Retaining Walls, Art Class & a Warm Welcome to Bert

The day started badly with both of the reports that we had arranged for the new house arriving in the post. The first estimates the woodworm treatment at over £2000 and the second took our breath away - over £50,000 for the retaining wall to be removed and rebuilt - with a recommendation that the work be done urgently.... hmmm... The idea of moving was to improve our quality of life. I'm not sure that spending that amount of money and overseeing such intensive building works fits into that idea. Mark and I have some serious talking to do but I fear that we will have to withdraw our offer unless we can negotiate. It is not looking good. On a brighter note, I had contact with someone who has a four bedroom bungalow that they will let us rent so at least the immediate issue of somewhere to live is almost resolved.

Had Art Class today which was lovely. The children have moved on to using acrylics and are reproducing sections of some photographs of the village that they took last year. They are painting them onto large canvasses that we bought with a grant from the village hall. The idea is to put them all together to produce one image of the village. Hope it works. They have two more sessions to do and we are hoping that they will have completed them in time to display them at the end of the last session. It is wonderful to see children as young as 6 really concentrating on the task in hand and seeing their interpretations of the images. Some are amazing! My helpers bought far too many cakes for snack time so in an effort to help out, I demolished too many of them and am now feeling a bit sicky!

Welcome to Bert

Little Bert, the Satin Hamster has finally gotten over his shyness and posed for a photograph! He was James' birthday present and spends most of his waking hours practicing gymnastics in his cage! He is soooo noisy! He is also very, very cute and loves to play in his hamster ball in the kitchen.

Volcanic Ash and Other Hinderances

Well. It's been a while. So much has occurred I scarcely know where to start. We still haven't sold the
house or had any offers yet. Is this normal after 5 viewings? I suspect the fact that we are selling off part of the land is putting people off but we will plod on until mid June before we think about plan B. 
The house looks great on the Agents web site.

http://www.fodenandharrisproperty.com/property_detail.aspx?strID=FNP00664&intTID=1&intContentID=2

News on the house in Alston is that it finally has an Under Offer sign on it. I find this really exciting, 
confirmation that we really are leaving to start a new life. The surveyors report begs to differ somewhat
so we will have to see! Have ordered various reports to be done and will wait and see the outcome... 
It would be a shame not to get the house we want but we have to be sensible and there are rather a lot of urgent recommendations....


Had a lovely weekend during Easter without the children. I love them dearly but it is nice to have a break. We went to Woking and spent the whole weekend walking, talking and eating. We did fit in a trip to 
the theatre to see Agatha Christies 'Witness for the Prosecution'. I'm not normally into murder 
mysteries but thought that the show was fantastic. I will definitely see another production of an AgathaChristie story if I get a chance.


Still waiting for confirmation about the children's new school. Hopefully this will arrive in the next few weeks. I think that they are starting to look forward to the move now. May 14th should bring some 
news regarding the planning permission for the attached land. Fingers crossed it will be fine as we can then get on with finalizing the sale of the land. I think that once this happens, everything else will startto happen. Maybe.


I would have liked to have visited Alston again soon but we had already committed to going to 
Germany for Mark's 50th birthday. Due to Mother Nature stamping her feet in Iceland, a short trip of 4 days turned into a 10 day holiday. It was great though. Beautiful weather, fabulous food and some verykind people made the whole stay one that we will never forget. Bit of a stretch on the old budget 
though, so no trips to Alston unless absolutely necessary. An incredible time was had by all of us and Mark did start to wonder if it was a sign that we couldn't come home..... especially as his old home is 
up for sale... perhaps if the move to Alston fails then I will let him convince me to move to Germany :)

A picture that Mark took of the lake in the beautiful town of Wassenberg....the town with the most 

delicious cakes ever..

New Drive

Well, the new drive is finally finished - well, almost. Still have the dropped kerb to sort out but all the other work is done. The garden looks really nice now and even the house looks tidy! It is almost a shame to sell up !

Finished recovering the final chair from the dining room, 18 months after the other 5 were completed. I am plodding through the unfinished jobs but we did stop for some chilli cheese toast. That is, cheese on toast with a layer of chilli jam under the cheese  - it was yummy - thanks David. It gave me the energy to tackle cleaning the 8ft venetian blind from the utility room!

Getting ready for the carpet to be fitted in the hall now so have to dash.

Sockets, Ironing and Chocolate Cake....

Have spent the last few days sorting out various bits and pieces in the house and garden that needed finishing off - sockets with paint on, ironing, windows that won't open....the list goes on. We did quite a bit in the garden near to the house and it looks really nice now. I will take some photos tomorrow depending on the weather.

Mark and Daisy made this delicious chocolate cake for tea on Sunday. They both had a great time making it and James & I had a great time eating it!

Alfie wasn't too thrilled that they had made a cake that he couldn't eat but he did get to enjoy the icing....

Add to my list of things to do -  more washing...!

 I mentioned in an earlier post about getting the local schools to do a combined fund raising event in aid of the Haiti earthquake appeal. The final total will be above the £6000 mark and I am really thrilled. It is a huge sum for a small town and I'm sure that every penny will be gratefully received.

Have got lots of organizing to do in readiness for a small art exhibition next Saturday. I run a small art group once a month for children aged 5-11 and they have created some wonderful things with the guidance of one of the local art teachers. Hopefully we will have lots of friends and family turn up to see the work that the children have created. It is so important for the children to see their work properly displayed and to be able to show it off. I have lots of pictures to sort out and cakes to bake!

Busy few days.

Haven't post anything for a few days but have lots of photos to add to show you what I have been up to!

Have finally finished my lovely, warm scarf! It is doubled over in the picture which is how I have worn it. It is so soft and warm! I am really pleased with it and may use the pattern for a couple of Christmas presents.

Spent a lovely weekend in Surrey and Brighton with Daisy, Helen & Evelyn. We visited the Laines and managed to do a little bit of girly shopping. Also found a Montezuma chocolate shop - heaven! Their white chocolate buttons are to die for and are definitely NOT for sharing! Also managed to catch up with a few old friends. Amazing how time can fly by so quickly. It was very cold but sunny and I was glad of my new scarf.

We ate a wonderful lunch then finished it off with ice cream on the pier. Did I mention it was cold? Never too cold for ice cream at the seaside though!

Whilst we were away, Mark and the boys looked after the chickens. All six of them are in this pic but some are too busy eating to pose. Millie (the black one), Rosie, Betty, Mavis, Hilda & Mollie. They are such good hens that give us the most delicious eggs. Even during the worst of the weather they were still laying.

I need to do some baking now to use up all the eggs that have appeared whilst I was away. I have a lovely recipe for an orange & almond cake that is wheat free and uses 9 eggs so I think that will be a good place to start.

                                              Daisy, Grace and Agatha

The children had some friends around and they made this gingerbread house left over from a kit at Christmas. The girls had such fun making and decorating it and the boys had great fun breaking it up to eat it!

Pancake Day!

Very few things rekindle happy childhood memories, but my Mum made a mean pancake! Topped with Tate & Lyles Golden Syrup, I could eat them faster than she could make them. Hers with so thin, golden and always a perfect circle - my mouth is watering just writing about them..... Anyhow, I have children of my own and so after dinner we got down to the serious business of pancake making! We had to have two types, as Alfie can't tolerate wheat, so he had a buckwheat mixture and the rest of us had traditional. I say the rest of us, what I mean is that James had one, Mark had two, little Daisy made her way through THREE! and I..........I had half a pancake as that was all the mixture I had left! It is true I could have had some of Afie's buckwheat mixture but I'd already promised the little people that they could have it for breakfast tomorrow - liberally smothered in chocolate spread. The half pancake I did get was very nice though and a squeeze of Golden Syrup made me feel about 8 again...

I have added these pictures of the house and garden as work has finally started on the new drive. With a bit of luck, most of the work will be done this week with a little bit of landscaping to be done the following week. You can just see the dumper truck that has been taking several tons of our garden to a new home! The boys are desperate for a chance to sit on and the mini digger. I am just desperate for the work to be finished! Am hoping for some exciting news about the sale of the land tomorrow.....

Thunderbirds

Have not had much time for writing over the last couple of weeks. The tail end of a bout of pluerisy is keeping me fairly tired as is the huge amount of sorting and clearing that needs to be done. The decorator is due to finish today so the inside of the house is ready for the estate agent photos. Just need to get the outside landscaping done now, but as I said in an earlier post, easier said than done!

It is a strange thing to watch the house change colour. We have got quite bright colours, or rather did have until the obliterator paint, also know as magnolia, was liberally applied to most of the walls in the house. The only rooms to escape are the living room, dining room & bathroom. Oh, and the cellar, but thats another blog altogether! The house does look clean and bright though I have to say that I am missing the Tweenies and Postman Pat that have lived on James' wall for the last 5 years and the Thunderbirds men and machines who have provided company at night for Alfie for the same length of time. There are so many memories of this house and most of them happy ones. It will be sad to leave.

This photograph of Alfie reminds me of Mark painting the Thunderbirds machines and men on his bedroom wall. It was taken for his 5th birthday when he was obsessed with Thunderbirds. To be honest, he still loves them now, as do Mark & James. Me, I'm more of a Jane Austen girl and Daisy loves Hannah Montannah!