I will be changing some of the URL settings soon so if you visit here via www.rurality.co.uk this will soon send you elsewhere – this site will only be accessible via rurality.wordpress.com  Of course you are perfectly welcome to visit my new venture at www.rurality.co.uk when it is established :) 

The temperature is starting to drop, (although we did eat dinner outside today as the days are still quite sunny) so we have had the fire lit a couple of evenings just to take off the late evening chill. I’d forgotten how much this house absorbs heat from the fire, I guess it’s because of all the stone, it acts like a slow release radiator the next day.

Here’s a pic of our fireplace.

I have a few ‘irons’ starting to simmer at the moment business wise so thought I’d post a picture of the ‘office’.

Note it’s light and airy-ness, the extensive river views and, of course, the designer furniture. Who needs to work in a cubicle when your office can be wherever you like. Next I might try and work from on a boat going up the river, just to see how far the free wi-fi reaches….

Katherine has joined the Brownies! I thought it would mean a serious stack of chocolate cakes but I got that wrong

She is loving it and has been on her first Brownie gathering when a lot of the local groups got together one Sunday for a day of craft/making.

I wonder if they can teach her not to pull faces when having her picture taken….

The floor has all been completed (and so has Katherine’s bedroom, those joists had gone as well). The good thing is we now know exactly what is under our floors and that they are are now built properly. The original floor design is great, what caused the problems was some pleb deciding about 15 years ago to get rid of a load of soil and rubble by filling up between the joists!

This pic shows the amount of rubble between the joist, we dug out about 30 barrow loads….

…..to give us a clear floor ready for a new damp proof membrane and treated timber joists….

…..ready for new boards and carpet.

No posts for a while, things have been busy We are just finishing re-building two floors in our house (new damp proof course, joists and floorboards). The carpet fitters have just finished so now starts the fun part of hoovering/dusting the entire house and getting the bedrooms set up again…. Pics to follow 

We went for a leisurely stroll along the lanes around our house yesterday. It was a damp day but nice and fresh, so we decided to brave the showers and go for it. It turned out to be a good decision as during our stroll we discovered an abundance of hedgerow fruit and nuts there for the taking: we collected hazelnuts to dry for Christmas; a walnut tree to revisit in a couple of weeks (it was full of fruits but not ripe yet); elderberries in vast quantities; wild plums; sloe berries (needed another couple of weeks to ripen); blackberries; apple and crab-apples. Thankfully we had some old carrier bags in our coat pockets and managed to get a fair stash of goodies.

The fruits we cleaned, de-stalked and boiled up all together along with sugar and made pots of hedgerow jam – very tasty. The hazelnuts have had their leaves removed and are drying in their shells, to be joined by the walnuts when they are ready.

In addition, Natalie has been busy drying and hanging the onions – about 40 in all (even after our having eaten some during the summer). Also bunches of lavender and rosemary are beginning to appear on the kitchen rafters.

The weather has been amazing the last couple of weeks and seems to be getting hotter.

To show how warm it has been, yesterday we were swimming in the sea – and we are talking the North Sea here, none of that fancy slightly warmer, Gulf Stream edged southern coast water.

No pics, don’t want to scare you….

Being a bit of an Apple fan (the computers, but I also like the fruit) I was kinda pleased with the new iMacs they unveiled yesterday.

Very nice indeed So will I be ordering…..yeah baby! (once I sell all my existing kit…. any one want a MacBook;) )

As part of her birthday celebrations we took Katherine and a friend to the Pleasure Beach in Gt Yarmouth. Not the most uptodate of theme parks but still great fun, especially when you are seven and have free passes for every ride in the park!

I don’t think Katherine could quite believe it;
“What, you mean I can go on again?”
“Yes”
“What, as many times as I like?”
“Yes”
“For real?”
“Yes”
“Really?”
“Yes, now get on the blooming ride!”

Here they are during their 9th go on the log flume:

And on the Mulan Waltzer: