Very busy indeed.

Autumn's finally here properly with gale force winds, rain and cold.  The non-textbook chickens are carrying on like it's summer, laying 2-3 eggs a day and not even blinking at the dismal weather, but the cock is getting a bit aggressive in the mornings which might be his age, or the fact that he's not getting breakfast at 7am any more (too dark!).  The veggies are all leaning at 45 degrees from the high winds, but look fine.  What I am amazed at is the polytunnel - it bears the brunt of any weather as it's at the top of the field and I expected it to do a Wizard of Oz impression the other week -after all, it's just a big placcy bag- but didn't budge.

We have both been run off our feet these past few weeks - K had websites, reports, talks and travel to sort out, and has been joining me filling and sanding plasterboard in the gite.  I have been making plenty of mess with tile backs in the gite kitchen, filling in endless holes where there shouldn't be any (the previous owner needed a drainpipe to go from the washing machine to the outside world so just knocked a foot square hole in the wall), watching rising damp in action, and the usual round of chopping wood, getting some winter salads going, etc.  We were getting a bit depressed with it all, and the endless damp and mould problems from a house that had been closed up for 10 winters, but some friends came over for lunch this weekend and their very kind comments have cheered us right up.  They were last here at the beginning of the year and were impressed with the amount of work we had done, which was a real uplifter: when you work at something constantly it's often hard to stand back and see the difference you've made, and I think it often takes an outsider to see what we're too close to see ourselves.  So thankyou P & P for reminding us that we live in a wonderful place and our dream is coming true - albeit slowly at times!

Hell, this is the view from our front door!  Nothing to be grumpy about.