days without windows, doors or a roof, in the cold and wet.  It made me quite proud of what we've achieved and very happy to have finally made it - I had to give Bob and Ben a simultaneous hug!



A Christmas toast!