Merry Christmas everyone

With Christmas rapidly looming up on us, we are now approaching the end of our 4th year living in France. We arrived here on 27th December 2007 and have not looked back since.

They say some things never change and, this time last year, Jane was stressing about her job as her temporary contract was due to expire. Well the good news is that as of yesterday, Jane has finally been awarded a permanent contract at the bank, securing both our future in France and my retired lifestyle.

2011 has been a year of highs and lows for us. First for the lows. Tissues at the ready because at the end of January we lost a dear friend and surrogate grandfather to the kids. My mother-in-law Janettes partner, Tom Scrace, passed away unexpectedly. Later in the year, at the end of June, he was to be joined by my Grandfather, Gerry Smallwood. They were two great men who will be sadly missed but I’m confident they will be having a drink together somewhere nice as they look down on our continuing adventures through life.

It’s been Peters year for the hospital trips, one of which resulted in a general anaesthetic and having the end of his finger removed and replaced. Another visit saw them stick the skin back together behind his ear and yet another saw him receive stitches in his lip after an accident with a sword. Not wanting to be left out though, Josh managed to slice his finger open with the brand new leather man that he had asked granddad for, for his birthday. This resulted in 2 stitches in his finger.

Progress on the estate has been slow, but we have managed to get the worst part of the roof replaced. This was around 3,000 slates along with the majority of supporting timberwork and a semi-permeable membrane. It equates to around one fifth of the whole house so, as and when finances allow, we shall do some more.

Last years fantasy of building a pizza oven turned into a reality over the spring and then, at our May party, it was christened when we cooked 50 pizzas in an afternoon. Our friends from the other end of the village were so impressed with the construction that I have since built another oven in their back garden. I’m not sure if there’s a career in it for me but they’ve been a fun couple of projects to work on.

We cleared out the biggest room in the house this year, ground floor on the right as you look at the front, in preparation for a medieval banquet. As with all jobs that we start, one thing led to another and we ended up digging up the floor and replacing all of the drains before the event took place. What followed was a fantastic birthday party for my friend David, myself and his daughter-in-law Rebecca where we knocked out a 12 course meal for 35 people. Some days I impress myself although I can’t take all the praise as Jane, my mum and Grandma Mo were exceptional sous chefs.

Dates for your diary. Just to really confuse people, our annual May party will be in June for 2012. This is because the usual bank holiday weekend has been moved for the Diamond Jubilee. It does however mean we have an extra bank holiday and will be partying from 1st to 6th June. We will be pig roasting and doing the paella on the 2nd, I think, and pizza on the 3rd.

For any softball fans, we’re partying from 3rd to 6th August and also 11th to 14th October. As always the weather will dictate the balance between playing ball and partying.

An additional party for 2012 will be 9th to 12th November when Jane hits one of those memorable figures that women don’t talk about. Not sure what we have planned yet, all I know is that she wants to PARTY.

Less than 2 weeks to go

The countdown to christmas is well and truly under way so, in preparation for 11 guests coming to join us for a few days of festivities, I thought it would be a great time to pull down a couple of walls upstairs and work on turning one bedroom and a dog kennel into 2 bedrooms. Unfortunately the job did not get off to the greatest of starts as the flimsy wood worm infested plank wall that was just nailed down to the floor boards, turned out to be set 6 inches into the ceiling. Now to add to my little mission of a couple of stud walls and a couple of doorways I also have a lave and plaster ceiling to pull down and replace, deep joy.

As Jane wrote the last blog entry, she focused on the important things in life like kids and christmas markets. She completely neglected to mention my experience of cider making local styleee. Under the cover of darkness at a neighbours house, standing adjacent to sacks and sacks of apples, a tractor pulled into the drive towing a medieval piece of equipment. My mission, as the hired muscle, was to sort and load the apples into a hopper which macerated them into a pulp before chucking them out of the bottom of the trailer into a wooden trough. From here they were shovelled on to a Hessian wrapped plank of wood before being wrapped and another sack and plank placed on top. This carried on until the pile of sacks was 3 feet high at which point the whole pile was then moved underneath a 25 tonne hydraulic press. As the pile was compressed the juice started to flow from a small pipe under the trailer and into a cut off barrel containing a little submersible pump. From here it was pumped down an old hose pipe into the wooden cider barrel in the cellar where it will be left to naturally ferment for a few months. All in all an amazing experience which I thoroughly enjoyed being involved in.

We went out yesterday and found this years christmas tree. Although not as big and bushy as our usual trees, we have opted for a tree with roots this year so that we can plant it out in January.

Update!!!

Well, what's new??? I will let the photos tell you!! We had a great evening at the Marche de Noel on Friday night. Kirsty and Peter sung beautifully and Josh was highly relieved as he did not have to!! He sat on my lap for the duration eating the biggest piece of chocolate cake that he could find on the stall. After finishing the singing Kirsty and Lili Rose spent all of their money on buying things that they really needed!!! (Note sarcasm in that last sentence please!!) After collecting seashells from the beach, the beach where Andrew caught a shark, Kirsty and I have been creative. Well, I should really say that Kirsty was creative and I had to glue everything!! A mothers work is never done. The most important mention for this blog should go to Josh. His school report arrived in the post yesterday. At first I had a panic, did they post the reports that were really bad so that the parents did actually receive them. I need not have worried, it is excellent!!! We are really proud of him, again. It is a bit small I am afraid in the picture, but I am sure a magnifying glass will work wonders!! Take care everyone and hope to see you all soon. xxx

Rock pooling, hunter gatherer style

I thought I should tell everyone about yesterdays trip to the seaside because I'm still buzzing about it now. Our French fisherman friend, Stephan, told us that there was going to be a really low tide up on the Cherbourg peninsula looking across the channel to Jersey.

We set off in convoy around mid day, 3 families in 3 cars, for the hour and a half journey. You could tell Stephan had amazing local knowledge as we turned down an unmarked bumpy road, turning at the end onto a sandy track and parking behind a 20 foot high dune. As we climbed over the dune the sea stretched out in front of us and the feint outline of Jersey was visible in the distance. The biggest expanse of sand ever sat between us and the sea where the tide was already going out.

Getting our priorities right, we cracked open a couple of bottles of wine and toasted the occasion before tucking into a picnic. Sandwich in one hand, red wine in the other I started the walk across the beach in the general direction of where the rocks were just starting to emerge. To give you an idea of how far out the tide was, I was walking out for over 10 minutes before catching up with the sea.

I'd left all the others eating their lunch in my mission to get the first decent rock pool find and, after wading out to some rocks just emerging from the sea, I hit the jackpot. There, stranded in a pool, was a fish of reasonable size. I didn't know at the time what it was or that it had a mouth full of teeth that could easily slice through my skin. I knelt down by the pool, pulled the sleeve of my jacket up and waited for the fish to pass close enough for me to grab it. At the first strike, I managed to get hold of it and had to hang on tight as it flapped about in my hand. What was peculiar was that this was not slippery like any fish I'd held before, it had a sandpaper like texture to it and it turns out it was a small shark.

As this isn't all about me I thought I should tell you about the lobster hunting. Stephan, in his chest high waders, was moving around some of the boulders looking for holes underneath them. He knelt down next to one that looked promising, the water was about 18 inches deep, then he plunged his arm under the rock going right in to his shoulder. He told us we were in luck, which suggests to me he'd already been nipped, in went his arm for a second go this time bringing out a medium sized lobster with glorious blue colouring.

Our foraging continued and resulted in 3 lobsters, half a dozen crabs, phantom shrimps, cockles and some other similar shell fish oh, did I mention the shark that I caught with my bare hands?

As the tide turned, we made our way back in land for a quick glass of wine before heading off to a local bar for a celebratory beer. I decided we should invite everyone back to ours for dinner which was when we got to sample the treasures of the day. First we ate the shrimps which, although small, were tastier than the prawns I'm used to. Apparently, pound for pound, the shrimps are more valuable than the lobster. Next up we tucked into the cockles and similar such things. There were 4 different types but we didn't know the english names for the other 3. After that the crabs and lobsters were chucked into the boiling vat while Stephan prepared a butter and lemon sauce to serve with them, undoubtedly the best lobster I have ever eaten. As if this wasn't a classy enough meal, Stephan also bought over a sea bass that he'd caught earlier in the week which we cooked on the barbecue along with a huge slab of steak that Patrick bought with him.

I'm really starting to understand what it's like to properly live your life. We have some great friends and I can't wait until the next low tide in a few months, when we can do this all over again.

My latest engineering project

To find an affordable solid fuel Rayburn with a back boiler is a tough job in the UK. Over here in France it's like searching for rocking horse shit. Never to be defeated though, as scouring the free adds with glass of wine in hand I came across just the beasty. Only an hours drive south from here was a Rayburn Royale with a 45,000 BTU back boiler in it. From the pictures you will see what a delightful specimen she is.

The only reason I could afford this bit of engineering genius, were the slight problems that came free of charge to accompany it. Firstly, in a previous attempted repair, the retaining nuts, specific to this type of machine, had been drilled out. The riddler was distorted and the mounting spider for the riddler had melted. The back boiler itself came with a slight leak but this was not a problem as it came with a new boiler, just not the right one. All the rope gaskets were disintegrating and the insulation looked like it may have recently been home to a family of mice.

Mission one was to strip the old girl down so I could tinker with her leaky boiler. Initially I had no great concerns because I can fix anything. All stripped out and cleaned up I attached the hose pipe and filled her up to see what we were dealing with and yes, as promised, there was a slight leak. Depressingly it was on the inside wall of the boiler where welding a plate over the hole was not an option. Angle grinder in hand it was like an episode of scrap heap challenge, first cutting the top off the boiler and then cutting out the corroded section which had two small perforations in it.

The good news is that I no longer have 2 small holes in the boiler, just one enormous letter box instead. My mission now is to cut a lump of metal from the brand new replacement boiler and weld it into the hole in the old boiler. It's been a while since I last had to do some water tight welding so this may take a few attempts.

Before anyone starts getting excited about the fact that we may have radiators in the house this christmas, park that thought as my plan is to get the whole thing ready for installation and then fit it in the spring when I've located some radiators, tanks and pipework.

Janes birthday weekend

Friday night was our friend Patricks 50th birthday party and boy did we have a great night. Having arrived at his house just after 6pm, we didn't get home until 2:30am. An impressive feat for us, especially as we had the kids and mother in law in tow. It was an amazing party where we ate and drank incredibly well. Jane would say I drank excessively but nothing out of the ordinary there. At the turn of midnight, I announce to all the guests, in my best French, that it was Janes birthday. She was thougoughly embarrassed as people sang happy birthday to her.

On arrival home, knowing that we had guests staying in the gite, I went in to sort out the fire to make sure they would all be warm over night. There were no cars about so I was under the impression that the guests were all still at the party we had just left. As I marched into the kitchen to stoke the fire, it became apparent this was not the case as I frightened a sleeping French lady half to death before apologising lots in French and departing. If her fire did get stoked that night, it was not by me.

The morning of Janes birthday and even the kids managed to stay in bed past 10am. I delivered Jane a bacon and egg sandwich, as requested, along with her birthday cards and a beautifully carved piece of Breton furniture I had located on the free adds.

Josh was on birthday cake duty, knocking out his now world famous Dorset Apple cake. Unknowingly Josh found one of the candles that you can't blow out, much to the amusement of Marylines children who thought that Jane was a magician.

Having had a late start to the day, we sort of bypassed lunch and rolled into early dinner. Kirsty made leek soup as we'd remembered to buy the leeks this time and I knocked out some KFT. Kentucky Fried Turkey.

Today has been a proper Sunday. Quite a rarity for us.A bit of a lay in this morning, fresh bread with lunch and glorious sunshine all day. I've planted a load of bulbs and had a good sort out in the green house even installing a tap to make the watering easier.

Post banquet blues

After entertaining so many people here last Saturday, by Monday everything was seeming a little too quiet. Because of this I decided to invite a few people over for dinner on Wednesday night.

With the imminent purchase of one of the closest houses to us, Sylvie and my uncle arrived along with Terry and his friend Howard who were selling the house. I think there were 16 of us for dinner which meant we could squeeze into the kitchen. On the menu this time was a samosa starter, roast chicken and funky carrots finished off with my masterpiece of creme brulee.

It was a really lovely evening and it was the first time we had had Madame et Monsieur Voisin for dinner. As if we weren't making a big enough impression already, the mayor dropped in for a chat during the meal as well. Special thanks to my mum and grandma Mo for their help with the food.

Last night we went to a bonfire party accompanied by our guy AKA Greffigy. Luckily the rain held off and he burnt well. Dave fired up the barbecue and another night of feasting and drinking commenced.

This morning I hijacked Kerry to help me pick up a present from another neighbour. He was in the process of clearing his garage and, having recently seen my banquet hall, told me he had a table top for me. It had come from a past Mayor and was made for his inauguration dinner. Unfortunately it was legless, but no doubt the mayor was as well.

12 course meal, lovin it

Well I have to say, as I quite often do, some days I impress myself. Not wanting to take all the credit for the medieval banquet mind you, as between Jane, Grandma Mo and Mum, everything fell into place and rolled out like clockwork.

The first course of "Moules Eclade" went reasonably well, however the strong cross winds affected the burning pine needles and hay resulting in a slightly smokier burn than we would have liked.

Course 2, goats cheese truffles. Having seen them on TV the other night Jane said she liked the look of them so I volunteered her for this course. Although a little messy in the production, the finished product looked exquisite and went down very well.

On to the third course, French onion soup. I'd started it off at 5:30am Saturday by caramelising the onions and then reducing them down, almost to treacle. The addition of stock, white wine and a small amount of seasoning and job done. Later in the day I fried off some giant croutons to complement the soup.

The last of the starters was a magnificent display of sliced meats. Dave and Chrissy had gone to great lengths, producing an apple tree former before decorating it with the meat.

And so we hit the first main course. Three legs of lamb pierced with garlic and rosemary and then slow roasted for four hours in the pizza oven. These were served up with roast potatoes, carrots, ratatouille, cabbage (with cream and lardons), boiled potatoes and mint sauce.

The second of the mains was a large salmon poached with 'herbes de provence' and butter. Sid, as he became affectionately known, unfortunately had a small accident on route to the banqueting hall leaving him tailless but he was cooked to perfection and consumed with delight.

Course 3 was the belly pork which Jane had managed to crackle to perfection. The French have a habit of removing all the fat from pork and replacing it with reconstituted fat sheets. Luckily Jane found some slabs with the fat still attached and there was more interest, and fighting, with the crackling. The last of the main courses was the beef rib. After 4 days of marinading in red wine and black pepper, this was roasted off for 2 hours. At this point I was starting to wonder if anyone would have any space left but I had nothing to worry about as very quickly it started to disappear. This was served up with some homemade horse radish sauce which had the ability to bite back and clear your sinuses.

First up on the puddings was the crème brulees which disappeared as fast as I could caramelise the tops of them.

Second up on the puddings was Chrissys home made apple pies served with local cream or custard. How people were still fitting food in I have no idea.

The final pudding, not counting the triple birthday cake, was Krusti. I made 400 and I reckon we got through 200 of them.

When we got to the cheese course, you could see people were done so we wheeled out the birthday cake, a Neapolitan of sponge, chocolate and fruit. Thank you Jill for a lovely cake.

All done and dusted, the night was an amazing success which I thoroughly enjoyed. Watch this space for future activities.

I went digging

In preparation for our medieval banquet, now only 11 days away, I decided to have a dig around in the banqueting hall to investigate the very unhealthy smell that was emanating from the floor. Just the fact that the ground was permanently damp suggested that there may be a leak in the drains somewhere.

What I uncovered was a little horrific to say the least. The drains were constructed of concrete tube sections merely butted up against each other and wrapped with builders sacks. A feeble attempt to keep the water and waste in which had failed dismally. There was only one option, as always, which was to do the job right.

Rain had stopped progress on the pizza oven so I hopped in the car to go and get the appropriate materials. I won't go into an in depth description of the stench that filled the room as I removed the old, fat and hair clogged, pipe work but it was pretty gross. It reminded me of my days of fixing sewage pumps.

With the site cleared and all the old tat removed I had no choice but to progress on with the new installation. The hardest job was reconfiguring the bath waste, previously running into a tin jug, to incorporate a trap and sit down under the level of the floor.

All done for today and I feel very contented. I believe a shower may now be a necessity though.

Great food, Great company Great quantities of alcohol

Apologies if you think I've been neglecting my blog duties recently. We've had some fantastic friends staying with us since last Wednesday and my attentions have been focused on the important things in life like eating, drinking and guitar hero.

We've had a major cook off over the last 5 days, culminating in some locally grown duck breast on Saturday night followed up with a binge session of creme brulees. Friday night was steak night which were barbecued to perfection, I'd expect nothing less from Russell.

In between times we've managed to off load a van full of hay, mend the ride on mower and cut some grass, make some progress on the pizza oven and have a thouroughly good time in the process.

Depressingly though Lucy and Russell had to return to their hectic city life and we have descended into a proper Norman autumn. Today has been overcast with a fine mist of sideways rain soaking everything in it's path. I chose to hide away in the log shed cutting the first load of logs for the impending winter that seems to be creeping up on us far too rapidly.

On the socialising front, we're having a medieval banquet on 29th October to celebrate my friend Davids 60th birthday and my 37th. After that things will be quiet until just before New Years when we look well on track to having a full house. As for next year, just to really confuse people, our annual May Party will be at the beginning of June. This is because the bank holiday that it usually coincides with has also been moved to the beginning of June and, on the brighter side of things, a bonus bank holiday Tuesday has been added to the week to celebrate the queens jubilee.

A blog from Kirsty

Saturday the 24 of September: Josh,me and mummy went shopping and bought a banana tree.

Tuesday the 27 of September: Mummy was at work, and Josh was at college, Peter and my teachers were on strike so we had to go to work with daddy and then I stayed and played with my friend and I stayed with another friend for the night.

Wednesday the 28 of September: Mummy was at work,daddy went to work, and Josh,me and peter to a friends house. Thursday the 29 of September: Mummy was at work,Peter and I were at school ,Josh was at college and daddy was working. Friday the 30 of September: Mummy was at work,Peter and I were at school ,Josh was at college and daddy was working.

Saturday the 1 of October: Daddy and Josh went to work and Peter,me and mummy went shopping and the rabbits were sun bathing.

Indoor picnic and pizza progress

Sunday saw the annual village picnic take place at the "salle de fetes". Depressingly a morning of never ending rain resulted in a very poor turnout and the picnic had to take place indoors. It was a great event though and somehow we managed to sit next to the Mayor and his wife. The bonus of sitting next them was that when I had finished my bottle of wine, I then helped them finish theirs which was a far nicer tipple than mine. The kids all had a great time as well, running riot and getting wet.

I have been pushing on with pizza oven mark 2. Friday is the key turning point on the project when we lift the oven base into place and I can start work on the brick igloo. This one is slightly bigger than mine so should be a little more challenging. That's not to say mine wasn't challenging though.

Hard slog on Saturday

I've been busy over the last few months scrimping and saving every penny I could so that I could knock another project on the head. On Wednesday I took delivery of another 10 tonnes of gravel and then Saturday morning, 8 tonnes of sand and 15 large sacks of cement turned up. As if there wasn't enough going on, we also took delivery of 18 months worth of fire wood on Saturday as well.

Saturday afternoon, phase 1 of my concrete mission was put into action. Having spent a couple of days with Louise digging out over a foot of saw dust from the log shed, the coast was clear to put in a concrete floor. Those of you thinking this is a little extreme for a log shed need to appreciate how much wood we have been writing off due to the damp coming up through the floor.

To kick the job off, I had 2 enthusiastic children helping on the mixing front. The novelty of mixing concrete rapidly faded by about the 10th load, but Josh did come back and help for the final push to the finish. Thirteen sacks of cement, 39 mixer loads of concrete and a fair number of trips back and forth to the log shed saw the job completed in about 4 hours.

I am unfortunately suffering greatly from the ware and tare on my body. My wellies were rubbing away at my calves and, combined with splashes of sand and cement, I am now modelling some enormous blisters on both legs. Even sleeping last night was a painful experience.

Hopefully next weekends mission will be to concrete the floor in the garage, preferably this time with slightly less injuries.

Mon Premiere Semaine a College

My first day at college was very good I was given my year group and my main teacher and learnt my way around the school and the food was better than the last school. Second day I started to do lessons and the where alright. Third day was harder because of so much homework. Last day of the week lots of work and homework but all in all it was a good week.

Last Day of the Holidays!!!

Andrew is almost breathing a sigh of relief and the kids are moaning!!! It is finally the last day of the holidays!!! Josh starts 'college' tomorrow, Kirsty is back to CM1 and Peter is moving to the 'big' school for his last year of nursery. Next year he will start big school proper!!! Scary!! The weather was decidedly miserable this morning but the kids enjoyed themselves playing on the computer and watching television. A nice laid back morning. Once dressed, we loaded them in the car for a big adventure!! After a lunch at Mcdonalds, healthy salads had by all of course, we walked through the hedge to the bowling alley. Peter bounced all the way there. Kirsty was busy bragging that it was her second go and Josh was smiling as it was his first time!! The kids had a fantastic time and good fun was had by all. Let's hope that the first day back at school goes just as well. Good luck guys, we love you. xx

Working again

We've been lucky enough to have Steve and Laura here for the last week which has meant that my normal inability to get motivated has been kicked into touch. The major missions for the week have all revolved around stone walls.

First up was the gable end of the house where, having replaced the main roof timbers, there were some gaping holes left in the end of the wall. With much lumping and grunting, numerous lumps of rock and buckets of cement were transported up the ladder to the top of the scaffold where, with a minimum amount of skill, they were used to fill the gaps around the beams.

Mission 2 was to rebuild the back wall of the barn. This has been on my priority list since we first took ownership of the house however it only became apparent how much of a priority it was as we started to remove the loose stones and rubble. One of the main floor joists was precariously balanced on some loose stones with just a small amount of mud holding them in place. Higher up the wall the internal face was leaning over a foot into thin air and needed to be dismantled. This revealed that the main A frame holding the roof up was, and still is, balanced on another loose pile of stones with just mud holding them in place. I hope to rectify this next week when I've got some more sand and cement in.

A week in the void

Well you'd have thought, being guest free, that I'd have knuckled down and got a few more jobs crossed off the list. This is not actually the case at all as I somehow aimlessly slipped into a void for an entire week. In this incredibly dark place I was both mentally and physically tortured by 3 monsters who were running riot for the duration. To compound the torture I also took 3 days out from my intravenous alcohol drip making me the most delightful person to be around.

Yesterday I finally escaped the darkest depths of the black hole by taking flight on my "tracteur tondeuse" for 5 hours. No mowing trip is ever an enjoyable one though as, once again I broke the mower, twice, and the rain continued to dampen my great escape. Prior to the mowing Peter and I got on and pruned all the trees in the back garden so that I could get around without having to duck every 5 minutes. This was when I realised there was an issue with the chain saw. As well as stalling every thirty seconds, it was billowing great foggy clouds of smoke. All the multiple starts were finally too much for it as the pull chord came off in my hand. DOH DOH DOH

This mornings job was to carry out chainsaw repairs and see if I could identify the cause of the problem . Billowing smoke would suggest too much oil in the mix so I went to the fuel can to see what the two-stroke was like. As I glanced into the can it looked decidedly pink and far more viscous than I would have expected. Further investigation revealed an empty tub of two stroke oil adjacent to the petrol can and that pretty much answered everything ""PETER"".

We are once again blessed with typical Norman summer weather. All I can say is that I am so glad I finished the roof when I did as we must have had 4 inches of rain over the last week. The news to brighten any dull day though is that the kids are finally back to school in just over a weeks time. Jane has sorted all of their books ready for the new school year and Josh, although a little nervous, is really looking forward to starting college.

You may be wondering about the picture, well I haven't taken any in a while so found this tasty looking feller from a couple of months back.

And then there were none

We are finally guest free having just shipped my mum, along with my niece and nephews, off to the port this morning. It's been a manic few weeks, with the first guests arriving at the end of July and numbers peaking at over 35 during our softball weekend. Fortunately the peace and tranquillity will be short lived with the arrival of Steve and Laura in 8 sleeps time.

Not a lot else has been happening here since I finished the roof. I've started the gradual clearing up process and have been returning all the tools and equipment to it's designated locations. The scaffold tower has been erected at the end of the hose so that I can replace some of the stonework around the perlins that I changed on the roof. This will be a two person job so I shall save it until the arrival of Stevey.

Another job complete

After an awful lot of rain stopping play on numerous occasions over the last couple of months. Today I Finally managed to complete phase 1 of the roof project. My knees, ankles and fingers are suffering from the steep angle and the sharp tiles and clips. We've had Adam Harry and Hollie here for the last week so I set them to work cutting and moving tiles for me, making the last stage of the job run very smoothly.

We've been continuing with the gradual wind down from the softball weekend. Last night we were down to 12 of us here and tonight we will get down to 9. It seems a lifetime since there were just 5 of us here, but come Thursday we'll be alone again. Thankfully not for too long as we have Steve, Laura, Maddi and Eleanor arriving at the end of the month.

I have to decide which job to start next. Thankfully Jeremy crossed one job off the list for me by re-puttying a whole load of the windows. Louise and I crossed another job off by digging 9 trailer loads of saw dust out of the log shed. Kirsty and Hollie mucked out the horse and donkeys stable and Adam and Harry have dug up all the compost heaps. Over the last 3 weeks I've neglected the veg patch some what, but Jane waded in to the jungle yesterday and managed to locate some of the crops amongst the 4 foot high weeds.