Finished, at last.

It was exactly a year ago today that we had the plumbers in to replace and relocate our gas boiler, you can read about it here.

There then followed a certain amount of reorganising of the cooking area, which originally looked like this.

What you cant see from this photo is that the cooking area is located immediately inside the door to the hall, and there is a rather unsightly and totally ineffective copper-coloured cooker hood above the hob.

Well, after a year of working, on and off, in the kitchen, work which included installing and wiring up for a working extractor fan and some spot lights, buying a new hob and installing it in a different place, fitting a new piece of worktop where the removal of the old hob left a gaping hole, removing useless small cupboards and cooker hood and replacing with a row of new cupboards, removing and cleaning up the tiles above the old hob, and replacing them on the wall above the new hob, rewiring and replacing electrical points, re-waxing the entire kitchen worktop, fitting and painting beading around tiling and painting the walls, it is now finished. There was such a lot of work to be done that I've probably forgotten some of it - but all the while this was happening we were not without a working kitchen for more than 12 hours at any one time and we only had to eat out once (see next sentence) - quite a feat. We also had a bit of a plumbing disaster when the chippy put his drill through a hot water pipe, but the less said about that the better. Where we could, we did the work ourselves, but where necessary (plumbing, carpenting) we had professional help.

I could include several shots of work in progress, but that would be a bit boring, so here is just one

and here is what it looks like now, one whole year since the removal of the boiler

I love my "new" kitchen, except that I'm not happy with the heat mats, they were cheap, don't match the colour scheme and are not up to standard, so they will be replaced.

So, what's next?

Curtains

I was asked the other day if I could make curtains, which, I thought at the time, was rather strange, as I've been making curtains since I was knee-high to a grasshopper (well maybe not quite that long, but at least 47 years, anyway). But, of course, I realized that I just made curtains and then hung them up and didn't really bother mentioning to anyone that I'd made them unless they asked.

So, I went round the house and photographed all the curtains that we currently have that I've made myself.

Firstly in our bedroom, we have these, which I made last year specifically for this room where we have two windows at the front of the house which face roughly towards the northwest. They are lined with darkroom thickness linings so that we'll be able, in our dotage, to take afternoon naps in the semi-dark. I bought the fabric from Shamrock linens in Devizes, which features again later in this post.

In the guest room we have this pair, which were originally made for GM's office in our Surrey house - they must be at least 12 years old, are still in pretty good condition, and fit this window perfectly.

The oldest curtains currently in use here are those in my studio. I made these for the front bedroom (first our room, then GO's) in the Surrey house way back in about 1993 or 94. For reasons I cant remember now they are an asymmetrical pair, one curtain being one fabric width and the other being two fabric widths wide, and oddly enough that makes them a perfect fit for the pole in the studio, which has a support bracket at roughly 1/3 the way along the length (dont ask me why, I've no idea!) Being over twenty years old they are now a bit faded, but not as badly as they might have been had I not lined them with brown corduroy at the time.

Another curtain that I made for the Surrey house is now in our little bedroom, I made it originally for the window at the bottom of the stairs, next to the front door, in about 2007, after decorating the hall ready to put the house on the market. Quite a narrow window, so a single curtain was enough, the fabric was from John Lewis in Kingston, and as the curtain didn't fit any of the windows in the Devizes house it is still in relatively new condition and will do for the time being in the little room, until we decorate.

Earlier in the post I mentioned Shamrock Linens in Devizes. When we were fairly new to the town I bought an end of roll, I think I got fifteen metres of fabric for about half price, so I'm guessing (because, sadly I can't remember) it cost me about £50. I made a double sided curtain for our wide front door, which also fits our current front door perfectly,

and the rest fabric didn't get used while we lived there until we were in the throes of buying this house when I realized that I had enough fabric and that it was the exact right colour for our TV room. These curtains were made up in a bit of a hurry, and really need to be taken down and finished off properly - the lining needs to be properly stitched on for a start - I had machined it but as the fabrics were different weights it puckered up so I opened up the seams and it now just hangs in position! One of Cassie's favourite places to sit, in the afternoons when the sun gets round, is on this windowsill, so the lining is always covered in cat's hairs.

The curtains currently in our front room were yet again made for the Surrey house, for GT's room when he went through a bright red/yellow/orange combination of decoration for his room. They aren't the ideal curtains for their current location, but they'll do for the time being - this room is quite a long way down the list of rooms to decorate, as it's not one we use very much, more of a dumping ground at the moment.

Finally another Shamrock Linens purchase, our dining room curtains made specifically for this room, when we decorated it over winter 2012/13. As they are in front of the sliding doors into the conservatory and are for visual purposes only (so we don't have to look at a big black hole over the winter months) and not for any form of heat preservation, they were very simple to make as they aren't lined at all.

This is just a small selection of all the curtains I've made over the years, but it's certainly made me think that I might not be too bad at curtain making.

Valentine's Day . . .

. . . in our house is celebrated a bit earlier than the rest of the world, as February 3rd is the day, 28 years ago, that GM and I become a couple.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable day, despite opening the curtains in the morning to see a slight covering of snow on the ground (which was completely gone by midday).

At lunch time we took ourselves off to a new pub, well not new but new to us, the Horse and Groom, situated in a tiny hamlet called East Woodlands, to the south-east of Frome. Our journey to the pub would be a story on its own, involving narrow lanes, a hedge-cutting tractor, a bank-climbing land rover, a ford (that's a river ford, not a vehicle!) and almost any other obstacle that you could think of, but that's for another day, possibly (or not). But the pub itself was a gem, a real old country pub serving real decent beer and real decent food.

We both enjoyed a couple of glasses of Butcombe Best (which is brewed not that far away, just to the south of Bristol) - despite what it says on my glass.

We sat near to the fire and were nice and warm

The baguettes that we ordered were really tasty but enormous, I couldn't finish all of mine.

It was one of those pubs that felt just right, no effort had been made to change it from its traditional role of being the social centre of the village (hamlet).

We loved it, and will definitely be going there again, only next time we'll take the slightly longer, but much quicker, route using the A362 and the A361.

I hope you all enjoy your Valentine's Day as much as we did ours.

Neighbours

When we lived in Surrey we were very lucky to have Jim and Diane living next door to us for several years - do you know I cant remember how many, but I know they left in 2002 to emigrate to New Zealand. I don't think they left because of us (but you never know). However, while they were with us they were great neighbours and we had lots of fun with them, and probably consumed vast quantities of alcohol with them too.

We were quite sad to see them go, but off they went to New Zealand to make a new life for themselves. Since they left we have spoken on the phone a couple of times and exchanged emails and Christmas cards. We weren't really expecting to see them again, but quite out of the blue a couple of weeks ago we had an email, they were in UK, and would be passing almost by our front door on their way from Devon back to London, could they pop in and see us? Well of course they could, why on earth not?

So last weekend they turned up, looking exactly as they had done 12 years ago! Diane had a very slight kiwi accent but apart from that they were just as we had known them, and it was as if it was only a month or so since we had last been together. Isn't that a sign of true friendship?

They'll be heading back to NZ in two weeks time and I guess it will be at least another 12 years before we see them again. Thanks for popping in, you two, and bon voyage (again).

Disruption at Daisy Row

As if May wasn't already busy enough, with birthdays galore, a wedding anniversary, a visit from a relative from USA, a 90th birthday party to help organise and a new baby due (who, thankfully, decided to surprise us all by arriving in late April), our faithful plumber decided that he could fit us in, and if a plumber tells you he can fit you in, you do NOT say no. So, on Monday morning promptly at 8 a.m. Baz and Dave arrived, to remove our old, inefficient boiler.

As the new boiler was destined to be fitted not in the kitchen but the utility room

a certain amount of disruption where new pipes were to be fitted was guaranteed. I had to vacate my studio for a while, and the carpet had to be pulled back to allow access under the floorboards

so the pipes could pass back to the airing cupboard, where the hot water tank was positioned.

Well, they were here for three days. The hot water tank, being surplus to requirements was removed,

as was the old boiler,

and the new boiler was fitted.

We had decided that it was not a good idea for Cassie to be around while all this work was going on, so she's had a nice little holiday in a luxury apartment in Clearwood Cattery (highly recommended) and will be back home this afternoon, after we've cleared all the dust.

Thanks Baz and Dave, a good job well done. Watch this space, next on the list of improvements is some work to make good the kitchen.

Look what I got!

Sandie makes books, you can read all about it on her blog itchifingers (she also does photography and various other crafts, a multi-talented lady). I was lucky enough to receive on of her lovely books as a birthday present, I love it . . . .

. . . . it already has pride of place in my current knitting bag. Thank you so much Sandie.

5 on 5 for May

Linking up with Sandie at itchifingers.

I am a lucky bunny, today is my umptysixth birthday, so there has been no shortage of photo opportunities. I've managed to pick out my five favourite shots from what was, I have to admit, a slightly longer than five minute time slot.

1. Gifts from GO, who used some wrapping paper that he found (Phoenix, of course).

2. Some of my cards

3. From GT - how did he guess these are my favourite?

4. A lovely surprise for my birthday, our first runner bean shoot

5. We''ll be enjoying this with tea tonight