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......

Shooting Season

It would appear that we have become a bit of a game bird sanctuary of late. Four Partridge and four Hen Pheasant regularly spend hour after hour, feeding themselves on the overspill.

Getting them all in shot is apparently, impossible. Getting pheasant and partridge in the same shot is also pretty difficult.

Those with a sharp eye will notice a subtle difference in the ground conditions of these two shots. The first was taken a couple of days ago, the second at lunchtime today. By then the snow had stopped falling - but more is forecast for later........

Hen's Teeth (aka Sparkies)

It's a bit of a Cumbrian phenomenon. Electricians 'round here disappear without any trace for weeks on end. The last words before this happens are usually: 'See you tomorrow'
We have friends who have experienced this too; in West Cumbria (t'other side of Skiddaw for those with local knowledge). Their sparky turned up only a few days ago. It must be catching, ours phoned last night and they were here today. Whoopee! We can use the airing cupboard at last, and the bathroom is finished bar the flooring. AND the first fix is done in the wet room.

Meanwhile, Gordon has been making great strides with the tiling........


All we need now is for another set of Hen's teeth to appear tomorrow (that'll be the plumbers then). Oh and can you send that Brambling over please Bilbo, ours still haven't arrived!

Jim'll Fix It?

Just when you think it can't get any worse............


The house has gone from complete chaos to something worse than that in the last two days. Partly due to the freezing conditions, and the fact that there is temporarily no heating in the wet room; it has one outside wall and one against a very cold garage - this meant that the cement for the floor former didn't go off over the weekend, so when Nigel and Mike came to continue with the plumbing on Monday morning (yes we were surprised to see them too!), they had to put plan B into action and relay the former. Bugger. That'll be another day or two for it to go off - this time with a heater in there.
Ho, Hum. Gordon has been today and made a start on the tiling in the other half of the room, so all is not lost. Anyway, now you get a better view of the former. I bet you're thrilled about that!!



That's not the end of it though. We have had a worrying smell of woodsmoke in our bedroom for the last few days. The chimney passes through our room, and our worst fears are that the liner has cracked.
On recommendation from neighbours and Nigel, we got in touch with a local Chimney Sweep/Wood Burner Installer/Fireman - Jim - who, bless his little cotton socks promptly arrived this morning.
This of course means that having the house trashed already, we had to completely strip the front room down in anticipation of lots of soot. Curtains, pictures, ornaments, lamps. You name it, they had to come out of there and go with all our other misplaced possessions around the habitable bits of the house.

To cut a very long story only slightly shorter; It appears that the stove was not installed particularly well and Jim has put in a fix which - if we cross our fingers - appears so far to have cured the problem. If it doesn't - then it means our worst fears were probably correct.

Sunset #5

There has been a bit of a lull in sunset photos. Not because we haven't had any good ones, but because photographing them proved difficult through the summer. At the shortest day, the sun sets directly behind the house. By the longest day, it sets directly to the side of the house. 90' difference. And I thought the sun set in the west: I don't recall being taught that it set somewhere between South West and North West. Come to think of it, I don't recall being taught much really. Perhaps I wasn't listening!




-10.9'c last night, and heading that way again tonight.

Slowly but maybe surely

The wintry conditions have meant that everyone's heating is breaking down and plumbers are a bit like Rocking Horse Pooh. Consequently, progress on the wetroom has been painfully slow. However. We do have a little bit of progress - much of it hidden pipework, but something to see all the same.
For those with an interest in the obscure; this is a wetroom floor former. The slit is not, apparently for posting letters.


The slit is for the drainage channel (cover leaning against the wall) which is under the box of tiles, which are, crucially, holding the whole thing in place whilst the concrete goes off over the weekend.

In the mean time, Husband has been busy removing the remainder of the tiles, adhesive and PVAing the walls in preparation for tiling.

The 'promise' is of much activity this week. However, looking at the temperature tonight (currently -8.8'c), we suspect the activity may be elsewhere!

'Baby It's Cold Outside'

-12.6'c at about 8am this morning. Cold, but beautiful.


Some of us were taking no chances....


No more snow overnight for a change, but more is forecast for this afternoon

Long Tailed Tits

Bless..........

Mr and Mrs

We haven't seen either of them for quite a while, so what a treat we have had today. A brief visit form Mr AND Mrs Bullfinch.

You will have to look closely to see her - she is hiding under the bird table, and infact you'll have to take my word for it that it is a bullfinch under there (you can only see her bum!). Fingers crossed that we get more visits soon.