A Titanic Obsession

The original pier where some Titanic passengers boarded ferries to take them to the ship off Cobh harbor. Only 44 survived. Italiano: Il molo originario da dove salirono a bordo in piccoli traghetti passeggeri per imbarcarsi sul Titanic, che era attraccato fuori dal porto di Cobh. Solo 44 di loro sopravvissero (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My smallest boy aged 8,has a huge obsession with all things Titanic,i am sure with all the films and documentarys both past and present that have been and still are shown around the world i suspect he is not alone.We happen to live in Ireland,where in the north(belfast)the titanic was built,down south where we live,a little drive away is a place called cobh,where the titanic stopped to pick up more passengers on its fateful journey,cobh then, was called Queenstown.

.

I dont know where it started,we do watch most things concerning the big ship,we have a few bits around the house as we all collect something and i in particular love the sea and ships and history,so maybe its in his blood,his school library has a few books on it.most of which he has brought home and are now well thumbed and its contents consumed and shared in earnest! Cobh has an exhibition of all things Titanic and small boy is chomping at the bit to go,coupled with the sea nearby it will be a lovely day out for all the family,now would be ideal as it is the cenntenary year,and the weather isnt too bad,however i think we will save it for his birthday in september,if his obsession hasnt waned by then,for now it is Titanic season on various channels and he is firmly planted on the sofa alongside me,taking it all in and with hundreds of questions for afterwards!

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Spring Delights

These boots are made for walking….

 

Water,water everywhere!Gardening buddies….Tunnel Terrors….Free Range Eggs-home grown..We sometimes turn our “food”into pets,but never our pets….. and even our little guys get to free range…

Tunnel of Love

We have been very busy recently,getting my poly-tunnel ready for the year ahead,seeds are bought,any tears are repaired after my baby goat Toffee decided to investigate the inner sanctum via the plastic next  to the door,rather than go in the conventional way! The chickens also decided to inspect our work so far,i dont know what they thought about our progress but the inspection took all day and involved much clucking and scratching-it was like groundhog day for us as we had to keep on putting back what they were scratching out,whilst toffee decided to do a bit of dust bathing of her own.

We transferred barrow loads of  lovely dark brown soil from the huge veggie patch opposite,to be honest it is opposite but it slopes steeply so going down with an empty barrow was a lot easier than coming up and each load seemed to take forever and the tunnel seemed to be never ending in the quantity it swallowed up.I decided to weed as i went,which worked out very well as at the soil end they were shovelling it in the barrow,taking out all the rocks and stones and any huge weeds as they found them,at the same time they were raking and levelling the veggie patch-two jobs done simultanously,so everyone was happy and with two barrows in use it was like a conveyor belt all day.The goats contributed their “compost”as in between i was running back and forth from the stable and digging in forkfulls into the tunnel,so really we ended up with four jobs all done and dusted by the late afternoon and all of us keeping a mindful eye on the youngest budding gardener ellie-mae,though she spent a few  happy hours brushing up on her chicken chasing herding skills to get into too much trouble.We even managed to get her to take off her beloved pink wellies which she would happily wear to bed,long enough to enjoy a spot of trampolining with her older brother who hates gardening but eats the results raw and with gusto!

Early evening saw the once empty tunnel looking more like ready for work,pots and trays were cleaned and put on the centre tables which were expertly filled by ellie who after being shown how to do it by myself,threw herself totally into her new task and surprisingly did it very well,not even pausing to “test taste”the compost or tipping the filled pots out as per dinner bowl!we all thoroughly enjoyed the day despite it being exhausting work for all,the hens put themselves to an early bed-no doubt their feet were aching with all their garden scratching as were ours,Ellie-mae was almost asleep during her dinner and went gladly to an early bed dreaming of her beloved chooks and digging in the dirt day,we know she loved her day as she was caught sharing the love…..

Alphabet Soup-part 2

By request of my daughter i bring you part 2 of my musings originally written in october 2011,apologies for lack of quickness,i can only blame myself for having too many distractions and poor internet speed(well,my excuse anyway)

M-ostly been sodding about putting up and putting away christmas things since i last wrote,nearly a month later i am just about cleared of all things baubly,fat bearded peoplely and the dreaded fairy lightedly stuff.Two birthdays had and two more to come with st patricks day and easter inbetween,with animals and babies and gardening and housework i have,

N-o time,nuff said!

O-h,by the way did i mention animals?please note that i have recently increased my workload by upto seven possible baby chicks,not by hen but by an incubator,time will tell if i have been successful,11th feb is hatch day….i have also purchased not one but two milking goats,they are arriving in a couple of days,i am excited and nervous in equal parts,excited because i have wanted them for so long,nervous because i am not sure about the “goatability”of my fencing- i fear they will make regular attempts at escaping.

P-assive smoking,since january 1st i have given up the dreadful weed,hooray i hear you cry,well yes i have been rather proud of myself ,all the new found wealth has been well spent every week so far (ok,all 3 of them)havent got to the point where i have saved anything as i reward myself for my pain at the end of the week.However i have faltered this week as everywhere i go it seems everyone is doing it and this weekend has been very hard and well….i slipped up but not back into, my past habit-i shall be rectifying this very soon i promise you Arty-farty and all.

Q-ueues why do we do it?i have recently spent an awful long time waiting in line to be served and it is driving me slowly insane,throw in a couple of badly behaved children(thankfully not mine)and it could become nasty…picture a busy friday,a very large supermarket cum clothes/household/everything store,add in busy mums, trolleys piled high with weekly shopping and atleast four deep at say 6 or more tills with only two actually working and i must add working at a snails pace and you have a recipe for murder……someone had noticed the utter chaos and was shouting through the tannoy for backup,his voice was at fever pitch.No one dared move for fear of losing ones place,all eyes were darting between the two lone cashiers and a vacant till,my arms were full to breaking point as i had not bothered with a basket…stupid me ran through my head until i caught sight of a new cashier,she was looking straight at me and to my utter delight beckoned me over…i found a new will to live and sprinted quick smart over to my shopping angel-it took me less than five minutes to get my groceries and more than 20 minutes to get out of the dammed shop-note to shop maybe it would be a good idea not to send everyone for a tea-break at the same time-just a thought….

R-eadying the garden for the year ahead.We are having an exceptional january so far,usually it is very cold,very wet and very long and gloomy,however we have had blue skies and mild weather,yesterday i saw a wasp in my fruit garden and young leaves and buds on various plants therein,the earth is so soft that we rotovated the veg patch and considered mowing the grass!Today it had rained but i managed to get many garden jobs done and Ellie-mae got to play in the paddock with the hens,i think she enjoyed it more than they did!

S-wearing,unfortunately after 21 months of nurturing my youngest daughter in all things,her vocabulary is progressing fairly well,she can name every member of her family including the two oldest pets namely gucci and alvin,bistits are recognised as biscuits,budgies are our two newest birds,she calls them buddies which we think is very apt and deemed to sweet to correct her at the moment,shuz are what she wears on her feet and ed is what she puts her hat on…however she heard ONCE somebody utter an expletive and she has memorised and pronounced it clearly and alas loudly ever since,with great gusto and utter joy i may add-she is due a development test with a health visitor in the next two weeks….

T-ime or lack of,to do everything i have to do before the very thing runs out.I make lists,lots of them and get great satisfaction from crossing them off as i do them,i have even been known to write  down extra jobs i accidently managed to do and then cross them off.I must get them all done or i get really annoyed with myself,yes i drive myself mad by setting targets to do by a certain time,eg planting out my poly tunnel before the goats arrive(i can predict goats fighting to get into the tunnel with me,pulling up what i have just planted)trouble is i decide this two days before they are due..fencing off the veg patch(from them)two days before they are due…see the pattern?The chickens,i decided would be cleaned out today so i wrote this on my list,i spent so long on my” list to do today” that by the time i got to go and do it,it was dark-doubly annoying as i had already crossed it off as done as i was on my way to do it!

U-seless Items,we all seem victim to this or these.Today one appeared on my worktop as i was cleaning,small square silvery thing,at first glance i was annoyed as someone had obviously broken my teabag tongs and just left the pieces behind,so i put “aside”-why i do not know i am not a solderer or even possibly a welder and i am sure glue would not have cut it or for sure even  glued it! Later on whilst cleaning the opposite worktop i found a half empty bycycle repair kit that had been used earlier on in the day and then i realised my teabag tong piece was in fact an abrasive for roughing up an innertube to recieve a patch-note to “other occupants”PUT IT AWAY OR BIN IT”.We have a drawer full with potentially useless bits,i dont need another one.I recently realised that i had kept a potentially important bit of something for months,only to find in a better light or a maybe a moment of “better”clarity it was infact a piece of plastic from a toy,used to hold an “important”item from said toy,so it wouldnt get lost-i had in fact lost the item and kept the plastic “holder”.

V-accinations.Over due with Ellie-Maes,fortunately she seems to have the constitution of an ox,however when i am “free”the doctor isnt and vice-versa.Tuesdays are the only time the nurse is “in”and although the doctor can do them,he would rather not…the “old”doctor used to come to the village once a week for all to visit,he was getting on in years and a bit shaky,but he vaccinated my third child from baby to pre-schooler with no problems and the said child harboured no grudges!Our new doctor wont do vaccinations on Ellie-Mae,the reason being”I may not be able to resussitate her!W.T.F??? i am asking for the M.M.R etc not “lethal injection”,whilst her safety is paramount to me,i hardly think she will need resussitating-afterall she has a medical card,she is not a “private”patient,where it is a 50 euro charge-just to visit each time before being diagnosed-Dick Turpin is alive and well and doing fine in the medical profession for sure!However i found myself  “free”on a tuesday,i made the appointment the day before-all was booked and organised…until child no3 was sent home from school later in the day with chickenpox.Tuesday was cancelled until further notice incase Ellie-Mae caught it. The nurse said to return “sometime in march”!

W-ind-the weather kind,i hasten to add,not the human kind-although thats a whole other post in its own right!  The wind here is relentless,even on a sunny day its around and it drives me insane,it seems to wait until i have washing out,it waits patiently whilst you pick a spot and settle down with a newspaper/magazine and then KAPPOW! it destroys your lines,makes reading anything impossible and if you have just erected a structure or planted a tree-watchout,its like the windy city here-welcome to “Chicago Cottage”.

X-box-It takes your soul…how i hate it,it takes normal intelligent kids and turns them into Zombies.Parents have to learn the language of grunting.the art of hand/eyebrow signals and learn that pale and tired and seemingly talking to yourself whilst staring fixedly at a screen for seemingly days or more aptly ”daze” is cool…believe me its not!

Z-ombies-game console geeks and geekesses….see above.

Currently Loving…

The whrrr of my sewing machine…in the hands of my daughter

A wonderful shade of bluey-green called duck weed,discovered by chance on a strangers front door whilst out on a long country walk

The very same colour,now on a much loved kitchen china cupboard in my kitchen.

The tv planner over flowing with programmes like kirstys handmade and river cottage veg everyday, or beenys restoration nightmare,a sort of prelude to decorating the house and enjoying the garden, wonderful viewing for when its cold and wet outside-grab a mug of something hot and snuggle up for an hour or two.

Seeing the sight of not one but two small children,pre and post colds-sleeping soundly and tucked up warm….long may it last until morning..

This Moment in time..

Dealing with smallest childs first cold,caught from her brother who returns to school after three days in bed with it.Ellie-Mae stalwartly refuses to even entertain the idea of sleeping it off and thinks we (I) should share her every moment of it-yes,we laugh at the very idea of sleep…

Sitting in newly aqquired Breakfast room watching oldest daughter aka Arty Farty cutting fabric pieces and turning them into wonderful sellable creations for a christmas craft fare in our local town.Its like the elves and the shoemaker here.

Listening to my small dog snoring in his basket,utterly in heaven as the gales whip up outside,love is a comfy basket and a warm radiator.

Sending good luck and love to one of my oldest friends,who just found out she has the dreaded C,i cant even bring myself  to say that awful word here…it strikes fear in the hearts of everyone,whether you have it or are affected by it.How can i tell her to be strong,when the very idea of it makes me crumble-we will fight it together i have told her,but thats the easy part when you are the healthy one.I wish i could take it away,i cant and i feel useless.

One good thing accomplished today,i rehomed our lonely kitten Persia,she is now tucked up,warm and hopefully in kitty heaven with her cat-mad new owner,a sole survivor who battled it out with chickens and ducks,who evaded neighbours blood thirsty dogs,witnessed the loss of her fellow siblings and her own mother and survived all nine lives out in the irish weather-the smallest boy now thinks i am the wicked witch of the north but i dont think Persia does!

I am a….

Image by paulmorriss via Flickr

“stuff” magnet both mentally as in, i think about it nearly all the time and physically as in stuff finds me or more often these days, as in finds my pockets/bags,but forgets to tell me .

A few weeks ago  i was packing up numerous groceries into numerous bags in a busy supermarket,harassed as usual by lack of time and help and accutely aware that in the car-park sat a well meaning but no doubt bored to tears “driver”,to make it worse the driver was a male,not that theres anything wrong with male drivers(i need that car) its just the male v shopping thing,it doesnt work and no-one understands a womans need to shop(or atleast this womans..)like another woman.Talking stuff shopping here,not the weekly bored to death traisping of the aisles to feed a forever growing and insatiable monster that is my families food needs and wants,the latter is overtaking the former both in price and size.We just need stuff that takes ages to source and/or stuff that should be widely available,everybody needs but only a chosen few actually get it,the kind of things that you didnt realise you need, until you try to do something and realise the stuff you need to do it is still in the “stuff”aisle!

I digress,here i was in the packing point,trying to pack quickly and efficiently as well as sensibly,bearing in mind that sugar shouldnt really go in the “frozen”bag and potatoes are best put in the bottom of the bread bag,not on top,when i pulled an empty bag from my vast collection and prepared to fill it and was met by an upward (and over)flight of  what transpired to be Ellies “stuff”..namely a plastic hammer(thank god)a dolls red saucer,a missing 1 of 6 teaspoon(yes,like a prison warden i count my cutlery….)with traces of stuff on it-hopefully yoghurt,Lego which is technically brothers stuff and various bits of fluff stuff-hopefully being a weekend most of the customers were parents and “understood”anybody else probably thought i was just a mad woman and thankfully got out of my way enroute to the car.

My bag as my children emerge and grow, has also taken on a life and purpose of its own,it has also managed to grow in size and is akin to a magicians hat-minus the rabbit (give it time,,,)once the carrier of many keys,a purse/phone/makeup,cigs  and a photo of my dad etc,it now gives me a dummy when i want a pen,a sweet wrapper when i want a piece of paper,or worse a half sucked/eaten sweet when i helpfully give someone a piece of paper usually a stranger…usually covered in “stuff”.There is nothing like trying to light a well earned shopping cigarette with a bright blue lego brick,wait there is;the moment when a good looking stranger asks for a light…..

Tonight my own sock took on the magnet properties described above,i got up from the relative safety of my sofa  to answer a childs request of food/drink or general help and within a few minutes was walking with a limp,it wouldnt go away and eventually i decided to look at the sole of my sock and lo and behold the lump showed itself to be a rather small but brightly coloured and very painful lego head ironically like the human counterpart it was a male and yes it was under my feet! Even outside i am not free of the stuff,often i am working in the garden or doing stuff with the hens,at some point without realising it i will put my hand in my pocket and pull out something-who knows what,a reminder of where i was or what i was doing earlier and didnt do as i had spent too much time trying to  remember where i had put the very item i was now looking at-as dusk fell tonight i had trouble putting the hens and new cockerel “away”in their house,the hens were milling about and the cockerel was following me everywhere with “intent”,malicious intent probably judging by his persistance,eventually and not without a few choice words,the deed was done and i came back into my house,sitting down to have a coffee later and a well earned “stress”cigarette i put my hand into my pocket to get my lighter and pulled out a handful of  chicken corn! i just hope the hens enjoyed their “new”plaything….

Alphabet soup…part 1

Image via Wikipedia

Today,I have been so unsettled i have not really managed to get anything done or atleast on time,case in point is i am writing this instead of doing mundane but essential jobs such as 8yr old school sandwiches-okay they will be ready  intime but done at a ridiculous early hour.so to give you an idea,heres my alphabet for the day;

A-gonising   over the ridiculously short time before christmas and what to get?

B-argain hunting on the net to find reasonably priced egg incubators-so expensive and on certain auction sites,it seems everybody wants one!

C-ats driving me mad,always hungry,always under my feet and always here…

D-ecorating childrens rooms,infact decorating any room,the whole house needs refreshing but despite being a city n guilds taught interior designer,this house has me stumped,a complete decorators block.

E-GGS ducks to be precise,lack of to be truthful,my aylesbury female was due to start laying around the end of august,despite having a very attentive but somewhat clueless companion and she obviously liking him(i have seen her flirt..)not one egg has been laid and i am getting…well broody!

F-book is taking,nay eating a vast chunk of my life and its boringly addictive,yes i am really too busy but somehow i go “on”to catch up with overseas childhood friends for a few minutes and get caught up in the banter/gossip and inbetween i play games-why???

G-IRLS  not just my two human kind but my four feathered kind,petunia,bluebell,ruby and grace,now all 6 are in great health and as far as i can tell are happy,the youngest Ellie-Mae soon lets you know if she is not and she does this loudly as does my oldest Arty-Farty…however the feathered four are more difficult to gauge, their happy factor seems to be unlimited and there lies my problem.Do i upset the apple cart by introducing a cockerel,he is a young rhode island red so same breed,and i would like to rear chicks beit naturally or artificially but i dont want to spoil a happy set up,my girls go about their buisness,scratching and dirt-bathing whenever they like in peaceful harmony-a bit like ladies who lunch,without a male to spoil the day.

H-ome is in dissaray,housework to be done(and gardening)but my mind is wandering and at the moment i want “me”time but if i get it,i feel guilty.

I-nternet  a good thing and a bad thing,everybody wants to get on it when i do and as i am the only one who hasnt broken their laptop in some fashion, everybody jumps on mine!

J-ack o lanterns or pumpkins or rather lack of them in my garden and i know it is my fault as two years ago i managed to plant and harvest a couple and although a bit on the small size,they were homegrown.This year laziness and bad weather had set in and i purchased a large but shop bought nevertheless specimen,seems i still scored brownie-points with the 8yr old so job done.

K-itten(s)to my dissapointment i found 6 of them in my melon cloches,i would have prefered melons as these would have been more of an achievement,however my cat got there first,actually its not my cat it is arty-fartys,however they were abandoned by the mother and said daughter was away and sadly despite trying to keep them warm and safe they never made it,

L-awn mower,or lack of,this beast was lent out briefly to mow a pocket sized patch,this was a holiday for it as it usually has to contend with tough terrain and lots of it.It was returned within an hour or so and duly put to bed,a few days later it was back on tough terrain duties,however once the beast was in position and ready to go-it didnt.It seems the lender has rendered it useless but didnt see fit to tell us…agggh!

So now i will go away and get motivated(i hope)to do more,time waits for no man (or woman)hopefully the ducks and hens will do what nature intended,the mower will be repaired and thanks to the wintry weather we are currently having,it will have a long siesta until spring or a dry day-whatever comes first!

System Overload….

or for something stronger(and i apologise in advance)-a failure to give a shit, on the part of modern technology-not mine!Today at the homestead and i mean that in a ironic way as this homestead only functions as one, as long as the technology does-not very green i admit and if today is anything to go by totally unsustainable!where should i start?

The washing machine here is very overworked,what with four adults,one child and a baby whose sole purposes in life seem to be to get as much dirt/food/crayon/paint and ufos(unidentified foreign objects)as possible down them  or the nearest person/or furnishings  in a day,i too would decide to either just keep spinning unnoticed for hours until something broke or refuse to unlock, trapping my contents,my water and anything else that “sneaked”in-just for fun,more so if it was needed “urgently”aka monday morning..

The fridge has also decided to join its comrade and go on strike,i will call him no1 as he is one of two,no2 is also acting up but as he is smaller i will attack the big guy first.This bad boy was my pride and joy until recently when he forgot his place and despite fairly long active service and going above and beyond the call of duty, like having to look at us all first thing and in the case of the 19yr x box boy , constantly through out the day and night when he is on a food mission,not to mention remaining upright at all times during either a flooded house or a house move-mr fridge has now decided he will NOT dispense water or ice and HE will dictate the temperature he wants to be-not ME! i must admit to finding him a bit intimidating,we have moved him a good foot extra, away from the wall as per manual requires and to be honest we havent alot of kitchen floorspace  left to facilitate his “breathing”space,i would love to choke every last breath outta him right now but mrs wallet and mr visa says no….

Fridge no2(i have 4 kids…)also has a breathing problem,i would say he was like my kids as in blows hot and cold,however he is more like my husband and is now just full of hot air and its not good,it is the only time i ever want COLD air,well unless the temp outside is in the 90s and seeing that it barely reaches above 9-like my fridge, its just not going to happen!The no2 also has a problem,ahem,”downstairs”the freezer dept is not functioning as well as it could,it has three drawers and the contents,like the three bears bed are hard,medium and soft,so if i need ice then drawer one is your man-bring an ice pick,drawer two is “bear”-able,stuff is hard but atleast you can get to it,and the problem child is no3,nothing freezes which is okay as long as you remember this when putting food away,today i remembered,when i went to retrieve frozen peas and found they werent,should have put them in the fridge-maybe the hot air would have cooked them for me!

The list goes on,still with me?well you deserve a patience medal-you could borrow mine but its a bit thin at the moment,i would make you a cup of tea however that is the only machine still on my side,i could put the kettle on the stove but the dual fuel option is now not one,its a solo fuel stove as in when i chose it i thought being in a rural area(back of beyond)we were prone to powercuts,these could go on for days,so i got the one that has an electric oven but a gas hob so we could atleast have a cuppa when all the lights went out and also still cook a meal(and light a cigarette,i mean candle!)we have gas,we have pipe,we have oven,it seems never the twain shall meet,not wishing to meet our makers just yet(only the suppliers)we have left it alone-for now.

Oil-fired central heating-ditto the above and move on….upstairs to the shower,this “modern”convienence doesnt live upto its name and frankly never did,correct me if i am wrong but water is supposed to come out of the shower head right?wrong..ours has decided its much more convienient to shower the walls from the inside so we can now hear the water gushing behind it but thankfully (or not…)havent seen it appear anywhere that it shouldnt(i did spot “water”on a shelf unit in babys room but it more than likely came from baby-see second paragraph).

The final things,well almost final things,the tumble drier has developed a squeak,not just a mouse-like squeak but an irritating whine(should be used to that one…)that goes on and on throughout the time allotted,yes we have wind here but its the kind that rips the washing off the line and then comes back for the line,this coupled with almost constant rainy days makes drying clothes alfresco impossible,so a drier is a nessesity,i could use an airer but seeing as the oil fired central heating , just isnt,this is not a speedy option.The dishwasher has also defaulted on its contract,okay it does wash dishes but it selects the ones it wants,whilst the others are left coated with something i didnt cook,pans are left spotless whilst glasses are almost sandblasted and as for the cutlery….we now eat finger food.

Finally,this evening whilst i was cooking dinner,despite numerous checks on all things that live outside throughout the day,my best hen “petunia”was savagely pulled through the fence and MURDERED by our neighbours dog,this little hen was rescued from a battery farm and despite being very poorly was nursed back to health by me,she had bad eyes and after bathing them everyday and guarding her from being pecked by the other stronger hens until she herself was healthy and strong she rewarded me with undivided devotion,she followed me everywhere,even looking for me when i was gardening by squeezing through the fence and walking around until she found me-today she went the wrong way and as she popped her head through the fence,a neighbours dog grabbed her….i am so upset,i guess today was not my nor petunias day.

Wherever I Lay My Hat…

thats my home,atleast in a perfect world it would be.Stumbled upon this beautiful house and without even going inside,i fell in love with it-or atleast with the “idea”of it.This little piece of heaven is at the end of our village,tucked away from the main street(the only street)a few neighbours either side but mostly fields and a river,i could imagine spending idyllic days their with the kids,arty-farty sewing or knitting her latest creations,ellie-mae trundling around the enclosed garden,happily picking at everything and inspecting it with awe-as only a 17mth old can do,tiggy chasing the dog,laughing as chickens and ducks scatter in panic at their antics.The sunshine is bathing the house in a vivid blue haze,butterflies are dancing overhead as they delightedly sampling the flowers as they jostle for space with the bees…even x-box boy might join us downstairs as the table is set for tea-homemade jam of course and freshly baked bread,the kettle whistling merrily on the stove……

This is my present dream,mentally i have moved in,physically i am still in my present cottage,the chooks and hens are foraging outside and indeed for once the sun IS shining,the dog is asleep inside chasing rabbits in his dreams,blissfully unaware of his mistresses latest object of obsession,the cottage is at a standstill,building has halted so we can restock the pot and do the next stage,its a slow process,i wish it would grow as fast as our grass.

I  dont know why i have fallen for this house,maybe its the colour,location or maybe its just how my present cottage should look  or more probably how i want it to look when its finished-whenever that maybe.For now i will just take sneaky peeks at it on my weekly walks,it was up for sale but like many houses remains unsaleable due to the economic situation,like my personal one its pretty dire at the moment and does not look like getting any better for years,also most people want new as the upkeep is less as is the cost of running them,i imagine this one could be cold and draughty and it does need refreshing,however i would just throw open the windows and let the place breathe with new life,new people and let the old girl be loved again!