Thank you all for your kind comments. I won't have time to go and reply to them all, and I am sorry I couldn't post anywhere to say I was ok. I will say here, if I go quiet for that long, it's because I cannot get online because the broadband is out. Were anything to happen to me, I would get one of the kids to post and tell you.
Christmas and New Year just seem a dim but pleasant memory now. New Year's Day saw me taking the baubles off the tree and putting it outside on the orchard edge. If I knew anyone with goats, I would happily donate it for them to munch. I can't wait to get rid of the decorations once the year has turned.
I've not been anywhere or done anything for weeks and weeks now. My only respite time is a local walk or doing the weekly grocery shop. Even Brecon seems exotic these days, as I've not been for months. Danny & co have put back their move a week so he can buy a small car. Gives me time to get up in the attic to make room, and try and move stuff from one end of the stables to the other.
The only really positive thing I have done is to approach an antiques centre I know well, which has a good footfall, and to put my name down for a Unit there. Hoping one will come up soon as I have so much "stuff" here and as I'm none too sure if I can do the Builth Fairs this year, because of Keith's health, it makes a lot more sense. There are things which came with us from Ynyswen which I just don't have room for, and need to be moved on. I'll still go to Malvern as that is something I am addicted to, and it's good to catch up with friends on the circuit too. It also gives Keith an interest.
I also hardened my heart and gave the Library all my copies of PSAS (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of which I am a lapsed member - when it got to £100 a year I drew a line under my membership). I was hoping they would put them in their Reference Library but apparently they will just go into storage, which is disappointing. I gave them so that others might have access. No point in trying to sell them as they only go for £5 each and such a niche market that I would still have them forever. So that has cleared a shelf . . .
OT have written to us about a made-to-measure wheelchair for inside and out, and that would be better for Keith to possibly get around Fairs in - certainly Builth. Unfortunately long journeys (Malvern is an hour and a half nearly) make him very stiff but we will see what we can do. The little Llandeilo fair would be easier too, and we could go to the fabulous Botanic Gardens Fair again (the one we used to do. You just couldn't have a better setting than the big glasshouse, where we used to have our stand.)
Today our heating boiler is going to be serviced, so we have to switch the heating off at 10.30 (3 hours before they come). Needless to say it is perishing cold outside . . . I've turned the heating up, and shut all the doors, and Keith can be rugged up beneath the electric throw if he needs to be. Plenty of quilts and blankets here anyway.
Now I'm off to Ancestry to follow up the lead on 4 x g.grandfather Adams, who lived in the "cherry blossom village" of Botusfleming just over the Cornish border. I bought a copy of his son's marriage certificate (as a widower) from 1870, and so got the link back. I'd already made notes and a likely family tree for that branch, and can't wait to delve back further. The certificate of course arrived the day after we lost the internet . . .
