Elvis is laying again!

Can you believe it?!  Elvis has laid two eggs in the last few days - just amazing when you remember that we didn't think she'd make it to New Year!  Mind you, you really do have to laugh at today's effort.  You know I've said that sometimes one of the chickens lays half an egg by forgetting to put a shell on it?  Well Elvis's egg today was just half-size - it's tiny and looks so funny.  I was up at the top hanging the washing out when Bob first went into the chicken run and he came out to ask if I'd already been in there because he thought I was playing a joke on him. . . . . . just look at this . . . .

. . . . the other egg is her one from two days ago.

As predicted, I didn't have three days off last week and had to go in on one of my days off and this week I just have two days, and next week I am doing 20 extra hours!  This all makes planning house activity quite difficult, but hey ho.  I have a WHOLE WEEK off in February!  Then back in for a week and then over two weeks off.  Because I haven't taken any holiday since I started in August I have had to cram it all in before the end of March.

The window frames are now all made and are at various stages of painting/wood preserving, so we need to order the glass for them now.  That is usually ready to pick up within the week, so should fit in quite well with painting.  Here's the trial run of the smallest window.  We have left the original wooden lintel in (don't worry, there's at least two new concrete lintels behind so this one is only decorative really).  It is so NOT level!  Bob had to make the frame slope at the top to fit, but leave the casement for the glass square so it all looks really wonky which I love.  I don't actually think you'll notice it as much once it's all painted the same colour.  The new slate sill looks as though it's always been there doesn't it?

We made some marmalade last week which seems to have turned out rather well though I say so myself.  We used brown sugar so it is quite dark and very orangey.  I'm in the middle of another batch, but this time a lighter one with white sugar and a couple of lemons added for a bit of variety.  I invented a new dessert (well, I've not seen it before though it may exist) using the dark marmalade stirred into a dark chocolate ganache on top of a biscuit base.  This was inspired by a cake my nephew made us for Christmas using the same flavours and it worked really well.  Luckily, I wrote down the recipe as I made it up, so I should be able to replicate it.  Phil and Ann came for dinner on Friday, so they were my guinee pigs!  I don't think they minded too much.

Right, this week Tuesday night is my Saturday night (in my M&S work pattern) and we're having curry, so it's time to crack open a beer and get the naan bread dough on the go!

Well, we're back into the swing of working and getting on with the house.  Although my contracted hours at M&S have been drastically reduced, I only had one day off from New Year up until Thursday this week!  So, it was quite nice to have two days off together and then this morning as well.  Next week I have three whole days off (mind you, I thought I had this week, but it didn't work out that way).

I actually got on with some real 'building work' - making mortar and building up the walls around the 'hayloft' door.  The end bedroom used to be the cow barn (it had a trough and everything) and above it was a hayloft with a door to the outside.  Because the house is built into the hill, this door is at ground level on the outside but above head height inside.  The bedroom will have a very high ceiling and this doorway will be a window.  The stonework around the frame was very uneven, so it needed more stones putting in and a lot of pointing to fill in the gaps.  On Thursday we put the glass in which was a bit scary.  We had the scaffold tower up inside, but only had two narrow boards on it because we are using the others somewhere else and we hadn't bothered adding the extra set of bars to make sides round where you stand, so I was on that while Bob passed the big double-glazed unit to me through the opening from outside.  For some reason, I was really nervous (usually I'm absolutely fine).  I think it was because of the glass and the responsibility for holding it because I was fine when the glass wasn't there.  Anyway, apart from my nerves, it went in without any problem and that is another hole sealed.

Bob has finished building the steps to the (extremely low) doorway to that bedroom.  It is not a doorway that will really be used, but because it is a bedroom that doesn't lead onto a corridor or hall, it has to have a fire escape.  The steps are quite steep and curved, they look brilliant - I love curved brickwork.  This little corner gives an idea of what I imagine the rest of the garden will look like.  I think there'll be lots of steps and little walls all over the place.  Bob is now working on the frame for the little window in this picture (this will be the opening window for ventilation in here).  He had to make a sill on the outside, so he cut and split a big chunk of slate we had lying around - I think it used to be the kitchen door threshold.  Like the bigger barn doors I told you about, this will have the little door pinned back to retain the look.

We have done a bit of entertaining this week.  Maggie and Bill who I've spoken about before (just down the lane, renovating a cottage and barns, moved here just before us, daughter with a mohican) have sadly split up.  We knew about this ages ago, but it was kept quiet for quite a while.  Anyway, Maggie moved out just before Christmas and Bill went away for most of December until after New Year.  Things were a little awkward for a while with us seeing both, but having to be careful what we said to either.  So, now Bill's back and Maggie has her own house, we can see them as separate people and things are much easier.  Bill came for dinner on Sunday and told us all about his month away - including learning to morris dance!  Then Maggie and the mohican (which has gone from green through turquoise, red, pink and is now blonde) and the mohican's boyfriend (who also has a mohican), so Maggie and two mohicans, came for something to eat last night.  We could have gone wassailing last night if we hadn't been busy.  A girl at work lives in a village about eight miles away and they uphold the tradition of singing around an apple tree, tying things in the tree and pouring cider on its roots (to encourage a good crop in the coming year) followed by a lantern-lit walk across the hills to a pub - sounds like good fun and it's a shame we couldn't go.



I thought you might like to see where we've put the telly.  When it'off
and all black, it's hardly noticable - not sure whether it'll stay there though.
We have bought some new tiles for the sides of this fireplace with
hand drawn chickens on the picture tiles.  That'll be a bit of a messy
job to sort out though, so we'll probably wait until we're clearing that
corner for the stairs before we tackle it.



We've finally hung the tapestry we bought ages ago at Stokesay Castle with
birthday money.  I've been clearing the caravan out and trying to find places
for everything as I go.  I think this will eventually go in the lounge, but it might
as well be hung up somewhere rather than rolled up under a bed.
It's the Lady of Shallot by the way.



And finally, here's the view from our bedroom window this morning.
The first really hard frost since we moved in and we wouldn't know
how cold it was from inside!  I went in the caravan and it was minus one
inside - tee hee, good isn't it?  I'm not sure what effect it'll have had on
the plants in the garden.  We have all sorts of shoots and buds that
shouldn't really be there and even plants that usually die off and come
back in the Spring that have missed out the dying off bit and thrown
out new shoots, leaves and buds - we'll have to wait and see.



and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Yes, Happy New Year.  Hope you all had a good time and the going back to work/school/etc isn't too bad.  We had a quiet, but good one.  Laura went back to Scotland on Friday - they make quite a thing of New Year at Samye Ling with a huge bonfire and all the one thousand plus butterlamps lit, so she was quite keen to be there for that.  So we were back to just we two on Saturday.  I worked in the morning, then Phil and Ann called in for a cuppa with their son in the afternoon and we followed them out for a quick once around the 'block' for a breath of fresh air before coming back to light the fire and read for a bit.  Somehow, when we 'read' we always end up falling asleep - well we had been up since 6am for me to go to work and we had a late night ahead of us!  We made Beef Wellington with fillet steak for dinner which was just scrummy.  Bob went outside just before midnight with a log, money and bread to throw in as the first things to cross the threshold in the New Year for luck (it's a Northern thing I think).  Then a bit later one of the neighbours called round bearing a piece of coal which was nice.  She stayed for a while and we finally went to bed at about 2am.  All very nice although I will admit to a bit of a fuzzy head in the morning . . . . can't think why?!!  And so we can now say that we moved into our cottage last year - how strange!

On Friday we put the first door-sized window in the lounge.



The glass is, of course, made to measure and is a fairly snug
fit, but it has to have a slight gap all the way around to allow for
a bit of movement in the wooden frame.  Once it's in place you put
wooden beading on the inside to secure it and hold that in place with
panel pins.  It's a bit nerve wracking hammering the pins in so close
to the glass I can tell you!  I'm pushing on the beading to make sure
the silicone we'd put round the frame seals the glass in place.



And here we are looking out of our new window.
The old door frame is still there.  The idea is that
the glass is set back and so is unobtrusive (maybe
when it's mucky and doesn't reflect, that'll be the case)
and we are supposed to hang wooden doors that are
hooked open to maintain the look of the barn it used to be.
Whether we'll ever get round to that last bit, I don't know.



And so we survey our work.  Handy to have Laura here to take
photos of both of us together!  These window thingies'll take a
bit of getting used to, it looks a bit weird.  From the outside, with the light on
in the 'lounge', it's starting to look like some sort of barn conversion!
It certainly confused the chickens when they went in the other door, but
realised they couldn't get out of this one anymore!

The blackbird has been back pecking and flapping at the oak room window.  I think it must have been away visiting relatives for Christmas because I don't think it came while Laura was here.  The bird feeders are now very busy and seem to get empty rather quickly!  That may be because the woodpeckers and jay have found them.  The jay was quite funny when it first found them - it sat on a small branch next to the feeder and then tried pecking at it from there.  Of course, as you can imagine, the feeder just swings away when it does that.  The jay actually lost its balance once and swung down under the branch with one particularly wild lurch at the feeder!  One day we had a herd of redpolls in the birch trees outside the kitchen window, there were loads of them and were thoroughly enjoying the birch seeds.  I don't think they're that rare, but it's the first time we've seen them and I read in the paper the next day that their numbers had declined dramatically in the last couple of years, so I guess we were quite priviledged.  Once again, we have a robin who likes to think of himself as a chicken and hang out with our girls (they don't seem to mind this honorary member of their flock).  Elvis went through a bit of a wambly patch over Christmas and we seriously thought she might not make New Year, but she seems to have perked up.  She's definitely getting old though and needs her regular naps while the younger two go exploring and running around - she's not laying eggs anymore again, I think those few a while back were just a last fling!