Sorry for the tardy arrival of this week’s Picayune – we’ve been busy and someone has a birthday as well! Oops.

We’ve spent the last few days painting, decorating, cleaning, and moving furniture to enable us to have the Grand Reveal of the new kitchen. The builders finished on Thursday (just for the holiday break – they’ll be back again in the New Year, don’t worry).  Thankfully, though, we just about completed all our tasks in time for the arrival of some special guests who made all the right noises and said all the right things so I guess it’s all been worth it? Continue reading →

So, it’s definitely true. Turkeys do vote for Christmas. The electorate in the UK have decided that a pathological liar, a misogynistic racist narcissist is the best choice to lead this country into irrelevancy. What could possibly go wrong? A thoroughly sad and depressing result. Continue reading →

Not one, not two, nor even three. On Wednesday we had ten builders on site – I guess my rant at the end of last week had an impact. Count ‘em – ten! Four electricians, a plumber, two plasterers, two labourers and our usual very patient carpenter. And, it’s remarkable how the presence of other trades folks encourages the patient carpenter to get a bit of a move-on. Continue reading →

What a miserable, miserable week. Depressingly dismal, dreary and drizzly. And miserable. It’s been cloudy and wet all week and then on Friday, when the sun does put in an appearance and the skies turn bright and blue, the temperature plummets through the floor. Oh my goodness, only four or five more months of this! Continue reading →

A good week. A couple of nice, sunny (if a bit chilly) days, a couple of outings, visitors visiting for a visit – what’s not to like? Continue reading →

Boy is it quiet around here! After a year, four months and four days (but who’s counting?) Adam, Ava and Jessie were finally able to move into their new home last Sunday. The silence in the mornings can be somewhat disconcerting until one remembers that the dynamo that is Jessie is no longer in residence. Continue reading →

Another fine week made finer, I guess, by our jet-lag gradually disappearing in the rear-view mirror. Having said that, the weather has not been great – a months’ worth of rain in 24 hours up north, with associated flooding. We’ve not had any flooding in our area but it has been getting increasingly colder and the trees and hedges are rapidly throwing their leaves to the ground. Continue reading →

So, we’re back after what seemed like a long adventure which involved two visits to the great northeast, a week in sunny Southern California playing with our grandson, a reunion with a bunch of tired old men as well as, sadly, the loss of someone who was near and dear to all of us. Continue reading →

A tolerably, tolerable week, I suppose. Progress on the new kitchen continues at a snail’s pace, often one step forward, one step back, we welcomed back our monthly village film night (sadly, another depressing reminder that winter is marching relentlessly towards us again), Adam and Ava have an exciting bit of news to share and Boris the Twat continues to live down to his reputation. Continue reading →

It’s been a mixed week – fresh, autumnal weather with changeable skies and a fair dousing of rain thrown in just for fun. We enjoyed what might be the last barbeque of the season last Sunday, progress on the kitchen has reached an exciting point, we had a great outing with some friends and Boris the Twat extended his parliamentary record to seven votes called, seven votes lost (and much more besides). Continue reading →