First Glimpse of Spring

What a beautiful day. After a wet night, it stopped raining about 7.30am, and within an hour it was wall to wall sunshine, all day long. It was enough to convince the crocus that it was finally time to open themselves up - just for the day mind.

The World's Original Marmalade Awards 2011

Of all the places in the World, where would you hold the Original Marmalade Competition? Dalemain in Cumbria of course. as it is only ten minutes from here, in aid of a very good cause and a certain Jane Hayward was desperate to know someone involved; I thought I might as well enter a jar. At least I can say that I have been in a World competition.



There you go Jane. I did it all for you!

My Favourite Colour

If pressed, I would probably say pink. although some days it's purple. Today it is definitely purple. Having spent the morning striping this wallpaper, and left looking at walls this colour, I think I may have started to overcome my pink obsession (i did say 'may')

Operation Puppy's Paws

In years to come, the memory of just how awful Hyperkeratosis of the feet is for Hattie will no doubt fade, so I thought it would be interesting to have a record. As most of you know, poor Hattie has to go through a monthly operation to control the excess growth on her feet. This is something that would normally done by the vet, but due to the scale of her problem and hence the frequency that it is required, we do it ourselves (in agreement with Gary our Vet). This at least saves her the stress of monthly, day long veterinary visit, not to mention the costs that it would incur. That said, it is still very stressful for her and requires sedation.
After giving her a sedative, we then go for a bit of a walk somewhere wet (not difficult at the moment) to get her feet softened. Then 45 minutes after the sedative, we start work


Even with a well doped dog, it is still very much a two man job. Even then, she struggles relentlessly throughout.
Hair grows on and between the pads, and as much as possible that needs trimming back so that we can see what we are doing. Her claws grow at such a rate that with just a months growth, it is starting to curl under her toe. So having trimmed the hair on a foot, it is then a question of trimming her claws - up to 1cm off each one, each month.
Then we have to set about each pad, removing all the excess growth. This is what a foot looks like before any attention - the hair is hiding an awful lot of pad growth.

Four feet later, a lot of bribery in the form of milky treats, and three stressed out individuals we are left with a lot of Hattie bits on the floor and a very sleepy dog for the rest of the day (even more sleepy than normal!).



The one positive is that we won't have to go through that for another four weeks.

February Filldyke

Not only have we been battered by winds of up to around 70mph on and off all this week, February has been living up to it's reputation of being a wet month.

Rainfall so far this month has been:
1st = 0mm
2nd = 18mm
3rd = 18mm
4th = 43mm
5th = 11mm
6th = 28mm
That's the best part of 5" already, it was siling down all morning today and after a brief glimpse of fine weather this afternoon - it's just starting to rain again!

The Final Furlong

At last, we are starting to get the house back together. Gerry arrived as planned on Saturday, and we now have new flooring in the hall





As well as the bathroom



Lots of sorting, tidying and cleaning done today, lots more to do, and then we can start decorating all the bedrooms. Deep Joy!

In Days Gone By

It all looks rather different now.....

Wildlife in January

Usual list of visitors, bird numbers have been all over the place this month, depending mainly on the weather. Highlights of the month are without doubt the red squirrel in the garden and slightly further afield - but still within striking distance of the house; husband had the absolute privilege to see a covey of English Partridge on the lonnin beyond the village. Also, I had a brief glimpse of a Hen Harrier, sitting quietly in a tree (the bird, not me), on the roadside.
The funniest sight award has to go to the covey of 21 red legged partridge who occasionally descend on us. Some fly, some waddle and some do a bit of both. Each and every one of them looks comical as they charge down the field.

Under The Floorboards.

As the bathroom renovations are pretty much finished, it's time to get ready for Gerry to come and fit the floors. The Bathroom floor is all ready to go, the wetroom floor is tiled, but the Hall floor needs replacing and that's where the fun is.



It might look OK. But laminate flooring is slippery, it scratches, it doesn't dry easily and it's noisy. Not really ideal when wet dogs paws and muddy boots are the most frequent things to come into contact with it. So while I have been swanning around on racehorses; Husband has been grafting.

Of course, when he found that there was a hole in the floorboard, he had to have a look!
We knew that there used to be ducted air heating in here, many years ago. What we didn't realise was how much space it was taking up under the floor!
It doesn't show in photos, but you can actually see from one side to the other and right from end to end. Just think how many bottles of wine we could store in there!
Another relic from the past, was a bit of carpet which was stubbornly protruding from under the stairs. It had been covered by the laminate, but needed dealing with. Nice!

Especially for Emma

Today has been a day of visitors. A friend was coming over for lunch and not long after her arrival, we had the first of many visits through the afternoon by a male Bullfinch.
Even better than that though....

Seeing red squirrels in the village is nothing new, but as they live on the other side of the road, none of the residents this side (not that there are many of us) feed them. The aim being that we are not encouraging them across the road. We had two road kills this summer and it is heartbreaking, so we don't want any more. Seeing one in our garden is pretty rare as a result.

This wee chap(ess) is probably from a late second litter. He/she is rather small and is probably struggling to survive the winter. He/she spent at least a couple of hours sitting here. Not normal squirrel behavior, but sadly not an uncommon situation. Many second litter kittens don't make it through the first winter.

Blinded By The Light

At last, we had a visit from the sparkies yesterday and got lights and an extractor in the wet room. We really are nearly there with the renovations now. Just flooring to sort out, which should hopefully happen in the next week or two.
Having electricians in the house all day gave me the perfect opportunity to make a start on a blind for the bathroom window. So. measuring, calculating, cutting, pinning, stiching, swearing and a bit more stiching; from dawn til dusk. Today it was Husbands turn to measure, mark, drill, cut, screw, swear, screw some more and then stand back and watch me struggle......


Finally, it's up and working!

All that work meant we just had to sit with a glass of wine an watch the sun set. By with not a cloud in the sky, the only colour other than blue was the orange contrails of passing air traffic. It's a tough job......

Looking After The Neighbours

We have a visitor this week. Buddy, our friends lab has come to stay for the week while they are in France. Buddy is a bit of a wimp. When I say a bit, I really mean a lot. He's a lovely dog, no bother at all to look after, and great fun, but he has a bit of an inferiority complex and an aversion to loud noises. Especially when they are made by The Red Thing.
Coming to stay is doing some good as we had all hoped. He is getting quite brave now, and will sneak past The Red Thing (with a lot of encouragement). At the beginning of the week it was a different story; if The Red Thing was in ear shot, Buddy did his best to hide.



Meanwhile The Red Thing tries out Buddy's bed. She always has liked pinching other dogs beds for some reason.

Fortunately Bud started to relax fairly quickly, and has made himself quite at home, pinching all The Red Thing's toys.

Water Pillow

A lot of rain in a short space of time has had an interesting effect in the ground behind our house. At first we thought there was a mound in the field that was standing out because water had collected around it.


Then we realised that it was a new mound





When we went into the field to investigate, we discovered that water was percolating through the ground and had lifted the turf to create a bubble effect. The best of it is, if you jump up and down on it, water squirts out of the side and it wobbles about like a bouncy castle!




And it gets better...... It apparently appeared last year, just before we moved in, so we'll get to play again another year!

Nearly, But Not Quite.

At last we are nearly there with the rufurb of the bathrooms. The last few weeks have seen the tiling completed in the wetroom - just in time for Christmas - and then finally this week, the second fix on the wetroom plumbing. It was completed yesterday, so the shower had it's inaugural run last night. YIPPEE!!

Now we need the Sparkies to come and second fix. In theory they will be here sometime this week. We'll see!

The towel rail needs it's dual fuel kit wiring in, we have no lights in there at the moment - just wire hanging through the ceiling. It's OK so long as the outside light is on, which is very conveniently situated just outside the window!

Oh and the extractor fan needs to go in where the green towel is stuffed in the wall.
The wetroom floor is tiled as you might expect, but the bathroom floor is ordered, along with new flooring for the hall. A friend in the next village is on standby to fit those when everything else is finished



Remember the floor former we had all the problems with due to concrete refusing to go off in the cold weather? Now you know what the letter box was for!

Winter Visitor

Today saw the first visit this winter of another of last winter's regulars. A Lesser Red Poll.

He's been back and forth since we first spotted him at lunchtime.

Not a bad view from the kitchen table!

Wildlife in December

As with the rest of the country, December was a cold, snowy month. The first snow fell on 27th November and continued on and off until 9th Dec. We had about a week of green fields before the next lot started on 16th December and lasted beyond Christmas.
Highlights in the garden this month have been a brief visit from a Mistle Thrush, and the return of a Brambling - although we have only had one visit from him so far. We are hopeful that he will become a daily visitor; as they were last winter. Further afield a Little Owl was spotted just out of the village and Roe Deer have been seen on a number of occasions both from the house, and on walks.

Grocery Shopping (with Apologies to Richard!)

You will no doubt all know that I hate shopping. Husband hates shopping too, we make a good pair. Shopping for anything in the week leading up to Christmas would normally send shivers down our spines. But with this to entertain you....
Blencathra through the windscreen (no, I wasn't driving!) on the way to Keswick

Causey Pike through the windscreen as we drove through Keswick

Skiddaw from Booths carpark

Blencathra from the other side, on the way home.

All that and no more than 15 cars in Booths carpark. No queue at the check out, and home by 10.30am!

Mobbed By Partridges

Did I say four?

Try getting 15 in one shot (no pun intended!). Maybe it was because The Estate were shooting today. they certainly didn't hang around for long. The Pheasies are a bit jumpy too!



It's all well and good getting up there, but how do you take off when your wing is trapped by a pole? Like this......