Since I’m only just writing this one months later I’m just going to explain what the pictures are of as I don’t really remember to be honest.

Friday

Matt was playing with the cat in the garden, she loves to chase sticks round and round.

The hopper for the boiler was empty so before Tonia head’s off I thought I’d take the opportunity to get someone else inside it to fill it up.

Since it’s Tonia’s last night here we’ve made Tartiflette for dinner, look at the happy girl!

[6 January 2023]

Saturday

Tonia is up and leaving around 9:30 so I did get up to say goodbye. Must have made some sort of jam or chutney in the evening. No idea what kind it could be in January though…!

Mmm.. cheddar. Thanks Lee and Vicky, we do like a nice bit of cheese and what better to test the new jam/chutney with.

[7 January 2023]

Sunday

So not out of bed until about 11:30 but I did have a nice eggy breakfast by 12 noon which is pretty good by my book.

Matt is upstairs on the second floor working on the lights and electrics and running a load down to the first floor. We’ve also pulled out quite a bit of the old trunking that is pre-50s if it’s a day. We also need to get channels dug into the walls for the new gaines and electrics to go in. It’s super messy work and dust gets absolutely everywhere.

Matt has been making me remove a load of the paper in the hallway on the first floor. It’s made me very sad as I love this paper. There’s some interesting stuff behind it though so I tried to console myself with that. Looking at it though it feels like stripping the heart out of the place, however I did manage to pull off various stages of wallpaper that it was quite cool:'(

Some of it had to be done though as we needed the top 20+ cm removed to allow them to drop the ceilings when they come on Monday and to attach it to the wall so we don’t have to do the join later.

Over to Jonny and Cressida’s for a well deserved dinner. Cressida got me a lovely present and so to say thank you I nearly burnt down her kitchen. I didn’t notice the lit candle when I hurriedly and excitedly opened the paper and it fell on said candle. Thankfully I grabbed it quickly and put it into the sink. Crisis averted. Great present though, never knew such a thing existed. Time for dinner, drinks and amazing company. Thank you x

Got home and tried to puzzle but the cat was having none of it. Time for bed.

[8 January 2023]

Monday

Seriously back to work now so not much to report. Snow on the pic and I made roast dinner.

[9 January 2023]

Tuesday

One of the things we really need to sort out is the wood shed. The existing shed is full of the stuff that we bought which was already seasoned but we need somewhere to season the stuff that we cut down. Time for an extension! The pictures that Tita showed us from when she was young showed that there was a previous extension there and as it’s only small we don’t need any additional planning permission.

Lee has also sent me a lovely picture he drew during his visit, obviously this is me and the cat…!

Also time to start packing up the Christmas decorations and make dinner, meatballs tonight.

[10 January 2023]

Wednesday

Working.

[11 January 2023]

Thursday

Quick trip to over to Cressida’s and she’ determined to get rid of a few of these pines but it’s too big a job for us (Matt). This is going to need a professional. She has a few more in her sights too so we’re out but I’m sure she’ll find someone.

[12 January 2023]