A call from Pam...

It was absolutely fabulous to hear from Pam today - I know George would have spoken too had he not been in the shower!!!  For those who do not know, George and Pam are our lovely, part-time neighbours (next door but one) whose garden we recently got cleared and tidied.  I am sure they wont mind me saying that they have had a bit of a time of it recently in terms of ill-health and have taken one step forwards and two steps back a lot of the time.  We don't like to bother them so we keep in touch through the Internet, my blog and their daughter Louise.  We had adopted the "no news is good news" attitude but you can never be too sure so the call today was so welcome, the news was good and hopefully next year we will have the Kailou's back here - Charlie cannot wait - George is Charlie's bestie and he has missed him - so I have told him he needs to be on his best behaviour - that's Charlie not George of course!!!


We cannot decide whether or not to put the rugs down in the conservatory but having had the first rains of the Winter there is a roadmap of little catty pawprints which run from the catflap into the kitchen and from the catflap across the conservatory floor and into our bedroom.  It looks a bit like the iconic London Tube map made famous by Harry Beck.

I decided that I would give the conservatory floor the clean of its life and then decide whether or not to put the rugs down - they are currently rolled up and in my shed and by the time I had finished the floor it looked so clean and lovely that we decided to go rugless for a few more days yet.  I will regret that decision because even though we have put a rug just by the catflap the moggies haven't listened to the brief about cleaning their feet thereon before they venture further into the room.  It is so lovely when everything is freshly cleaned but sadly it doesn't last too long.

So news on the beer baby is that John has now dressed said baby in a gilet to keep it warm!!!  it is important that for the first four days it is kept at a temperature which ensures that the yeast activity is not killed off.  The only trouble is that the temperature in the conservatory can drop quite rapidly so we cannot be sure that in the middle of the night it doesn't go below what is recommended.

Baby is cosy and warm and from the inflated size of the bag is quite happy in its current surroundings.  At the weekend Baby will be moved to the cooler environment of our spare bedroom where it will be left to do its stuff for about three weeks before the tasting can begin!!!  It is very exciting stuff and I hope that the finished article will be palatable.  Only trouble is this means that John will want to repeat the process in future years so sorry Janet that means your baggage allowance is going to be severely reduced!!!

I will keep you posted on how the Droushia microbrewery fares and how successful we are at producing some labels and decanting into the bottles - John had decided on a name - The Droushia Drop - somehow whatever the outcome I don't think Keo or Leon need be worried about a drop in the market share!!!

It was considerably warmer cleaning in the conservatory than I had thought it would be.  After the rains of yesterday today was bright and breezy - we are still in t-shirts and shorts during the day and even Chivvy Pops got into the vibe!!!   We are entertaining this evening so grabbed a few minutes sit-down lunchtime before cracking on with the cooking.  We have got most of it in hand.

I love our house and I love it even more so in the cooler months when we huncker down and fill it with candles and have the gas fire or the woodburner lit.

It has taken some time to get the limited space working to its best for us but I think that now it is as good as it can be.  It is small but beautifully formed you might say and above all it is ours.

We were having a cards and curry night tonight - we had organised it with Liselotte and John by way of a 'thankyou' for them inviting Mum and us to lunch in the spring of next year when they have come back from their travels.

They were due to arrive around 6.30pm and John had the house cosy and warm for their arrival.  We had not anticipated too late an evening but we never run out of things to say and so it was the early hours of the following day when they actually returned home.  We had had such a nice evening - I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did - we certainly covered an eclectic mix of topics in terms of conversation and I don't know quite what happened but Liselotte managed to win our game of Noms.  Her John so reminded me of Dad as nearly every round he questioned "What's trumps?" "How many have I called?" and "are we under or over?".