A day out

Yup - yesterday we were over this way again - Hay Bluff in the distance.  We had to go to Hay (to chat to the agent handling the sale of the house we like), and to view a house a bit further over.  If I am honest, it felt much too far over, but hey ho, we needed to check it out as it offered what we needed.

We had lunch in Hay (nothing fancy, but tasty, well cooked and sensibly priced), chatted to a few friends and I had a lovely serendipitous conversation with a young man selling fruit and vegetables on the market and we were getting very excited over Heritage Apples!  I bought some Ashmead's Kernel apples from him and they are DIVINE.  This is one (along with Pitmaston Pineapple) that I am definitely going to plant when we move . . .  Not that I will live to see that much of a harvest but someone will benefit.

However, despite its age, character, size and brilliant outbuildings, the house was absolutely hemmed in by other properties which impinged on the privacy considerably.  Work needed doing to upgrade it too (as in central heating would be nice!) and the price was set in stone, so it's off the possibles list.

It was a late viewing and darkness fell as we were driving back  and then it began to rain, so all in all we were very glad to get home, and not be blinded by other people's headlights.

I didn't sleep well - I was too hot and my mind was busy from all the driving, and the day's events, and because we are still waiting to hear whether we might be included in the list for a 2nd viewing from the people who viewed on Sunday.

Tam's stuff is still strewn through the house and I am not allowed to put it away as she won't know where things are then.

The mahogany wardrobe which had to leave her bedroom to make room for her hanging clothes rail, is going to have to be broken up because the door from it (which ended up in a stable - don't ask why!) is damaged where the hanging pin is and so no good now.  Still, we have found a new home for the single bed we need to get rid of, and will phone the British Heart Foundation shop to come and collect the other wardrobe we no longer need.    That will be progress.  I have also put another 25 books in a box to go to charity.

Tam is pushing me to get rid of "most" of my books but then she isn't attached to them as I am.  Many cost good money (even second hand) and they form parts of several different collections which I have put together over a lifetime.  She doesn't know what a big ask it is to just ditch them - my treasured old friends.  I will try and get rid of as many books I can bear to part with, 'onest Injun. . .