Problems.

Hormonal Hannah's effect on the gang today:

1) The Domestic Goddess decided to hard boil a few eggs to snack on and for Baggy to have with her dressed crab for lunch. She put the pan of water on to boil. Hormonal Hannah made her totally forget it. Clever Bird realised about half-an-hour later that the water was still boiling - only of course, it wasn't! The base of the pan is now black. Fortunately the (otherwise useless) hob, must have a safety device in it and it had switched off before the pan started to melt. This is not the first time that Hannah has caused this particular situation - last time it was peas.

2) Creative Clara had another order from her little Etsy shop, Realuv yesterday, so she got Furry Mama to delay Minty Mutt's walk until the village, pop-up Post Office was open today. Two birds, one stone and all that. It opens for two hours at 1.30pm, so Furry Mama set off at 1.30pm with Creative Clara's neatly wrapped, tiny, parcel in her hand. As she walked around the village football pitch, to the village hall, she began to doubt herself. Hannah was muttering at Baggy, "Well I checked it was open on Monday from 1.30 to 3.30." No sign of lights on. "It is Monday isn't it?" No sign of a car. "It must be Monday, Calum went to work at silly o'clock". No Post Office sign stuck in the pop-up holder. "Maybe I'm going nuts". Minty did a poo. As Furry Mama got the bags out of Baggy's jacket pocket, the phone fell out. Clever Bird checked the time, "12.38pm". "Yes well done Hannah, Clever Bird did remind you the clock hadn't been adjusted". "Mind you Clever Bird, you idiot, you were the one wondering why your lunchtime soaps weren't on as Furry Mama left the house". Sigh. So Furry Mama carried the little parcel, all the way round Minty's walk.

3) Furry Mama needed to lift Minty's bottom, to help him get over the stile. She put the little parcel on top of the post. Mint hopped over, Baggy hobbled over. It's a beautiful autumn day again. They ambled along enjoying the gentle sun. As Furry Mama bent down to put Mint's lead back on as they approached the road, Clever Bird realised that she had no parcel! They walked the half mile back to the stile, where Hormonal Hannah had left it.

4) Once home again, Furry Mama realised that Hannah had made her forget to give Mint his daily painkiller - no wonder he couldn't get over the stile. Then Clever Bird realised that she'd also made her forget to take yesterdays' HRT pill, and this morning's happy pill. Sigh.

5) Clara watched her soaps and set off once again for the pop-up Post Office. Furry Mama tagged along as it seemed silly to leave Mint at home. They were only halfway up the road when Clever Bird realised that Hannah had made her forget to bring any money to pay for the postage. Third time "lucky", the parcel went off.

And so the day goes on. That woman has a lot to answer for.........

Exhausted.

Well one of the first things that needs to be organised by Clever Bird, when everyone moves to the other house, is some internet access! Sorry for vanishing again bloggees, but that is why! The little dongle works (vaguely) in one room. Plus, Baggy has been busy, busy, busy! As has Calum. So Creative Clara hasn't had much of a look in. Yesterday lots was achieved. The front door has now had four coats of paint and Calum got all creative with the house name sign. A friend came over to help Calum move some furniture (Baggy just can't seem to lift heavy things since her Lawrence-the-durmoid-cyst surgery). And the house is slowly beginning to look like a home.

Calum has been scraping and smoothing and under-coating.

The builder has been whipping off and re-laying tiles on new felt and insulating stuff.

Baggy feels as though she's packed and unpacked a few hundred crates already, but slowly but surely, it's coming together. Mind you, Freda Fretter is worried how much everything is costing! Now the heating at the other house has decided to pack up, so this week the whole system has to be "flushed". Ah well, Baggy is determined to carry on with her business plan and earn some money from this house.

At lunchtime on Saturday some lovely friends who live in a nearby village treated Baggy and Calum to lunch at their local pub, which was very sweet of them. The only slight challenge for Baggy was that it's the pub that she regularly visited with her Dad and Step-Mother and as they pulled into the car park, Hormonal Hannah got really upset. The memory of the last few times that Baggy had been there had her missing her Dad terribly. But Calum told her to remember the good stuff and Hannah calmed down a bit. Baggy did decide that she needed a drink though - three glasses of wine later, she was sizzled enough to order sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel sauce for pudding. So much for staying totally on her Slimming World plan this week. "Only a pound" to lose, is beginning to feel like mission impossible! Mind you, the amount of work that's been done this weekend, maybe she'll have burnt off the extra calories. Freda Fretter can but hope.

Home this morning to "this" house once again, Hinge and Bracket were more than delighted to see Furry Mama after two days of being "deserted". The Domestic Goddess instantly started re-packing crates so that Calum doesn't go over there empty-handed as it were, when he meets the chappy who will be "flushing" the central heating. It's a nuisance, but Baggy can't go as she has to take Hormonal Hannah to her final counselling session on the same day. While packing, The Goddess found Creative Clara's clarinet, flute and saxophone. She used to be very good on the clarinet, good on the saxophone and she was just teaching herself to play the flute, when her real Mama was told she had pancreatic cancer. Her Mama died three weeks later, and Baggy has never been able to bring herself to let Clara play any of the instruments since - until today that is! Over eleven years since last picking up an instrument, Clara had a little tootle on the clarinet this afternoon. Heaven knows what the neighbours thought, but when they move to the other (detached) house, she intends to start playing all three once more! Neither Calum or Minty Mutt has ever heard her play either, poor Minty Mutt looked most confused. Freda Fretter didn't think that Calum was particularly impressed either, that is until he tried to get a note out of it himself, then he said, "It's not as easy as it looks is it?" Hannah decided to take that as a compliment...........

Well trained.

No blog yesterday bloggees, because there was not a lot to say! Most of the day was used up with Baggy painting doors! Today Furry Mama's Number One furry, Calum, had his stitches out from his gum where they put the posts in last Friday. He was very relieved as a) the stitches were sticking in to his mouth and tongue and b) he's looked like a greedy hamster all week, so he's feeling much better. Baggy headed off to Fat Club this morning, with Clever Bird totally convinced that she was finally at her target weight as Baggy weighed a pound less than it on her home scales. But no, she still has a pound to go. Hormonal Hannah blamed the scales, as today's Fat Club was in a different room and the scales were on carpet, not a hard floor, but Clever Bird reminded her of all the meals out she ate last weekend for her anniversary. One pound though bloggees! One pound!  So Baggy is determined to try and stick to the plan this week if Hormonal Hannah doesn't de-rail her!

Once Baggy and Calum were home, The Domestic Goddess threw lots of clothes that are not required for winter, into bin bags and heaped the lot into Dodgy truck. Then once again they set off with Minty Mutt to the other house. For the first time tonight, they have cooked a meal in the kitchen! Well, when Creative Clara says, "they", what she actually means is that her Number One furry cooked a meal! Baggy has him very well trained...........

Baggy loves her children.

Baggy spent the day with all her children today. The girls are spending much more time inside with Furry Mama now that the temperature has dropped and as it's now toastie with the new heating - they prefer to be warm. Hinge cat seems to be back to her old self. In fact Clever Bird thinks that she might even be better than her old self, as she seems much more playful and even more purry than usual (although that's difficult).  But now Bracket kat seems to have a problem. Her left ear is clearly hurting her a lot. Freda Fretter is worried that she might have been fighting, but Furry Mama can't get close enough to it to see. So last night and this morning she plastered Sudocrem on the bit of ear that seems to be hurting - it seems to be doing the trick. Clever Bird suspects that the weird pointy thing on Bracket's chest is a tic, but again Furry Mama can't get close enough. Psychic Ploppo wishes they'd talk to her and tell her what's up! Clever Bird is keeping a "feel" on it - at least it will be dead.

Furry Mama then took Minty Mutt for a nice walk. The autumn colours are stunning. But he is suffering now it's cold. Freda Fretter is really worried that he's losing muscle on his hips and his little back legs give out every now and again. Even though he's on daily anti-inflammatory painkiller he's clearly struggling. So Clever Bird stopped him from throwing himself in the stream and making himself even stiffer. He's spent most of the rest of the day with his painful hips on the new warm heater, Bless him.

Then Furry Mama realised that he was out of food, so Baggy took her over to the local pet superstore to stock up. Clever Bird decided to send her in Billy Bob Jalopy as he hadn't been driven for over three weeks. He might be nearly forty, but he started instantly. But parking him! Well actually parking him was okay, it's the reversing him out that isn't. He has no "power" anything! The steering requires one to be a world's strongest person contestant to turn him from a stand still, and then he has the turning circle of an oil tanker. The clutch builds Baggy's thigh muscles up and the gear stick is a flimsy, flip-floppy number that you're never quite sure is in gear. But Baggy managed and Hormonal Hannah is in love with Billy Bob! She decided to drive him a bit further and take Grotty Groom to see her Boys.

Because of everything that's been going on she hasn't seen them for a week, since her last lesson in fact. She should have had a lesson today but it had to be cancelled and Hormonal Hannah was going to use that as an excuse for Grotty not to go, but Clever Bird had other ideas. Baggy enjoyed the drive on this gorgeous autumn day. The Boys were in. Hormonal Hannah had made Grotty forget that they had the farrier today.

Grotty spent a couple of hours cuddling and grooming both Boys once they had their shoes sorted. Hannah felt more relaxed just from being with them. Baggy loves all her children and is very grateful that they share her life with her.........

Chaos.

Blame Clever Bird for Creative Clara not blogging yesterday bloggees! After all the hard work at the weekend Baggy decided that she would take it easy yesterday - just get The Domestic Goddess to do a little bit of cleaning and tidying. That was until Clever Bird suddenly realised that the chap was coming at 8.00am this morning to fit the new electric heaters in the soon-to-be holiday cottage! Now that should be a simple enough operation, as long as he could get to the locations where they were going. But this is a) Baggy's house and b) The Domestic Goddess we're talking about.

Quite! So instead of having a nice relaxing day, The Domestic Goddess spent pretty much the whole day trying to clear the way to the four places the new radiators were going. It's fascinating what seven year's worth of dust and cobwebs look like - or perhaps that should read "scary". Well at least it's nearly Halloween.

This morning Baggy was dragged out of bed at 6.30am by Clever Bird so that she wasn't panicking about men turning up at 8.00. Just as well really as the first chap arrived at 7.15am! Much debate was had over the wonky walls - the joys of living in a fifteenth-century house - and the total lack of power to a key point in the bathroom.

The bathroom radiator hasn't worked for over two years, after an electrician "Sorted out some wires". Apparently there was absolutely no power going to it. After much thinking and scrabbling about in cupboards Clever Bird realised there was a plug socket in the airing cupboard. The plug in it said "Rad". "Could that be it?" she asked. Electrician did some scrabbling. "Yep, sorted". "Ah good, what was wrong?" "The plug wasn't in properly". Yep, well done Baggy, freezing in the bathroom for the last two winters because there was no heating! Mind you, it never had much effect anyway and ate electricity.

As if to prove to Baggy that it was a good decision to get these heaters, it is very cold in little old Suffolk today! The Goddess had the fire going all night and this morning, but with the front door open for people to run in and out, it was freezing. The first heater installed was the bathroom one.

Hormonal Hannah will take a while to accept it because she doesn't like change and it's much more in-your-face than the old one. However, she'll get over it, because for the first time ever, the bathroom is warm! It stopped working after five minutes because (after much figuring out), the fuse in the plug blew. Sigh.

The next one fitted was in the sitting room. This took twice as long as it should have done to fit, due to the totally wonky timber-framed walls!

 

Ugly old broken, totally useless, very expensive to run, night-storage heater.

Very wonky fifteenth-century, timber-framed wall.

 

 

Lovely new, much slimmer, cheaper to run, instant heat, radiator.

 

 

Minty Mutt's instant new favourite place to sleep and warm his arthritic hips!

 

The next debate was where to put the kitchen radiator. The original plan to put a tall one on a wall was dismissed when it became clear that wattle-and-daub is not great for fixing heavy radiators to. Fortunately the chap had thought ahead and brought a Plan B one with him. After more debate it was decided to put it where the old night storage heater was. The one that hasn't worked for three years!

 





Kitchen radiator.

 

The last one to be fitted was upstairs. Again there was a change of plan and it went on a partition wall instead of the wattle-and-daub one. There has never been any heating upstairs since Baggy and Calum moved in seven years ago, so it's novel having some warmth up there.

 

 

Upstairs heat.

 

Over ninety-minutes after he should have left, the lovely chap from the heating company was finally able to head off and leave Baggy and the furries to soak up the heat.

 

 

What should be happening now is The Goddess should be carrying on clearing up and packing stuff, but Creative Clara has taken over.........





Anniversary.

It seemed appropriate somehow that Baggy and Calum spent their sixth wedding anniversary, at their soon to be, new home. Clever Bird cannot believe that it's already six years since they married on 23rd October 2010. Freda Fretter finds it terrifying how quickly time is flying by, so from here on, Baggy will be making the most of every day.

As usual Baggy was spoilt rotten by her toad (she had to kiss a lot of princes to find him), Calum. He arrived home on Thursday evening with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. It turned out that the secret-squirrel mission he then disappeared on, was to go and collect Baggy's anniversary presents from his Best Man, who'd been "hiding" them since Calum bought them in the summer at a re-enactment show that they'd all been at. Two absolutely beautiful hand-made scarves. Why were they "hidden" miles away bloggees you may well ask? - because Calum is incapable of having a present and not getting someone to open it! Witness Baggy opened these on Thursday night - their anniversary is today! Hidden in one of the scarves was a Pandora cat charm for Baggy's bracelet. Yep, her toad is very generous!

Yesterday morning, Dodgy loaded once more with two bookcases and eight full crates, Baggy, Calum and Minty Mutt headed over to the other house. The scaffolding is indeed up for the side extension roof to be sorted..

While The Domestic Goddess unpacked the crates and re-stacked books on bookshelves, Calum sanded down the peeling front door and repaired the rotten windows in the little porch..

All ready for Creative Clara to paint. Except that it decided to chuck it down with rain! Fortunately the door opens into the porch, so Baggy could get on with it.

Two coats later it's looking better, but still needs at least one more coat.

On Saturday evening they headed out for an anniversary meal. They went back to the gorgeous pub in Dunwich that they visited in Billy Bob camper van back in August. Clever Bird can safely say that the food there is superb and it's highly probable that the lemon meringue posset with short bread biscuits that Baggy had for dessert, was almost certainly the best pudding that Baggy has ever eaten. All the more so because she shouldn't have had it! Nor the very large glass of wine. Mind you, she really shouldn't have had that! She remembered, after devouring it, that Hormonal Hannah is not supposed to drink with her anti-depressants. Possibly why she then spent the rest of the night with another very upset stomach. Never mind, it was all worth it!

"Home" again Calum decided that they should open their anniversary cards (yes bloggees, still a day early), just as Baggy was about to sit down he said, "Careful where you sit". Baggy turned round and saw another little wrapped present! Bless her toad, Baggy had two more, beautiful Merino glass Pandora beads. Very spoilt! Freda Fretter was rather worried about how Hormonal Hannah would feel, sleeping at the house for the first time, but she was absolutely fine. Baggy's back wasn't great, as they just have a mattress on the floor at the moment, but at least Hannah didn't get upset.

This morning after Furry Mama took Minty Mutt on a walk to mark his new territory, more painting and cleaning ensued. Calum headed off to buy some essential bits and came back with Baggy's favourite chocolates! Bless him, but waaaaaaaaaaah! How is Baggy ever going to get to her weight target? Especially as Calum decided that before they drove home to their current home, they'd go and have a Sunday lunch at a pub. Ah well, it is their anniversary after all.........

A bit of a gang update.

1) The Hinge cat appears to be back to her happy purry self, after her traumatic stay at the vets last week due to her constipation. She also seems to have put herself on a diet much to Furry Mama's delight. She's now eating less than her skinny sister!

2) Baggy and Minty Mutt are both fully recovered from The Domestic Goddess trying to poison them with her not properly re-heated stew! Although the comfort eating that followed the poisoning wrecked Baggy's diet!

3) At Fat Club this morning Baggy had put on half-a-pound. She cares not one jot. Aside from anything else, as the scales weigh to the nearest half-a-pound she may have only put an ounce on! Clever Bird realises that Hormonal Hannah would have been more upset if she'd lost a pound. Why? Well bloggees because if she had, she would have missed her target by half-a-pound!!!! And that would have upset her because she ate half a packet of ginger nuts on Wednesday!

4) Furry Mama's Number One Furry, Calum, has finally had the surgery to put the "posts" in his jaw for his new teeth this morning. He's feeling a little bit sorry for himself and has a very swollen face, but it went well.

5) Plans are moving apace to get their house ready to be a holiday cottage. Next week new heating will be fitted. Or more accurately, heating will be fitted, as the house has had no heating other than the lovely open fire for the last two years and has never had any heating anywhere except the sitting room! Clever Bird is quite excited that Baggy won't have to jump around to keep warm in the bathroom anymore!

6) Also next week, work will be starting on their other house to take off and fix, the side-extension roof, which is the leakiest of the three roofs. The scaffolding is already up apparently, so Creative Clara and Calum will be heading over there tomorrow with paint brushes in hand to take advantage of the scaffolding and do some remedial work on the woodwork.

7) They are planning on spending their first night there on Saturday, so that they can go and have a reccy of a possible livery yard for the Boys on Sunday. The one thing Freda Fretter is really worried about with the move, is that Grotty Groom will have to find a new place for Wesley and Joey. It will be hard to find somewhere that will match up to where they are now.

 8) Baggy is happy and excited about all the changes heading her way! Not terrified as she would have been pre-counselling and happy pills. Roll on life.............

One step forward........

The Domestic Goddess has been on a roll again today. She is determined to get on with Baggy's plans to make their house a holiday cottage. Yesterday she bought some curtains for the sitting room. She spotted them in the local department store and Creative Clara was ninety-percent certain that they would a) fit (Clever Bird totally forgot to measure the window) and b) go with the new wall colour (Clever Bird forgot the paint swatch) and the new sofa and chair (Clever Bird forgot the cushion). But Baggy bought them anyway. Last night she draped them over the rail and decided that they were perfect.

It's amazing really, Hormonal Hannah stops Baggy from remembering why she went into a room and yet she can remember colours clearly. So today The Goddess decided to hang them. Once the strings have been pulled to hang them, one is not able to return them. Never mind, she was sure they'd be fine. First The Goddess washed the window within an inch of its life, ready to be painted, then she took the old curtains down. Curtain hooks put in the new ones. The three strings drawn to gather them, she attached the hooks to the curtain rings. More gathering was required, so Clever Bird took the whole curtain pole down, curtains still attached, to save The Goddess from having to adjust it with her arms above her head, which had already hurt Baggy's arm and shoulder when she hung them. The Goddess pulled the strings further, but Clara was not happy, one end was gathered, the other end was smooth. Then Clever Bird realised why - The Goddess had pulled the strings almost out of the curtain! It would seem that she should have tied off the strings first. Sewing needle found, The Goddess then rethreaded them and tried again. Nearly an hour after starting this task, the curtains were finally up.

Bloggees (who care) will just have to take Clara's word for it that they also go with the sofa and chair, as at the moment the furniture has been moved so that Calum and Clara could paint more walls this afternoon. Calum has disappeared off on some secret-squirrel mission and Baggy doesn't have the strength to move the sofa back! Yes the house is in chaos!

But it's getting there!

It might be an acquired taste, but at least it's cosy and a bit different. Not all holiday cottages need to look the same. Well that's Clever Bird's theory and she's sticking to it..........

Conkered!

Clever Bird is well aware that Freda Fretter can be a little bit of an idiot sometimes (well let's be clear, all the gang can), but this time she thinks that Freda might have a point! Freda is pretty sure that the local squirrels are sitting in the trees waiting for Baggy to drive by, or Furry Mama to walk by, so that they can throw a conker at her. It is happening far too frequently for it to be mere coincidence or bad luck, not to mention the fact that they are hurled down! Freda is unsure what Baggy has done to upset the little furry critters, but she's beginning to fear for her car roof and her own head - just as well she's got thick hair! If she jumps much higher out of the seat when one hits the car roof, she'll be going through it. But it's even more scary when one hits Furry Mama! Psychic Ploppo might need to have a chat with the chief squirrel spirit.

At least Minty Mutt hurtles back to guard Furry Mama from the squirrel-snipers whenever he hears Baggy squeal, "Ouch!!". He was on a go-faster mission on his walk today and he chose a really long one. By the time Furry Mama got back home, Baggy, who still hasn't entirely recovered from being poisoned by The Domestic Goddess, was a bit of a shaky mess. Unfortunate really as Grotty Groom had a riding lesson this afternoon. It's a bit ridiculous, but Grotty is only riding her Boy Wessles at the moment if she has a lesson. Booking and paying for a lesson "makes" her go to the yard, otherwise she just isn't going. It became clear yesterday at counselling that it's Hormonal Hannah who is keeping Grotty away. Things will be back to "normal" in Baggy's world once all the gang are functioning fully once more. Grotty looking after the horses was the dominant gang member. For months now, ever since Baggy's Lawrence surgery, Hormonal Hannah has been the dominant member - in fact she's totally taken over in the recent months. Baggy is still not free enough of her to accept that Grotty is ready to get back to work yet. But she is trying. And when she does ride, she loves it. At least Baggy has stopped feeling guilty about not taking Grotty to the yard every day. The Boys are perfectly happy and being looked after, and enjoying having an easy life!

 

 

 

Baggy was still feeling weak and a little shaky when she started Grotty's lesson. Clever Bird mentioned this to Vicki-May. However, there were lots of poles set out by someone previously, so Clever Bird could see where this lesson was going. She was right! It was the most physically demanding lesson yet for Wesley and Grotty! Plus it was cold and intermittently extremely windy. There was a weird noise every now and again. Clever Bird was confused by it. Wesley was spooked by it. It took a while to realise it was God playing "blow across the bottle-top" with the jump stands. Very spooky for Baggy, let alone Wesley - random "whoooooooooo" noises. But the Boy was a hero; strong and forward-going, but an angel to ride. He is such a willing little person and he loves a challenge. He's one of the few horses Grotty has met who loves being schooled because he loves to use his brain. Guess he takes after Clever Bird.........

Poisoned!

Sorry for not appearing yesterday bloggees, The Domestic Goddess poisoned Baggy, but Creative Clara will come to that later. The day started yesterday with Baggy taking Hormonal Hannah for her penultimate counselling session. Yep, she had two in the space of five days and her next and final one, is in two-and-a-half weeks. But for the first time, Hannah only blubbed for a few seconds, rather than for practically the whole hour! She has come so far in her understanding of how her childhood abandonment affected her and has moulded her. She's fighting the anxiety and depression and the happy pills are definitely helping with that. But regular bloggees will have realised how much Clever Bird is now planning for Baggy and Calum. Planning was anathema to Hannah who was blocking Baggy from thinking more than a day ahead, now she's full steam ahead planning their house move and holiday cottage business. Six months ago, if Calum even suggested moving house, or that he liked the look of a house, Baggy had a total full-on meltdown, now she's excited about having new challenges.

She was full of energy when she got home, so after Furry Mama had walked Minty Mutt, The Domestic Goddess set into action packing and sorting more things. Clever Bird is finally beginning to realise just how much stuff Baggy has! Creative Clara then spent a merry hour choosing a small selection of artwork that she's prepared to leave for the holiday cottage, that works with the new colour scheme.

Baggy started to feel rather dizzy so Clever Bird decided she needed food. Calum had made a delicious stew on Sunday, so The Domestic Goddess decided to heat it up and have it with a baked potato. It was as lovely as the night before. Before she'd even finished it though, Baggy's tummy started to feel rather dodgy. She decided that Minty Mutt could have what she hadn't eaten. He enjoyed it as much as Baggy did. Clara is trying to work out how to put this politely, let's say that the next few hours were rather, urmmmm, explosive. It reminded Clever Bird of Baggy's experience with laxatives after her Lawrence-the-durmoid-cyst surgery. Not pretty.

Calum called. Baggy explained that she felt rather ill. She blamed the stew, as that's all she'd eaten. Calum said it must have been the container she stored it in. Baggy didn't have time to argue as she had to get back to the bathroom, mid-phone call. Minty Mutt was fast asleep in front of the telly as Baggy sat back down. A few minutes later he got up, retching and proceeded to be sick all over the rug. A nice neat pile of undigested stew emerged. Ooooops! During the night, on one of Baggy's frequent trips to the bathroom, Clever Bird realised that perhaps The Domestic Goddess hadn't re-heated it well enough. It was only warm rather than piping hot and it was the third time that it had been re-heated. Lesson learnt. Perhaps. Interesting way of losing weight though. This morning Baggy was two pounds lighter than she was last night!

Today was another day of packing and re-designing Baggy's house. It looks so different now that it is becoming de-cluttered, The Domestic Goddess and Clara make a good team. Things are progressing at a pace at both ends now. The new electric heating should be being fitted at the holiday cottage in the next couple of weeks. The worst of the leaky roofs at the other house (the one on the one-storey extension) will be removed and re-laid in the next couple of weeks as well. Things are looking very positive all round. So feeling good, Baggy decided to take Grotty Groom over for a cuddle with the horses this afternoon.

As Baggy pulled in to the yard, one of the yard dogs arrived at her car door, wagging his tail. He loves his Aunty Baggy, as she always has treats for him. Grotty patted the horses as she walked past them to get the doggy his biccies, he followed her wagging his little tail off as Hormonal Hannah took Grotty over and fed the dog biscuits to the horses! Clever Bird only realised what Hannah had made her do, when Wesley stuck his head in the air and parted his lips. Ooooops............

The house spirits have spoken.

When Baggy came down this morning, Calum was already hard at it, roller in hand!

Clever Bird can take a hint, so Baggy was soon at it too, brush in hand!

As the room got whiter and brighter Creative Clara decided that it was all looking a little bit too, well, white. Too boring for Clara without all Baggy's pictures up, so they wondered whether to have a bit of colour.

Piece of paper painted, they tried to see what Rectory Red might look like. Calum and Clara both loved the colour so decided to just go for it. Clara started painting. When Calum took the photo, the weirdest thing happened! The house obviously approves of colour! Look closely at the photo bloggees!

Now look at the second of the three photos above - spot anything? No yellow paint has been used today! The wall to the right of the section Clara is painting was pure white when this photo was taken - NOT yellow! (And no she has not photo-shopped it, she wouldn't know how; this is how it came out).

So Psychic Ploppo had a quick chat with the house spirits to ask whether they wanted more colour - they did. Clara was tempted to do some yellow next to the red, as she has done previously in the kitchen but decided it might be an acquired taste for a holiday cottage. So instead they decided that they would move on from Plan A, of just painting four "panels" red, and move to Plan B, to paint a whole wall of the sitting room red.

And very red it is too. It will darken with the next coat and this photo doesn't really do it justice, but in the flesh it looks amazing - very Tudor!

There's still a long way to go in this room, but they're getting there. It might even be finished by the end of next week..........

Over ambitious?

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! So much to do! Clever Bird is just beginning to realise what a huge undertaking moving house (without professional help) and setting up a holiday cottage, actually is. The moving is a biggy in itself. But setting up a holiday cottage - Holy mackerel! Ignoring the two hundred things that need to be sorted out legally and marketing-wise and the two thousand things that need sorting out and buying, to go in the house, the whole house needs redecorating. It might not be big, but it is totally timber-framed, with wall and ceiling beams exposed throughout!

As they do not have tons of spare cash, Baggy and Calum are planning on doing the decorating themselves. Much to Hormonal Hannah's horror, Calum wanted to get started early today. Well, not that early really, but 8.00am is early for Hannah on a Saturday! He was of course right. By the time he and Furry Mama had managed to get her medicines into a very unhappy Hinge cat and they were ready to leave, it was already 9.30am.

By the time they left the DIY superstore having spent an age deciding on paints it was 11.30am! Question: why is the specialist paint needed for a timber-framed wattle-and-daub house £49.50 a can? No bloggees, not a huge can either, a normal-sized can! Just because it's "breathable". Seriously, can it really be that more difficult to make? And why oh why do they make the labels on the shelves so miniscule that Baggy had to traipse back out to the car to get her reading glasses, so she had a clue what she was looking at? She got a heck of a shock when she looked up at Calum and could actually see his face properly! Clever Bird had no idea how bad Baggy's cataract had got. And that purple muppet beard, wow, no wonder people gawp at him. Love it. But Creative Clara digresses.

Food shopping finished, it was now time for a quick cappuccino before heading home. Already 12.30. Food, paint etc unpacked and put away/dumped on any available surface, it was time to tackle the rubbish in the garden. Bags and bags of rotting grass cuttings; a rusty barbeque; an old office chair; ironing board; CD rack; old garden furniture; a (very new, but totally rubbish) Hoover; a broken electric oil-heater; more bags of shed rubbish etc etc. When Baggy suggested Calum got the old lawnmower out of the shed, she got growled at. "Well it's me that's sentimentally attached to it as Dad helped me choose it", said Hannah in a huff, "not you, so we need to get rid!"  "And how much stuff do you actually think I can get in the back of Dodgy?" asked Calum. "Oh". By the time it had all been unloaded and recycled and they were home again, it was 3.00! Sandwiches made and eaten, they started to mask off the beams ready to paint.

Clever Bird watched Calum getting on with it, feather duster in one hand. "Hmmmm", thought The Domestic Goddess, maybe she should help. Dusting ceiling beams as old plaster landed in Baggy's eyes was not pleasant. Clever Bird had a rethink and proceeded to vacuum the ceiling instead. 6.00pm. The Goddess realised that she had better start cooking the Chilli Con Carne for supper. Clara decided she'd better blog. Calum carried on "masking" - only another thirteen lots of ceiling beams and two walls to mask then! 7.30pm...........