Out With the Old, 31 Jan 07 - 1st Jan 2008

Well, there goes another one and I'm now in my 60th year. How on earth did I get there?

We have felled another couple of trunks of sycamore in the orchard (on the 30th) and sawed most of it on the spot then Jim barrowed it up to the barn. The cats spent most of the day with us in the orchard, which was great fun, then they collapsed and slept all evening.

Our neighbours appeared on the same day, full of cold and feeling sorry for themselves! They gave me a lantern to hold night lights to keep away the mozzies! Wishful thinking, but thoughtful all the same. Also some smelly roses which go in the bath to make it smell good. We gave them coffee and chocolate biscuits.

31.12.07

Jim forgot it was New Years Eve until I pointed it out half way through yesterday! He spent the day putting a door in the hole between the lobby and our kitchen/diner as the draught through there is phenomenal. Finished it today as it was a bit awkward and it looks super. I pottered and outside moved piles of rubbish to the bonfire and moved all the wood into the barn to dry and saw. I did a fair bit of hand sawing of the smaller bits and we'll do a chain sawing session on the larger ones.

We mentioned yesterday that we seem to spend a fair amount of time 'just living', ie, felling and cutting up wood for Stanley to keep warm and improving the cottage to retain the warmth. I suppose that's what people had to do years ago.

We didn't do a lot in the evening. Decided we couldn't be bothered to go to a pub. We don't really know anyone much so we stayed in! Had a lovely 'bits and bobs' dinner, starting with fried Camembert cheese with cranberry sauce, then 'eat ups' of cocktail sausages, pate, various cheeses, a lovely salad followed by too many chocolates! We somehow managed to stay up until about 5am and didn't settle down until about 6am. I then couldn't sleep and finally drifted off about 8ish I would think! So it was a morning in bed, not a good start to the new year. Must do better.

This afternoon we had a brunch fry up. Lovely, left over sausages, egg, bacon, beans and toast with real coffee. A rare treat. Jim carried on with his door fitting and I built a bonfire in the orchard, ready to light at dusk. I had tried to light one a couple of days ago to no avail, so I started from scratch. It did eventually get going and I stayed out burning piles of wood bits and blackcurrant bushes, pruned by Jim, until Holby came on at 8! I was going to go out again but didn't make it! So that's a quick update. Received messages from all 3 children of mine wishing us Happy New Year. Ben's started an hour before ours as he's in Spain! His bar was throbbing, which is great.