Lots more boxes flat-packed

 

Here is Little Whale watching the birds in the garden.  I got feeders for them and they have peanuts, sunflower seeds and fat balls now.  A Greater Spotted Woodpecker was an early visitor, along with Nuthatches and Blue & Great Tits.  This window is on the stairs and LW has made it his favourite spot.  They are still settling in, but now that the house isn't being besieged by noisy men with boxes and furniture, they are starting to look on it as home.  It will be a week or so until we even think of letting them out to explore though.

    Here are the old stables - four big stalls where the coach horses would have lived.  They are now crammed with our outside belongings and Keith's wood for future projects.  They are painted blue as that apparently discouraged flies.

    Lots of things have been ordered over the internet as we can't go to the shops because of Lockdown (many of them being closed because of that anyway).  Deliveries are a bit hit and miss, depending on who is doing the delivering.  Arriving tomorrow is a front door bell with two receivers, one for upstairs and one down, so we won't miss anyone at the door.  Nothing is more frustrating than a "you weren't in" chit put through the letterbox when you were in all the time.

    The Sky man came yesterday, but unfortunately we will have to wait until Lockdown is over before it is installed because they aren't allowed inside customer's houses during Lockdown.  Wales always does things differently, just because it can, but it is likely it will echo whatever happens in England so we may be in for a lengthy wait.  Boris is saying it could be summer before Lockdown is lifted . . . As all the tv we have at the moment is films and serials on Netflix, we have had to order an aerial to receive terrestial tv - that should be arriving tomorrow, so then we will have Freeview.

    The much-needed bed (24 hour delivery) still hasn't been ordered and Tam belatedly checked the feedback on this eBay company, only to find lots of irate messages about the poorness of the delivery company used.  We will have to wait about a week from the date of the order and then if it still hasn't been delivered, we will get our money back and start over again.  NOT ideal.  

    Part of our Wilko order has also gone astray - again something much needed - a cutlery tray for the drawer (we had a fitted drawer in our last kitchen), and something else I have forgotten (my brain is fuddled as I am writing this at 2 a.m. as I went to bed, slept for an hour and was then wide awake again).

    

It is a week since we moved in.  On the following day Tam and I did a short walk to explore the lane beyond our property.  There is a very steep bank down to the stream in the bottom.

    Here is the lane we walked along and you can just glimpse the stream to the right.  Below is a footpath sign (we can't wait to explore that) but it doesn't lead to a viaduct as the top roundel suggests.

This hill above the quarry is one we can see from our bathroom window.  There are lights on at the quarry at night, twinkling away.

    Tomorrow I hope to get the last couple of boxes of books unpacked and on shelves.  We made good progress today - Keith making himself handy with his drill and putting up cup hooks, and hanging our ceiling fixing we got back in November from the one narrow beam which separates the cooking part of the kitchen from the eating area.  It's hung high so there is still plenty of room to walk underneath.  Tomorrow it will be the masonry drill bits out so he can do some more sorting out.  Hopefully some pictures will get hung too.  By Monday I hope to have all boxes currently on the ground floor, emptied or stowed away (there are some car boot sale boxes currently under the kitchen table, waiting to be put away.)

    We need to decide where the hi-fi we once won in a competition will live (it is quite bulky) and have a bonfire to burn the bags and bags of wrapping paper I have amassed.

    On Sunday it is due to snow - we had a fall of wet snow today but it didn't lay.

    

    I took photos but the snow didn't really show up!  

    Right, I suppose I should try and get back to sleep again . . .  So much has been happening these past few days and the exhausted sleep of recent nights has rested me sufficiently for my brain to suddenly go into overdrive, excitedly planning. I am glad to say that we made the right choice buying this house - it suits us very well and I am delighted.  I still can't believe the views as I look out of the windows.  Am grateful not to worry when it pours with rain (we had a leaking chimney and the outhouse roof would leak too if the wind was in a certain direction, blowing the rain onto the wall.)  Being close to a small town suits us too - no more 20 mile round trips to get shopping.  

    Enjoy your weekend and keep safe everyone.