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!