Good morning it has just started raining for a change.  

We might go into Chichester we are having a new  kitchen floor once it has been re levelled , and as the  weather is so grotty it might be a good day to go. The trouble with a house that is over 100 years old all sorts of weird things happen and now it is the turn of the kitchen floor where it joins the extension it is something easily fixed but is not going to be cheap  and adding on the cost of new floor will make June a very expensive month. 

I have never lived in a new house and there are times when the idea really appeals  to me , years ago when the children were little my then husband and I decided we would knock this house down and build our dream house , he drew the plans and they were passed and it was all going to happen and then the house we were going to rent for a year fell through , the builder we were going  to use had to stop working because of ill health , so my ex built an extension himself onto this house and that was that ! 

Good morning everyone. 

Its dry here but cloudy and still windy.

I'll be houseworking and washing

Good morning everyone x
Starry the oldest house I've lived in was about 400yrs old and probably older, it was built before there were Deeds and was the Toll Cottage for pilgrims going to St Germans Church between Saltash and Liskeard, Cornwall. The church used to be the Cathedral of Cornwall until they built the new one in Truro in 1880. The cottage was owned by the Earl of St Germans and my parents bought it from him. It had a dereliction order on it and hadn't been lived in for decades so was in a poor state.  My parents had the order removed and planning permision to renovate it, and it had to be kept exactly as it was apart from a new extension that had to be in keeping with the rest of the cottage. Strangely though it was never listed.  It was exactly as it had been inside and out but with modern materials inside so it was like a new house really inside.  Sadly it's been sold several times since my parents sold it in the 1980's and now looks nothing like it did when they renovated it outside or inside. Windows that had been bricked up during the window tax have been reopened, the little threepenny shape porch on the end where the man sat to collect the tolls has been knocked down completely, the beehive top ground floor window roofs have been removed and replaced with flat roofs. And inside the clome oven and Cornish stone fireplace around it that my father and I built has been removed and an imitation marble Adams fireplace stood in there. The beam ceilings down stairs boarded up and covered up, and the large kitchen diner on the ground floor has been divided into 2, so there's now a very narrow galley kitchen and a wall dividing it from the dining area.  The large conservatory my father built on the back has had the roof removed and a slate roof put on with a wood burner in it and most of the windows in the conservatory bricked up so it's more like another room or rooms.   It's totally unrecognisable and the history has been totally wiped out. I'm just glad my parents aren't alive to see it as it is today. They'd be heart broken.  But thats typical of what happens to historical buildings in Cornwall. People come from up country and turn them into boxes that could be anywhere and have no character inside or out.  And they wonder why the Cornish people don't like incomers. 

On a happier note, the garden's finished. We wait and see now if what they've done will stop it flooding. I have my doubts. The soak away is in the wrong place and the deepest trench with land drains is not where the water comes into the garden, and where the water comes in on the other side they have dug a very shallow trench with drainage pipe which doesn't connect to the soak away. They only did that one yesterday morning after I'd complained to Sanctuary's head honcho that they hadn't even touched on the area where the water comes in, and by then they had completely burried the soakaway. So being solid clay the trench will fill up with water and it will come up to the surface again as it did and still flood the left side of the garden. 

The lawn is ruined. Totally squashed with ruts and craters in where they've driven the digger over it and the turf they took off to dig the trenches is put back but isn't level or the right height. So I've been out there this morning trying to level it all off as best I can with my spade.  One of the workmen is supposed to be coming back before next week with some grass seed to throw over the bare soil that covers the soak away. 

Sanctuary aren't going to returf the lawn as they did at #4 and they said the lawn isn't too bad as it looks quite level. I had to explain that's only because the grass is longer in the dips and shorter on the lumps and as the mower goes over it it cuts it off level but I don't think they could grasp that.  

They said if the work done this week hasn't solved the problem then they will have to think about what to do next and get the ground works company back to do something else. pfffft

It's over cast today, I was hoping for rain because I've had to carry watering cans to and fro to water the turf strips they've relaid over the trench so it doesn't dry out and die. But it looks like it's not going to rain and the weekend is forecast to be hot and sunny. The wind is still as strong as it has been the last few days too. 

I'm off to lunch Sunday with Jackie and Suzanne at a different venue. It's super to get out and about.
Chloe's home but she's not doing as she's told which is what happened last time she was discharged. She thinks she knows best. So we're all keeping our distance a bit more than we would have because she's a rotten patient and non of us can do anything that's right in her eyes.  Her son goes home to wherever he lives today up nearly to London somewhere, and the grandson that's living with her left at 7 this morning for work and won't be home til 10pm. So God knows how she'll manage on her own. She can't use the stair lift with the brace on her leg so she's taken it off and walked up and down the stairs. The consultant will be fuming if he knew. She had 3 surgeons perform surgery on the knee and leg at the same time and if she's not careful she will ruin all their work and she'll end up having the leg off. But she knows best. 

Good morning everyone.

Its bright but cool here today.

What a quick change of plans. Yesterday Paul said Maya was going back today so he wouldn't be seeing them today so I had a quiet day planned. Then woke up this morning and thought I need to be out so decided to go to St Austell shops. Haven't been there for so long I can't remember. So preparing for that to get a message from Paul to say he has them all day and they are heading over to mine. Good job I hadn't left !   The gardener is coming today as well.  But I just leave doors open and she comes and does her mowing.   I've also just shredded my old will so that's done and dusted.

Today the sun is shining and there is no wind so I have spent the morning gardening and am just enjoying a very cold lager.
 This afternoon I think will be spent  sitting in the garden with a book and maybe another lager.