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I suppose it is Ireland, the 'Emerald Isle' but there is a limit! It's rained almost all day today, but has stopped now and tomorrow promises bright and crisp weather so we may get outside at last.
Jim has decided to sell some of our willow cuttings on ebay so has been preparing and photographing willow sticks!
I hauled all the bits of wood left on the lawn into the barn and have been sawing some of it by hand. I enjoyed being outside all be it for a short while. We were very lazy this morning, took a cup of tea back to bed and were much amused by the cats leaping about on the bed and up and down the stairs to the room above. Sandy picked up a purple ribbon from the stairs and carried it up to the top room. I told him I wanted it up there!
We haven't heard from our neighbours today but they did go out in the car so are probably ok.
Last night I tried out some cardboard weaving. Thin strips of an old box of gingerbread biscuits (the soggy foreign sort), which I wove into a small container. It was quite difficult but good fun. I am going to have a go at a shopping bag which is in a book I have called 're-cycled containers'. Trouble is you need very long strips of cardboard and it's finding somewhere to cut them. I'm sure I'll work something out. We must have a go at weaving some of our willow now we have been on a course.
You'd think they sky would be quite empty by now, but no, it rains and rains and rains.
Jim gave Stanley a de-coke this morning as he's been going at full pelt for weeks. His chimney was a bit mucky but apart from that he wasn't bad at all. He did have a bit of a disaster the other morning. I emptied out the ashes, thought that the tray was a bit heavy and there was a large chunk of Stanley's grate lying in the ashes tray! Jim managed to find a piece of metal to fix the resultant hole and he's actually worked better since.
We walked down to our neighbours' house about 2pm, during a short break in the rain, the car was there but there was no sign of them. I spoke to Sandra on the phone about 5pm and they'd got so fed up with the weather they'd gone back to bed!
Quiet day apart from that. We sawed much wood in the barn for Stanley but need to collect some more fairly soon.
I've been trying to teach BlackJack to go through the 2 cat flaps. As long as I push it open a little bit he goes through, but it's just that initial shove with his nose that he's lacking. Sandy, on the other hand, bombs in and out like a mad thing. I'm also trying to teach them not to get on the table, but that's a bit harder. They are both still adorable though and we wouldn't be without them now.
A much better day today, thank goodness! The atmosphere has lightened enormously. Phew. However, weather wise it's poured down all day. We decided to go to Limerick and look round the sales. Tesco provided us with 2 new pairs of trousers and a cardigan for me, all at silly prices. We bought wood at Woodys to put a door between the kitchen diner and lobby, much needed for the keeping out of draughts. The roads were all awash and when we got back to our little drive, the stream at the bottom had turned into a raging torrent and was pouring all over the road. We donned our macs and took torches to go and have a proper look. The sound was amazing, a real roar. We also have several small brooks on the land. They dry up in the summer but were overflowing tonight, and still it rains.
We treated ourselves to a MacDonalds in Limerick so didn't need much food tonight. A turkey sandwich with home made bread and salad sufficed, lovely.
There was a 'Holby City' special on TV which we both watched, and thought it was exceptional, with proper feel good emotions at the end. Brilliant. Talking of TV, I am not an Eastenders watcher, but have caught the last 3 episodes and have to say the acting has been quite superb. I still won't continue to watch it, but was glad to have seen those excellent episodes.
Well, they say all the rows, divorces, etc happen at Christmas. We had a hum dinger today and there was much weeping and wailing and I spent half the day in bed. A BAD DAY.
We've had a great Christmas so far. Instead of leaving all the food for Christmas Day, we've already feasted on some. Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we finished up our last bits of wrapping, Jim disappeared upstairs to wrap pressies and make my card. We called on our neighbours Sandra and Pete. They are both crafters and the run up the Christmas for them is chaos, with every weekend having 2 craft fairs. We took Sandra a bottle of whisky as it had been her 60th birthday last Wednesday and a couple of presents for today. I had also ordered 2 books from Amazon for Sandra to give to Pete, so took them and managed to hand them to Sandra without Pete's knowledge. We chatted and laughed, I drank tea and Sandra, Pete and Jim drank beer, wine and whisky!! Sandra is very funny after a couple of drinks. She invited us up for Christmas morning breakfast! We struggled home in the dark, finished our preparations and finally retired to bed.
9.30 saw us awake, I got up and made tea, fed the cats, then took the tea back to bed! When the cats had finished breakfast, they joined us. What a wonderful way to start Christmas Day. At 11, we went down to Pete and Sandras' house and had a fabulous cooked breakfast. Yogurt and raspberries to start with to 'cleanse our pallate'! Jim said ours wasn't dirty! We retired to the lounge and drank tea and chatted. Came back up to ours several hours later and opened our presents. Fabulous. Mostly fun things between us, I had many warm socks as my feet freeze with wellington boots on. A superb rucksack, the bottom of which stores cameras and lenses, ideal for our trip to Australia, some chocolates of course, smellies from my son and daughter in law and some still to come from my daughter.
As we opened our presents, we threw the paper on the floor and the cats had a fabulous time chasing it around and going in and out of a large carrier bag! They had some 'treats' too, which they loved. A trip up to the veg patch was required to collect carrots, leeks (our first) and sprouting broccoli. It was absolutely freezing and poured with rain after that and for the rest of the day, suddenly getting dark and very gloomy. So much for our Christmas Day walk.
Now sitting with a g & t. Lovely. Rang my son Ben in Spain and he was still in bed after a heavy night! Spoke to Kat (daughter) who has a rowdy houseful, 17 for dinner. Madness! Son 1 Jason didn't answer phone so maybe they'll ring later.
An evening of food and tv in store I think. What a great day it's been so far.
