Oops - where has the time gone?

Goodness - I can't believe a whole month has passed since I last posted! Must get myself a bit more together!!

Back from our short visit to France. When we arrived and turned the water on we discovered a burst pipe and the water cascaded through the ceiling into the kitchen end of the all-in-one living room below. We had walked in to the property at 2300 and had to spend an hour with mop and bucket clearing up! The last thing I feel like after a twelve hour journey is major housework, but it had to be done. For the first two days we were without water upstairs which was inconvenient - to say the least. The house was also very cold. The upstairs was only 4 degrees which means that the beds and bedding is only 4 degrees as well. I always make two hot water bottles for each bed as soon as I can but in the winter we seem to have cold beds with a couple of warm patches. The solid stone walls are very good at retaining a temperature for a long time, and this serves us well tending to reduce the extremes of outside temperatures throughout the year. After the house has been empty for a while the walls can cool down or warm up too far, making it uncomfortable. We have noticed that after 2 or 3 weeks this improves, but for our short trip this didn't happen.

None the less we were able to replace the cracked concrete in front of the woodburner and finish it with slate floor tiles. Once we'd finished this we noticed the room was much warmer so we knew we had stopped the cold air coming up from the cellar. The weather wasn't good for gardening as the ground was frozen solid so for our next trip we shall have to make a good start on planting, weeding and mowing!!

Since we've been back home we have had a lot of fun with our new grandson. He is about 3 months old now - a contented little chap full of smiles.

I made him some navy blue bootees to match one of his outfits. This is a Debbie Bliss Patern knitted in baby cashmerino - a really nice yarn to work with. This is the second pair I have made to this pattern and they seem to fit well and stay on his feet.

Tomorrow I am going to London to the Stitch and Craft exhibition at Olympia. I'll let you know how we get on.