Happy 1st December.

Wow, 1st December already!  How did that happen?

Been rather busy these last few weeks, painting and decorating, holding an afternoon tea party and culminating in my older son's graduation 'Passing Out Ceremony' as Officer of the Watch on Saturday night.

It was a lovely evening and we are very proud of how hard he has worked these last three years.  

He only has a couple of weeks left at Warsash now and then is home for the holidays before setting off on the high seas again in February/March.

So what about this painting and decorating?

Our younger son has left home.

So we changed the room from this....

...to this!  We now have a dining room.

Really pleased with it.  A few finishing touches still have to be done - the window frame will need painting in the spring/summer and the skirting boards need to be painted....oh and a new door as we had to remove the old one as he put a hole in it. 

Having a dining room meant I was able to finally invite some friends for a lovely old fashioned afternoon tea - we had a lot of fun!

Being able to remove the dining table and wall unit from the lounge meant we could space that out a bit more.

It feels much more open now.

Nice to have some space.

The Christmas tree will fit where the dolls are having their 'tea party' and after Christmas my writing bureau will move into that spot.

I started putting up some decorations today - and will gradually put up decorations over the next couple of weeks, updating photos as I do so.

In the meantime I still  have to tidy up the Sailor's room as I have been using that to store things while decorating and shifting the rest of the house round!

The work is never ending.

We had a really lovely Advent Concert at Church on Sunday - so much better and far more enjoyable than last year.  Lots of singing over the next few weeks with various rehearsals and concerts - so keeping busy with that as well.

Happy 1st December!

Clearing and Cleaning the Conservatory

Okay I am sure no one is going to be interested in the posts over the next week or so, but I am not writing them for that reason, more to give me the encouragement and to remind myself that I AM making progress, even if not as quickly as I would like.

Today was the turn of the utility room/conservatory...it had really got into quite a shameful state and I had been wanting to tackle it for ages and only now have had the energy and gumption to do so.

This is a before photo.

Disgraceful!  Part of the problem being that certain members of the household seem to use it as a dumping ground for all and sundry!  It has to change...

Just two weeks ago we looked out our kitchen window and conservatory window to lovely greenery. Unfortunately our dastardly neighbours are having an extension being built which should never have been approved due to exceeding several government guidelines and lying on their application form...yet despite these points being highlighted in a letter against the proposed extension it got approved.... hands in pockets I wonder?  Their extension will decrease our natural daylight significantly. We have already noticed a decrease in light and have had to have the kitchen light on during the day and it is summer...just imagine how bad it is going to be in the winter.  You can't appeal approvals  - we wrote a LOT of letters and got no where...of course if we had had a spare £50,000 to spare we could have taken it to the special high court that hears such cases.  Oh and the independent inspector that came out at the request of  the MP....yes you guessed it, he was the (insert rude word) who approved the application!  Anyway we were promised that the greenery would be staying only to come home a couple of hours later after popping out for lunch to see it all gone and a charming (NOT) view of a building site!  As you can imagine we were not very happy at all having completely lost our privacy.  That was one of the features of the house that we liked, being able to look out at the lovely green of rhododendrons and other plants and the bird life on them.  They have since stuck up an ugly board to give us a little privacy back and to  shield us from the rubble, but it is not pretty. 

So I have moved the unit over slightly and the cacti give us a little bit of an improvement and something a bit more interesting to look at rather than an old scrubby builders board.

Looking down into the length of the utility room it is vastly improved.

As you can see the builders board is pretty bleak to look at - you can also see the edge of the garage that was built right on the boundary (or even slightly over it) WITHOUT planning permission as well!  Why is it that some people get away with such things I wonder?  I am even more determined to move now.  It really has spoilt it for us.  I do believe people who have such extensions should have to live in the house while it is being done to experience how disruptive and noisy it is for the neighbours.  They should only have done what they are willing to put up with themselves.  The whole summer this will be going on for and probably another four months after that as well. 

A nice clear space.  This space will probably change again over the next week or so as once the garage has been cleared we may well move the freezer back into the garage and move the units along the wall towards the back where it is wider.   I am thinking about putting a little sewing table in this room as the light is good on a whole and it will be handy having a machine set up to use on a regular basis in the house.  But I am not totally sure about this idea yet.

One of the dressers with some 'stuff'   Again I am not sure whether I will be keeping these dressers, but at the moment they are ideal for storage and displaying items.

This is 'Rose Cottage' where my Hitty dolls live - yes I need a little bit of play and madness to keep sane.  They have filled the space that the loss of music left.

There is also an exercise machine in here...I might even attempt to use it now it is freed up and see if  it is something I can use without upsetting my CRPS.

So what did you do on Sunday?

A Day of Rest?  Not for me unfortunately.

What a perfect rose to greet Sunday.

Some more shades of purple/violet...the Buddleia is still in flower

I'm not sure if this is a plant or a weed, but it came up in one of my pots and has flowered all summer, is pretty so sit stayed.

The pink hydrangea is still looking lovely.

The apples are ripening 

What I call Silver Beet, but what is called Swiss Chard here, is looking scrummy - must pick some to have with dinner tonight

The rhubarb is ready to have with the apples.

Pretty orange to brighten this dull day.

Instead of 'Spring' cleaning I am 'Autumn' cleaning....or maybe I am imaging being in New Zealand where it IS spring!  Anyway I am still blitzing away at the house...this time the kitchen cupboards, in part so I could store my freshly made 12 jars of Plum Jam.

A right mess before - it was pull out and shove back in and hope for the best!

After:  The jam is stored on the top shelf behind the other things (partly hidden from DS2, I hope!)  The top shelf is for supplies and as needed I will bring them down to the second shelf.

My baking cupboard...a right mess!

Much better - now just have to keep DS2 out of it so I can actually bake when I want to and not have to worry about not having the right ingredients.

Incidentally in the clearing out of these two cupboards I ended up with two big black sacks FULL of rubbish and OUT OF DATE supplies - and not just by a few months...but by YEARS!  This TOS and the resulting chronic neuropathic pain has had a real impact over my life...but no more I say!

That is enough for today... a little at a time.  Although this felt like a lot and there are still a few 'loose ends' to tie up!

A busy sort of a day.

Another gorgeous summer day today.  

Lots of washing on the line and dried.  

Guinea pigs out on the grass.

Oscar and October 

Posy.

I have enjoyed admiring my front garden although didn't do any work on it today as was busy working on some indoor 'de-cluttering'

Loving the Marigold

These look just so pretty.

One of the tidied drawers - my leggings.  I don't wear tights/stockings/pantihose in the winter as I just continually ladder them so wear leggings as well.  I didn't realise just quite how many I had accumulated!

Note to self:  DO NOT buy any more leggings this winter.

I have completely cleared out a drawer that I had make-up in.  I mean what is that all about?  I NEVER EVER wear make-up!  I now have a tidy underwear drawer and a 'hair care' drawer.  

One bag of rubbish and one bag for the charity clothes collection tomorrow.

My Daily Doodles for the last three days.