Demolishing things is very cathartic !

I'm sure that if I spoke to others in the same position as us, they would say exactly the same - how satisfying it is to demolish parts that are ugly and not needed !!

In our kitchen we had a 'dividing wall' that apart from giving a little protection from the front door, had no other use - it was ugly and painted DARK BROWN ( we did put a coat of white over it temporarily, but it was never pretty!) - mind you, the whole kitchen was painted dark brown when we arrived. I think the previous occupier had a job lot given to him ! We would have demolished it sooner, but it had the only plug socket and light switch on it, so we had to be prepared with replacements.

Like all other building projects, many jobs need to be started before one can be completed. However, it was so worth it - the kitchen has opened up, and given us a much more user friendly space.

We had a lovely visit from Ryan at this time. He actually came back from the UK with us, after our trip for my Dad's funeral. We utilised his strength to the max, and he dug out the concrete from in front of the kitchen window. We had thought about using this area as a herb garden, but decided that with the traffic being so close to the house at this point, the herbs wouldn't be as tasty as we might have hoped for, and instead plumped for a graveled, slated area with a few rockery plants - as with all work here, the problem was sourcing the slate - however, we found a very friendly quarry not too far away, and the result was great.

I know this is an old picture, but needed to remind you what this looked like before !

We decided that we were going to go another step further with animals and arranged to have some sheep - a ewe and her twins. At the last minute, we agreed to have an orphan lamb too - unbeknown to us, this was a mistake - but more on that another time !

It was a lot of work, to prepare for their arrival, but very satisfying to receive them into our household. We deliberately didn't name them, although the orphan did become 'Lara' (after Lara Croft) as she escaped so many times !

  The sheep weren't the only addition to the family - we had a new Grandson - Henry James was born ! Our third grandchild - that officially makes us old now I think ! How exciting, and what's more another visit home to plan, to see and cuddle the new arrival !