WLB day...

Today was one of our regular Work Life Balance days when we meet up with Lou and H and ensure that they have at least a couple of hours off from dogging, by which we mean pet grooming!!!  We were meeting them at the Brewery today and so before we did we had some things we wanted to get done in and around the house.

As I said I have finally got round to spending the money which John's mum left for us for the garden - we bought a selection of matching terracotta pots in a number of different sizes and had left the big one in readiness for a climber.  John had got me the compost earlier on and I had chosen a Podranea Queen of Sheba climber which I got potted up and we moved the wooden hanging ladder so that I will use the rope to encourage the Podranea to grow upwards.  These are normally quite floriforous - now there is a great word so I am hoping it will survive in the pot - it is in a sheltered spot, in fact this year too sheltered as I noticed the hydrangea next to it was in desperate need of some water.  I can't believe it is late November and I am having to water the garden still.

John is working on his present for the cats - he is building them a luxury double bed to sit under the panel heater in the lounge.  I got the cushions from Jumbos and he is building a nice wooden frame on little legs to house them.  The cats can be quite suspicious of new things so they may take a bit of encouragement to use it to begin with!

Before meeting Lou and H we called in to see Di and Rob because I had some pork pies for Rob - he had really enjoyed the ones we had at our 'Do' and so when I managed to get in touch with Gina the Pie Lady we added an extra half dozen to our order so Rob would have some.  We did quality control on them and declared them every bit as good as the ones we had previously so we will be good to go for pork pies for Christmas.

You can see what a beautiful day it was by the view from Diana's front door - apart from the fact that the sun is now low in the sky so the bungalow casts a shadow over the pool it was glorious with clear blue skies.  As Rob and I are constantly reminding ourselves - Ain't We Lucky???

There is a crunch footie match on Saturday - the Mighty Blades will be playing Charlton Athletic - Rob will be going to the match.  Last night both Charlton and the Blades had wins - the Blades managed to scrape a win by scoring extra time added on after the normal 90 minutes - but as John says a win is a win and Rob was able to show him the highlights so they could discuss the performance.

We made our way to the Brewery and sat outside because it was so lovely.

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours sitting and chatting and eating and drinking.  It was good to catch up on the gossip and have a laugh together.  We girlies sympathised with one another as poor Lou is getting a new engine for their Ford for Christmas and I am getting some aluminium panels!!!  and on that subject we had arranged for the men to come tomorrow to complete the job but just before we left for the Brewery they rang to say they had to come to Polis today so they wanted to do it this afternoon.  We managed to stall them not to come until 4.00pm - the job wasn't going to take long so we knew they could complete it in daylight even if they didn't start till then.

So here it is - the finished panelling - project complete.  The gaps between the stone pillars have now been filled and we are really happy with the result.  You can still see the view from between the panels if you look but we are lovely and private as you cannot see in from the outside unless you come right up close.  It is clean and maintenance free.

We had some rubbish wood indoors that needed burning - some of it ticks so it had wildlife inside!!!!

In the summer people take photographs of their legs and feet whilst sunbathing with a pool or the sea as background so I thought I would take one of my fluffy slippers with the woodburner instead!!

Oh it is sooooooo warm and cosy with the fire lit - sod the fact that it causes lots of dust we just wouldn't be without it.

We sat down and watched the two episodes of Dark Angel before retiring to bed - I am having a full on cleaning day tomorrow as I haven't had one in ages and the conservatory floor is looking terrible.

John is finishing the luxury cat bed amongst other things!!