Gas finally runs out!

Don't worry, I'm not talking about some global crisis, but our never-ending bottled gas!  We, obviously, used bottled gas in the caravan to cook and heat water and a big bottle lasted 8-10 weeks - oh, I remember the joy of having a shower when it was due to run out and wondering if the hot water would last until the shampoo was rinsed off.  Did get caught out a couple of times, but whoever wasn't in the shower was at the ready with the spanner to change the bottles over double quick during the few days when it was due to run out.  So, when we moved into the house we took our bottled gas with us, but just for the hob on the cooker (there is no mains gas here) and I do prefer the 'turn-on-and-offableness' of a gas hob.  Friends and neighbours do the same and the concensus seemed to be that a bottle lasts about 18 months which didn't seem too bad.  Our bottle was part-used from the caravan and so we thought we'd get about a year out of it . . . . next week it will be three years since we moved into the house and it has only just run out!  AMAZING!  We didn't think it'd ever run out.  Recently, we've started using the whistling kettle we bought for on the woodburner instead of the electric kettle as I'm sure it's got to be cheaper.  I suppose we do most of our cooking on the woodburner through the Winter and so that is why the gas has lasted so long.

We have started building another garden wall - it's never-ending!  We have started on the herb bed which is in front of the lounge windows, so we wanted that bit of wall to look good which meant using some really big stones - it does grow quickly that way though!  We're still managing to use stone we have lying around, but they are getting smaller and more awkward in shape - you just can't help using the easiest ones first.

This border will be terraced within itself to make it go down the slope.  If we can get our heads round it properly, it should work quite well because we can have different soil conditions in each bit to suit different plants - stoney and free-draining for the mediterranean-type herbs, normal for others and acidic at the top where we will plant the two blueberry bushes which are currently in pots.  Once the herbs and blueberries are planted out, we'll be able to put something solid down outside the lounge - maybe cobbles or maybe we'll have to bite the bullet and actually buy something.  We've got so used to having all sorts of materials lying around and thinking of ways to use them that it seems very odd to have to contemplate going out and buying something . . . . maybe we'll come up with a plan to save us the trauma!  While we were building this wall, I noticed a very strange (and quite large) insect hovering over the sweet peas just behind Bob.  It had a big long body and a very long nose and, apparently, no wings?  Weird!  Bob turned and got a better look, but it flew off before I could get there to look at it properly.  We had a look in the book though and it would seem that it was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth which flies during the day.  It does have wings by the way, but it moves them so fast that you can hardly see them (hence the name I guess).  They are Summer visitors and some years are very scarce and others not - don't know if this is a rare year or an abundance year.

We just had a weekend in bonny Scotland visiting Laura who lives between Edinburgh and Glasgow.  It wasn't actually so bonny on Friday because it was piddling down, but the rest of the weekend was lovely and warm - I kept finding myself thinking 'You know, it could almost be Summer'  and then realising that it was actually still August!  We have had a very chilly couple of weeks haven't we?  We've had the fire lit a few times and Laura said she had to scrape ice off her car one morning!  We had a day in Edinburgh and took an open-top bus tour to introduce us to the sights although Laura did a pretty good job of pointing things out to us too.  We had a lovely couple of hours in the Botanic Gardens in the sun and then a quick run around the museum before closing time.  You know, there are quite a lot of tartan, cashmere and whiskey shops in Edinburgh!

On the way home we passed a couple of convoys of Police minibuses just before the motorway gets to England.  We were a bit worried that they were on their way to close the border before the election in a couple of weeks and had to try to overtake them (at about 71mph!).  We made it back across the border just in time though - phew!  Before we went, a chap in the pub told us to look out for a special woodland on the way up the M6 which we had never noticed before.  Apparently, in the war a German plane crashed into a hillside killing the pilot and after the war his widow managed to buy the piece of land where he'd come down.  She planted a woodland in the shape of a heart to mark the spot - how romantic.  I don't know if that is true, but going north on the M6 about a mile before J38 you can definitely see a heart-shaped woodland on the steep hillside to your right - have a look if you're ever passing.