Light the fire...

woodfired

Thanks folks for the best wishes. I went to see the land agents today, they had spoken to our buyer yesterday and she was seemingly quite rude with them. There is no option to buy, it is owned by a large estate and the landowner has stressed that they must not dispose of any land. The land agents did stress that the gardens are for the enjoyment of the homeowners and will not be removed from the houses 'in our lifetime'. Hopefully this will put buyers mind at rest but who knows. Her solicitors are out of office til the midle of next week so we will be none the wiser til then. Meanwhile, it is affecting my ability to sleep somewhat.

Elsewhere, I have been playing with OP calculators for a 'just in case we don't move' scenario.
If we pay all of our savings off the mortgage we could be mortgage free in under 3 years, perhaps as little as 2. That would be amazing. But not as amazing as living in the dream house sadly.

In food news I've had some minted lamb steaks in the freezer for a while because we haven't enjoyed eating them. Yesterday I chopped them and slow cooked with onions, carrots and mint jelly in some stock. They were a bit chewy when grilled but the slow cooker transformed them. I split the mixture between 3 foil trays and topped two with sliced potatoes before I ran out. So I improvised and used some frozen hash browns that I defrosted then broke up to create a topping. Baked til crispy it was an absolute hit! We ate two hotpots last night and the other is in the freezer.

Happy Friday, hope you all have a good weekend.x

Bennettxoxo

woodfired wrote: »

Fingers crossed for you Bennett! How stressful is moving house? It completely takes over your life I find! Hope everything works out for you!

Wow woodfired, so much has happened since I last had a read of your diary.

I have everything crossed for your house move.

We finally got our mortgage sorted and completed on the 4 December (only 8 months after we viewed the house :rotfl:).

Started up my own little diary today and will hopefully get a bit better at keeping up with reading everyone elses diaries now.

savingholmes

The lamb sounds like it worked out really well.

Frustrating re the sale - hope you get better news soon.

woodfired

Bennettxoxo wrote: »

Wow woodfired, so much has happened since I last had a read of your diary.

I have everything crossed for your house move.

We finally got our mortgage sorted and completed on the 4 December (only 8 months after we viewed the house :rotfl:).

Started up my own little diary today and will hopefully get a bit better at keeping up with reading everyone elses diaries now.

Ahh bless you, thank you.

So pleased for you completing on your house - how exciting! I hope you are settling in well and enjoyed your first Christmas in your new home.

I shall pop over and have a read of your diary.x

woodfired

savingholmes wrote: »

The lamb sounds like it worked out really well.

Frustrating re the sale - hope you get better news soon.

Thanks SH for your support. I find writing this diary very therapeutic and I'm cheered up no end by everyone's good wishes. Thank you. x

Moneyfordreams

oh no!!
I don't know how people can do that.... I hope she doesn't pull out x

woodfired

Thanks MFD, me too. I've had a bit of a sleepless weekend and have been downstairs with a coffee by 6 each morning. On the plus side, its meant I've been quite productive!

Yesterday I cleaned upstairs, did 4 loads of washing (even got the bedding out on the line for a few hours), changed the beds and made a curry for tea. Then had a nice lunch out with Mum and Sisters using the vouchers I got them for Christmas. It was a lovely treat and we had a fab afternoon.

Today I have done the shop wholesaler order, done some work in the garden and had a sort out of the fridge. I've used a load of veg up out of the veg drawers in a huge vegetable bake. I roasted a bag of carrots, bag of parsnips and two big onions. I boiled some chopped potatoes, finely chopped broccoli stalks and leeks then added the broccoli florets, some peas and sliced savoy cabbage. Then I made a big pan of white sauce and stirred all the veg through it, topped with cheese and breadcrumbs (OOD bread chopped in DH's smoothie maker! :rotfl:). It was really nice and a change from the usual soup to use up the veg. It was especially good for lunch after we had been out in the garden, it's been a beautiful day but FREEZING!
I even had a bit of white sauce left so have stirred in some cheese and popped in the fridge. Nothing wasted and the kids can have that one night with pasta and some veg for a quick tea. :A

This afternoon we all wrapped up and borrowed my Sister's dog to go on a lovely walk around the hills and back through the woods. Millions of squirrels spotted and a couple of deer which is always a treat and a surprise given the noisy, non-stop wittering from DS!

Just home now to sit by the fire with a hot drink. Dinner is curry from yesterday so no cooking tonight and I've already sorted the packed lunches so only uniforms to organise. Looking forward to a night in front of the TV watching Call the Midwife. Love that program.

lucielle

I love Call the Midwife as well! Took my dogs for a walk and they behaved disgracefully! They were definitely on the naughty step.
L

savingholmes

Dogs can really cheer you up though can't they. Have a good snuggle.

lucielle

Don't know about snuggle, I wanted to throttle the pair of them at one point!
L