Graduation Day.....

Am very proud of my niece Amy. In fact, I'm proud of all my nieces - Kirsty, Emma, Kim  &  Jacqui - just in case any of them ever read this! Last week was graduation day for Amy as she left Liverpool with a 2.1 BA Hons in History. The sky duly emptied as I arrived at Lime Street and didn't stop until long after I had left for home. There were flash floods in Liverpool - unbelievable. However, the weather failed to dampen a wonderful day.

We had a lovely meal afterwards in the Everyman Bistro. I had the Greek lamb stew which was delicious. Didn't have time for dessert though so will have to go back another time. Haven't been to the Everyman since I went to see Stephen Sharkey's  - The May Queen. Anyhow, the day soon ended and I found myself back on the train to Stafford.

So where are we? Well.... the plan was to move to Cumbria by August and we are still very much focused on that. Just waiting for the final bits of paperwork to slot onto place and then we are off. The house is half empty as some of our stuff is already in Alston. The rest is boxed up and ready to go. We are literally just waiting for a date and then we will be off. There is no panic though as we have let the house from October so we can hang on longer if we need to. Its exciting now as we are able to start to make plans about what we want to do with the house. Mark is even making hopeful sounding mutterings about an AGA but we will wait and see. Am looking for a reconditioned one but even they are expensive so will have to wait. Perhaps by my next post we will have moved.....who knows?

Beware of the Sheep

Sat with a mug of tea last night and made a plan for the week ahead and a plan of what needs to be moved out of each room. We are trying to break the move into two sizeable chunks instead of one great overwhelming move and have been lucky enough to be able to arrange a lock up to store all the things that we have already packed. We are planning a quick trip to Alston on Wednesday to drop stuff off and will stay over night. There is a little holiday let that we thought looked nice that just happens to be next door to our new house! It is just for two which is perfect!

We are planning on catching up with some friends for coffee and having another quick look at Orchard House to do some measurements etc. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to sort things out just with Mark and without having to entertain the children whilst we do it!

Mark has designed some 'New Address" cards based on a design by icon-art. I have a card they created that someone sent me with a sheep on and it really made me smile.

This is the original and below is Marks version:

I love this! I think I will get it printed in black & white though.

This is a photo of one of the Harrison sheep from Alston that Mark took a couple of years ago. No doubt the poor creature has since been despatched and roasted but I have fond memories of that particular holiday and I am really pleased withe new address cards. Now I just have to get them printed in time for our 'Open House' in a couple of weeks time.

So much to do, so little time...

Things have been a bit hectic of late. We have bumbled along achieving nothing except a nice weekend camping on Shell Island and then for the last two weeks or so, things have started moving! We still haven't managed to sell the house but the long awaited planning permission is through with a couple of issues to be dealt with. Fingers crossed, the sale of the land will go through in the next couple of weeks and we can then complete on the Alston house! I am soooo excited. We have decided to try and let the house for 12 months and see if it will be easier to sell once the land has been divided and the new house built. 

We have been busy sorting and packing. Its amazing how much stuff we have accumulated over the last 10 years. We have freecycled and charity shopped so many items but I feel like we still need to cut back on what we are taking.

This is a picture of the new house! The 'Sold' sign has gone up and I am assured that the roses are growing nicely in the front. I can't believe that we just have around 5 more weeks until we move. Until then, there is an endless arrangement of 21st & 40th birthday parties as well as a visit from some friends of ours from Chicago and of course, an Open House  day to be able to say goodbye to all our lovely friends!

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!