Wednesday 20th March...

It was a big day for 'Pullover Boy' as his back seems to have healed sufficiently for him to dispense with his designer knitwear.

He does still scratch but so far not enough to do too much damage and we were concerned because today he started doing that panting that he does and we thought he might be boiling alive.

We shall have to keep an eye on his back because if we are not careful he could well end up with sunburn before the fur grows back.

He seemed relieved and has been a good boy so far.  John is also relieved as his supply of ankle socks was becoming very depleted! we just thank our lucky stars that it was Chivers that had the problem and not greasy pig Minnie - can you imagine trying to put a jumper on her?  It is bad enough doing the spots on her chin you would think we were skinning her alive the amount of noise she makes - if she would only just realise that we were trying to help her and not hurt her.

We have a strange bird flying around in the field next door - it makes the sound something like a cross between a magpie and a kookaburra and managed to fly just out of camera range - even with the big lens on I have struggled to pick it out.  I think it looks like a bird of prey and the picture doesn't quite show the bright yellow ruff around its neck - John seems to think it is some sort of cockatiel but this picture would not bare out that theory.  There seems to be two of them at times so perhaps it is some sort of migratory visitor nesting here for the spring.

John, Running John and Trevor went off today as hunter gatherers to see if there was much 'free' wood washed up on the beaches having seen quite a bit when we went beach cleaning on Sunday.

I stayed at home to try and give the kitchen its first coat of paint. Covering over the nicotine coloured layer of mould prevention treatment is proving to be tricky plus I struggled to reach the ceiling in places where I had to stand on the steps and not the work surface so it all looked a bit messy.  John seems to think that several coats will do it so we are just going to have to persevere.

I kept an eye on the time as I had arranged to go down to Running Susan's to take a look at her laptop to see why she isn't able to play the episodes of Stella I have given her.  She and John have settled down on several occasions - full of anticipation only to be disappointed.  I have a feeling that they are only missing a programme to enable them to play the files.

It was glorious down at John and Susan's - their garden is looking lovely even though they are situated on quite an exposed plot.  Susan was out taking advantage of the lovely spring sunshine.  She had very kindly photocopied the rice recipe which she had made the other evening when we went for a meal and another one which she said was always a sure fired winner so I will be giving both a go at some point.

I loaded up VLC and got Stella working complete with subtitles which will please John as he is a little hard of hearing.  I had noticed a strange toolbar when I accessed the internet but thought nothing more of it as I know they have some strange system with accessing the internet via satellite as they do not have a land line.  I really should have asked Susan about it there and then because later on in the day I had a frantic call from her to say the toolbar seemed to be taking over her laptop and they could no longer access their system properly.  This necessitated a second trip later in the day but fortunately I was able to sort it and get things back to normal including leaving it so that Stella would work.

The hunter gatherer boys returned from a successful wood foraging trip with plans to return again as soon as possible and in several cars to maximize the effort.  If we are to be living in the middle ages if the bailout does not materialise then at least we wont be cold or we can use it as a bartering tool.

We had to say goodbye to Sean and Sharon today.  They are returning to the UK after a pretty exciting week for them - I don't suppose they expected to find themselves caught up in such chaos.

When we went round Sean was stripping the tree of oranges for me - freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast then!  He looks like he had been out in the sun a bit too long today and will go home glowing either that or the colour is reflecting off of his not so conservative shorts!

Later on he pitched up with my Waitrose home delivery - the contents of their fridge for which we are always very grateful.  Strawberries and cream for pudding tonight then - thanks xx

We are hoping that they will be out again shortly - of course a lot will depend upon whether or not this government can get its act together and whether the bailout comes through.  We are all living in a bit of limbo at the moment.

Someone who is really going to miss Sean and Sharon is Fluffer who makes herself very much at home with them when they are here.  She was in the garden today having found a bed for herself in the chimney of Sean's barbeque.  No doubt she will wander back round to us for her breakfast once she realises that they have gone back home.