The first days of autumn

 A non-flash photo of the boys, who have realized that Our Bed is the best place to be now Autumn is with us!

The first days of autumn have arrived.  The garden is calling out for me to get out there and start tidying it up, and a sudden growth of grass means that the lawn needs cutting again, and the paddock definitely needs topping to tidy it up before the winter arrives.

6.30 in the morning here, and no sign of the sky lightening yet.  At the end of the month, the clocks will go back and the year will really feel like it is moving on.

Lucy has appropriated the pillow end . . .

We have been working flat out to get the house clean and tidy (and as uncluttered as possible) before the visit of a more up-market estate agent.  I am glad to say that it went well and we have taken ourselves off the books of the last agent, who appeared never to have heard of the expression "pro-active" . . .  When they "forgot" to put the house back on their web site after a price alteration, that was it as far as I was concerned . . .

Mind you, Monday was NOT a day I wish to repeat in a hurry, as we started off the day tired out from the Fleamarket the prvious day, and the Junk Room was so full to overflowing, you could hardly get the door open.  By the end of the day I had cleared and repacked everything onto one side of the room, so reckon I deserved a gold medal for that!  Not to mention all the other housework chores done . . .  I think we are going to be opening cupboard doors very carefully for the next few weeks, as so much stuff got bunged away out of sight, when desperation struck!

I finally remembered to take a photo of the lovely Bracken print material I bought last week when T and I went to the patchwork shop.  This doesn't do it justice - it is much greener looking - but perhaps it will show up better when I have made the cushions up.  Another job for today . . .

Not a brilliant picture, but this duck egg blue and maroon Peacock feather print is destined to be part of a quilt - SOON. It HAS to be soon as I have two to make between now and Christmas and I have a feeling they will still be works in progress!

There is still so much to do here.  The new agent is going to get a house tour video done, so I have to set about the garden and get it tidy for the winter.  We have ordered a smart new name plate for the house, etched on slate, and I need to buy some Winter Pansies and get them planted up in the little strip beside the driveway.  I won't bore you with the list of what needs doing, but my time is more than spoken for!  I feel so much more positive about selling now though.

The valuation was higher than we were on the market for before, and this has given us a more generous budget for househunting with and it's a whole new ball game now - as we have finally got to the level where we don't have to compromise at every turn.  We can look for larger properties - as in room dimensions, not room numbers - and more desirable ones.  Of course, I have been looking, and fallen in love with one cottage in Devon - it reduced me to tears in fact - but I am fully aware that it will probably be quite a while before a buyer finally arrives, so we will have to see what is about when that eventually happens.

Meanwhile, there are happy cats here still and I will leave you with photos of the boys, very much in residence!