Catch Up

Well, the snow has almost gone at long last.  There are still some patches stubbornly hanging on.  The weather has actually been pretty good for the last few days with lots of sunshine and, if it wasn't for the melting snow, it might actually feel like Spring.  I'm hoping that the plants and wild flowers will suddenly spring into life, but there's not much sign in our little bit of woodland which is usually carpeted in wood anemone, violet and sorrel leaves ready to thow out flowers any time.  The primroses seem to have thrived and we have plenty of those and there are lots of bluebell leaves, so we'll see.

We have a job to do to fix the gutters which couldn't hold the weight of all that snow for so long.  Some of the rise and fall brackets are actually bent at right angles and the spikes in the wall are bent downwards meaning that the gutters are almost hanging off and not really very effective.  Course, the parts we can easily get to are fine and it is only the bits above the extension where it is right awkward to get to that need dealing with . . . .ho hum!

Talk about cutting it fine, this is how much tile
adhesive Bob had left when he finished the
floor!

So, what else have we been up to?  Well, poor Bob had to do the floor in the oak room all by himself as my knee is still not right.  Despite a second trip to the doctors for a second opinion and me asking him very nicely to please tell me it wasn't arthritis, it appears that it is which is a bit of a bugger really.  I've been taking ibuprofen for a couple of weeks and have been on till-duty only at work and it is much better than it was, but i guess it's something I'll just have to learn to live with (concrete over the garden and put ramps in everywhere!!!).  Anyway, nuff of that . . . . Bob did the floor in the oak room and so that is the end of the tiling and we just have the oak floorboards in the lounge left to lay and we are going to get on with that at the end of this week - I think that will probably make the most difference of just about anything we've done.

The end bedroom is now habitable and has been christened by Jan, Bob's stepmum, who stayed on Monday night.  Jan and I went up to Scotland for a couple of days to see Laura (at the Tibetan Centre near Lockerbie) which was really nice - it was the first time Jan had been and so Laura could give us the tour which was interesting even though I've seen it all before.




This curtain took a bit of planning - the bottom
of it is at head height, so it couldn't be just an
ordinary one.  Thankfully, it works quite well!

The others were much easier - I'm really pleased with the
material, even though Bob thinks the little hearts on it
are a bit girly!

Bob has been working hard on all the little wooden bits we need to finish things off like the tops of steps, tiny frames for the glass in the draught holes between the loung and the two bedrooms, pattress plates for curtain pole brackets, shelves, etc, etc.  At the moment we have bits of oak of all shapes and sizes all over the place.  I have a picture in my head of Bob with a stack of bits in his arms flinging them out from the centre of the room and they magically fall into place and everything gets finished all at once.  Might not be quite that dramatic, but it should all come together quite quickly.

Just for a very short time (while Bob was doing the oak room
floor) we had a settee in the lounge.  As soon as we saw it, we
immediately sat on it, closed our eyes and imagined the luxury -
lovely, even though it didn't have the cushions on it!  We've ordered
the second settee (bright red one from DFS) and we should have that
in a couple of weeks.

At last, the chaps came to fit the woodburner last week.
We had to wait a few days before we lit it to let the mortar
round the flue dry out naturally.  So, we had the first ceremonial burn
on Monday evening using the rest of the sticks we found in the bread oven to
light it - they'd been there about 30 years, so were properly dried out! It
did a good job of warming the room and also the end bedroom.
It was actually really exciting - a snug and comfy lounge is now
so close . . . can't wait! 

The Chickens seem to have used the snow as an excuse to go on strike and three of them aren't laying at all.  Good old Horse is the only one we can rely on!

Oh, nearly forgot to tell you, we saw a Red Kite over the quarry the other day.  Having lived in Northamptonshire where there was a big re-introduction programme and we got so used to seeing them all over the place, it was really exciting to see one here.  It is only the third we've seen since we've been here.  It looked as if it was just passing through rather than looking for somewhere to live, but you never know.