Tales from The Shire

beanielou wrote: »

You have been a very busy bee

'Whiling away all the passing hours, pinching all the pollen from the cauliflowers"

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

I thought all dogs automatically get the best of everything.

FDawg certainly does INOD :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I've very impressed with all your annex-cleaning and box-putting-away

Cleaning and box-putting-away has been the story of my life for the past 18 months Cheery. I'll be glad to get to the bottom of the last box... does that every happen? Anyhoo, friend will be here in a few weeks so I have to get a wiggle on.

Fortune x

Progress has been made this weekend:

Annex:

• the annex living room and kitchen are shiny and sparkly
• I managed to rescue the fridge, oven and hobb but the dishwasher and microwave were very badly corroded and beyond saving so will have to be replaced
• I went charity shop shopping and managed to tick some things off the 'Needed for the Annex' list. Some other items were sourced from the house and some I bought from the Bay. I'll continue to look out for bargains.

Garden

• the big bed is weed free :T
• I also re-weeded the two veg beds
• squeezed in a bit of pruning around the annex too
• Mr F and I made a path through the lawn with some of the wooden planks we saved from the old barn
• Mr F made a log store from some of the pallets the builders left behind :T He is a clever chap. There are enough pallets left to make a headboard for our bedroom. I'm intended to deploy chalk paint and stencils for that one

House

I managed to run the hoover over and keep things tidy but the house has played second fiddle (or is it third?) to the annex and the garden this week. Now we've caught up a bit I'll be able to spread my time between the three and perhaps squeeze in a social life too :rotfl:

I've had a long bubble bath and a glass of wine as a little reward for all the hard work. It doesn't look much when it's listed but we're both exhausted and are expecting to sleep well tonight

FDawg has been mainly supervising or trying to bury his beef hide treats under the shed :rotfl: But apparently that is exhausting work too as he has been fast asleep on his bed all evening :rotfl: He does seem to be putting a little weight back on and he definitely has more energy. I'm feeling reassured so will continue with the weight gain diet for another week.

Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend. Isn't the sunshine glorious.

Fortune x

I have decided to have a couple of 'normal' days where I'm just doing routine chores and not wearing myself out on major projects.

My lovely neighbours gifted me some rhubarb yesterday and have promised a crown too when the time is right. I used half to make a couple of small bottles of Rhubarb Cordial. I have given them one bottle as a thank you and the second I am keeping to make gin cocktails The rest of the rhubarb will go into a cake on Friday for when Mr F gets back from his travels and is here to eat it :rotfl:

I got a couple of loads of washing done and dried on the line. Our little back courtyard is a real sun trap and it only took a couple of hours to get everything dry. The rest of the day was spent trying to get on top of the ironing (yes, it's still a work in progress).

Today I intend to get some cleaning done and the grocery shop is due this afternoon.

This evening I'm out at another WI Quiz although I don't rate our chances much as we've lost our history girl. I'm quite good on science, nature, literature and art but rubbish on sport and history.

The blackbird nest by the back door has chicks in it and we also have sparrows and blue tits nesting under the eaves of the annex. They have been flying in and out all day with beaks full of worms and caterpillars. The grass in our field is very long now and I think we should be getting it cut but it's full of wildflowers at the moment and so pretty I'm reluctant to call someone in. I love this time of year.

Happy Tuesday all

Fortune x