Happy Cristmas Everyone!

Yes, I hope you all had a very happy Christmas.  We had a fairly rushed time, but it was still good. Laura was down from Scotland for a week and went home yesterday.  I was working on Christmas Eve and then back in again on Thursday morning.  In between, we went over to Peterborough to stay at Carol and Graham's.  On the way we called to see Bob's sister for a while.  On Christmas Day we also saw Mum and Dad because they came to Carol's and then on Boxing day we saw Ben and Lucy on our way home - phew!  We managed it all!  Apart from having a crappy cold (Graham had it too, so I blame him for passing it on to Mum not me) we had a really good time with the usual way too much to eat and drink - Carol worked really hard to provide everthing we could possibly want, but I'm still sitting here eating chocolates!

On Boxing Day we met Ben and Lucy at a little village with a ford in the middle and a bridge next to it.  Each year, the retained fire brigade with their old 'Green Goddess' fire engine (which is red not green) challenge the modern Fire Brigade with their modern engine to a 'tug o'war' across the ford.  A barrel is strung up and they have to squirt it from either side to try to 'push' it over to the other side.  This year the ford is twice as wide as usual because of all the rain.  There is a considerable amount of squirting each other and a lot of spray over the crowd on the bridge, but it is all a really good laugh.  The boss of the 'old boys' looks just like Captain Flack from Trumpton with his polished brass helmet.  The pub serves mulled wine, spiced cider and soup as well as the usual and it was all jolly nice.  We then spent the rest of the day eating at Ben and Lucy's - they even made homemade butter for with the homemade bread!

Do you know, people were actually on the verge of violence in Oswestry M&S on Christmas Eve over the reduced turkeys!  Can you believe that in Marks and Spencers of all places?  What is the world coming to.  It's a good job I wasn't there at that point because I think I would have got quite cross with them.  Before Christmas I got the Spotlight of the Month award for customer service (for helping an old lady who was feeling ill - she wrote in to say how helpful I'd been which was nice).  Didn't get such a great mystery shop report the week after, but hey-ho, I wasn't the only one.

Before Christmas I found some Seville oranges in the health food shop - really unusual as you normally don't see them until the end of January.  So I got some and we made a batch of marmalade the Friday before Christmas so we could include a jar in Mum and Dad's home-made hamper christmas present.

Bob managed to put the guttering up on his shed . . . .sorry, workshop, I must stop calling it a shed!  He did most of it in the rain which probably wasn't a sensible idea because the rain ran down the wriggles in the roof and straight down his sleeves as he worked . . .mmm, nice.  Then, doing the back, he'd got the joint for the downpipe in place and all the gutter itself in place when it started raining again.  Course by then the guttering system was working and sending the water down to the downpipe which wasn't actually in place and so instead it went straight down Bob's wellies!  Oh, what fun.

Bob finished making his bench and mounted his big vice on it.  He had to attach that to the top and then lift it into place which I think was quite a struggle as I was at work and so couldn't lend my muscles!  He has also put quite a few shelves up and is trying to work out what should go where.  I think things could move around for quite a while before they find their natural place.  This picture shows quite a momentous occasion as you can obviously tell from the excitement Bob is showing!  It shows the start of the first creative project in the new workshop - Christmas presents made from some of the old dead Beech tree behind the workshop.  Bob made long boards with a hollow scooped out and a recess to locate a little bowl, to be used for bread and dipping oil, tortillas and salsa, crisps and dip, etc.  This morning we started sorting the woodburner out and have bent the brackets to hold the flue in place, but then guess what, it started raining and pouring through the hole in the roof so we hade to put the piece of hardboard back in and leave it for now.  There is a big grommet piece to seal round the flue pipe on the outside and that needs to be siliconed in, so we can't do that properly unless the roof is dry.  I guess at some time there won't be any more rain left in the sky and we might have a dry spell?  Still, we've made a start and that always makes it easier to carry on with a job.

Now, to me this is an exciting photo . . . . don't expect anyone else to feel the same don't worry.  This is the wall in the lounge that is going to stay as exposed stone which we pointed a few weeks ago.  These walls just look so much better once they have been pointed - before, when they have been raked back, they remind me of my Grandma when we caught her unawares without her teeth in!  We still have to do the top half of this wall as it will be open to the roof at that end.  The woodburner is going to go against this wall, so before we take out the temporary ceiling/floor we need to knock a hole through to the chimney for the flue.  That's another job we're not looking forward to, but it probably won't be as bad as we expect.  It will involve getting back on the roof though to feed the flue down and attach it to the chimney - gulp, we've lost our nerve for that sort of thing!  We actually chose and bought the floor for the lounge just before Christmas - now that is exciting.  We've gone for Oak flooring - engineered boards as they cope with underfloor heating much better than solid boards.  We got them from our friends, the decorators merchants and, despite a big sign asking people not to ask for discount because they were already at a bargain price, he knocked some off without us asking because we are in there so often - valued customers you see!  Ahh, how nice.  He also gave us a whole roll of underlay and told us to just use what we need and bring the rest back.  It'll be ages before we can lay all this - wouldn't be good to be knocking holes in the wall after it's down would it?

We actually had to buy some firewood a couple of weeks ago.  We have a fair bit stacked up which was supposed to be ready to use this Winter, but it just hasn't dried out at all this summer.  In fact, I think some of it is wetter now than it was last Spring!  That's not supposed to happen is it?  We went to the woodyard expecting to buy logs but came back with what looks like kindling!  It is kiln dried hardwood offcuts which they swear by.  It's what they choose to take home for their own woodburners.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but does burn quite well.  The woodpile does look a little odd though doesn't it.  Still, the chickens like it in there.  They seem to be coping with all this wet weather and are still laying - we have two or three eggs each day.  I think we should re-name Dot Benjamin Button as she seems to be youthing instead of aging.  She's gone paler and her comb has got much smaller like a teenage chicken and she's not laying.  She has just moulted, so I guess that's why and hopefully she'll be back to normal shortly.  It's funny, she's changed personality too - she used to be quite brash, but has gone all skitty and shy.  I guess if we had to run around with only half our clothes on we might get a bit jittery too.

Hope you all have a very happy and healthy New Year!

Bob's babies are back!

Bob's babies have come home and are now in their new room and seem quite comfy there.  They have lived all over the place since we've been here - in the lounge, the lean-to, the wriggly barn and even up in one of the top barns.  Now that was a job to get the Harley up there in slidey wet mud and we really didn't think we'd manage it, it is just soooo heavy!  We had to use some brand new roofing felt to give it some grip and even that it threw out behind before we finally managed it.  At one point we had it half way up the hill with no idea if we could get it the rest of the way or even how we'd get it down again if we couldn't do it.  Oh, we do have some fun, but we usually manage somehow and that was ages ago.  So, getting them back from Ray's livery stable where they've been living for the last few weeks was a doddle by comparison.  We collected them on the trailer because it wouldn't be fair on the horses to be revving motorbikes outside their stable.  It did pour with icy rain while we brought the Harley back which was unfortunate as it obviously got very wet (the rain stopped the minute we got it in the bike store!  This is the first time for a long, long time that Bob will be able to get at either bike easily without moving a load of kelter out of the way first which will be really nice for him and hopefully he'll get more use out of them once Spring is here because it'll be easy.

D'you see, we've pixilated the number plates out
like they do on telly - how clever is that?

Well, the workshop is a mess!!  Bob is in the middle of moving in.  I dare say he'll have a couple more nights in the house before he finally moves in!!  Nah, not really, but we are moving all the 'stuff' into the workshop.  Yeah, we no longer have a router table in the living room, how 'normal' is that?!  Bob is in the middle of building a work bench because it's all very well having a nice new workshop, but without a bench, shelves, hooks, etc it's pretty useless.  We're at that in between stage of not knowing where anything is because it's not in its old place, but doesn't yet have a new place.

This afternoon I raked out all the old mortar from one wall in the lounge.  This wall is going to stay as exposed stome and so needs cleaning up and pointing 'properly'.  It is probably one of the oldest walls in the place as it used to be the outside wall of the original cottage.  As far as we can tell, the cottage was built as a two-up two-down standalone house and then a barn was added (what will be the lounge) and then, in whatever order, an extension was built for the dairy/scullery on the side (replaced by our stone extension) and another barn added onto the end of the first barn (our second spare room).  So, because the wall I've just raked out was an outside wall, it is made of much better stone than the internal 'rubble' walls which were always intedned to be plastered and that's why we're going to leave it exposed.

Other events of the week are that I went Christmas shopping in Shrewsbury yesterday - I managed 3 hourse before I got fed up!  Not bad for me.  We had a funny card today with a photo of a chicken with a bobble hat and legwarmers on, it did make me laugh!  We made lemon and honey marmalade (does that make it Lemsip marmalade?) - it's really very nice.
We went to the newly re-opened village pub ofn Wednesday.  Very quiet because the official big openeing is not until next week.  It's quite different to the old pub - very pared back and minimalist ( a bit too much so for my taste and I was dying to offer to make them some curtains).  Definitely worth going again though to check out how it matures - keep you posted!

Dah dah!

Dah dah!!!!

Woohoo, we have electricity in the workshop.  It took considerably longer than we expected and, I think, longer than sparky expected too (it was him that said it'd take one day!).  It actually took three days in the end.  This wasn't really helped by the fact that he had his NAPIT inspection on Thursday.  NAPIT is the regulatory body he's part of which allows him to inspect and certify electrical jobs.  They do an audit of their members once a year which involves checking their paperwork, certificates, etc, a short exam and then a look around a recent job.  Dave asked if we minded if he brought the inspector to look at the workshop which, of course in our innocence, we didn't.  I think he was actually really nervous about it which meant that he took ages setting out all the conduit and trunking - even Bob said he was being a bit over-picky about some bits and that is rare from Bob-the-perfectionist!  I was also expecting that we would do a lot more of the non-technical stuff - screwing trunking to the wall, etc but he didn't want any help (we might mess it up) and so it all took longer than it really should have.  Anyway, it's done now (just the bill to pay - gulp!).  Oh, he passed his NAPIT inspection with flying colours by the way.

Yeah, so we have electricity in the workshop but we have cleared it and painted the floor so we can't go in there for a bit while that dries.  Bob did the second coat this afternoon so it should be dry by tomorrow afternoon.  In between coats this morning Bob also made his 'hearth' - some paving stones for the woodburner to sit on.  It could just sit on the floor as it is non-flammable, but we thought if there was a slightly raised area you would know you were close if you were carrying a piece of wood or furniture and not concentrating.  Next job, once the floor's dry, will be to put the woodburner in and then start moving everything else in.  I think it will actually be quite warm in there.  We had a heater in there while the electrician was here, but he switched it off after an hour or so.  Bob's going to be roasted with underfloor heat and the woodburner!

As usual at times like this, there wasn't much for me to do except supply endless cups of tea, cake and cookies.  So, I did a bit of gardening and finally pulled the sweet peas up.  I picked a small bunch for the kitchen window sill first which is just really weird at the end of November.  With the sweet peas gone, I could tidy up the roses and tie them back.  I had to nip off losts of buds from them as well - they should really be concentrating on their roots a bit more in their first year I guess.  I also made the blind for the utility room.  I have had the material for ages and ages, but I forbid myself to make that one until I did that horibble triangle blind for the oak bedroom.  I enjoyed the making this one so much more than that.

M&S have finally given us our hours for the Christmas period and mine are pretty rubbish really - working until closing time on Christmas Eve and then back in earlier than usual on the day after Boxing Day.  So, our trip over to Peterborough to see family is going to be fairly pushed to say the least.  I'm also supposed to work on the Sunday before Christmas which is my Sunday off, so I'm not really too happy to be honest.  Don't work in retail I suppose is the answer.

On Wednesday evening we went to the Smallholder's talk.  It was about silk - from breeding silk worms to spinning the silk and then weaving, knitting, felting, crocheting it into things.  The bit about breeding silk worms was really interesting.  So, here's some interesting facts for you . . . they shed their skin five times before they turn into silk moths and this includes their face skin so you find little caterpillar faces in the bottom of their tray - aaahh!  The moths are really big (about your handspan), but don't ever fly, they just sit around fluttering.  If you let the moth emerge from the cocoon it bites through the silk thread it's made of to get out and then the silk is of a lower quality because the thread has been broken and the resulting silk doesn't have the same lustre as if you laser/boil/steam the cocoon (with silk wormy-mothy thing inside) and then carefully find the end of the silk thread and unwind it in one go - this is called reel silk (I didn't realise that that doesn't mean it is real silk, but that it is reeled off the cocoon).  Silk has more tensile strength than steel, so if you made thick cables out of it you could build a silken suspension bridge!  Tights and stockings are catergorised by their denier rating and this relates to the number of threads of silk (so the number of cocoons) used - so 10 denier means that you would combine the threads of 10 cocoons to weave into the stockings. . . .  or do you knit stockings, knit I think?  Anyway, it was all very interesting and you now know what I learned.