All sort of things

On Saturday I got up really early (yes it's true) and took the dogs out while it was still frosty. I had several muddy walks during the week where the tractor had been trimming along the riverbank. I can't believe they picked the wettest time in the month to do this and it churned up the footpaths so I got home with six very muddy dogs. It took me ages to clean them up. But on Saturday it was wonderful, it was freezing cold with a gorgeous blue sky and most importantly after nearly two hours out six clean doglets!

Al continued to work on various electrical bits and pieces during Saturday and then Kate and Paul came along so that Paul could check out all the electrical work in our new extension and sign it off for the Local Authority Building Control Department. While Paul was busy doing this Kate came and helped me with my beginners lesson. It was very nice having some help to place toys and tit bits etc so thank you Kate! The beginners are doing really well and it's fun taking such a nice bunch of people and dogs (ooops still no photos of them!)

After the beginners class I went down to Dan & Mac's and collected their four dogs. We looked after them for the day whilst Dan and Mac visited Terry and Jackie in Suffolk. Ten dogs in the house! Still, they were all really good and got along fine! I cannot moan as Dan and Mac had our dogs last year whilst we were at Olympia for almost a week! Payback time!

On Sunday Andy went off to Dan & Mac's as he'd promised to build them a new fireplace. Their old one wasn't very nice and they've been talking about doing this for ages. Dan had been to the reclaim yard and got some nice (but very mishapen) bricks and a railway sleeper for the mantle. It took Andy all day long but Dan and Mac were very pleased with the result and provided us with a very nice veggie roast dinner!

Man at work

The finished job. The bricks and mortar were still very wet at this point; when they dry out it will be full of lovely colours.

Here are some piccies of the new fireplace. It has inspired Andy to get on with ours. We have a not very nice white brick thing which has to go. So, Andy is going to start on ours next weekend and make it quite a bit bigger so that we (Al) can install our wood burning stove. Yippee, that means I'll get Poppy back into the sitting room. She vacates when we have an open fire as she hates the spitting logs.

Al did a load more wiring for us on Sunday mainly outside, running power down to the shed and log store so we can have lights down there. Next weekend he's going to light up the way to the summer house. Eventually we're going to have power down there and some flood lights!

As Andy was away bricklaying I decided to keep Al company outside so the dogs had a day off walking and instead came out into the garden with me for three hours. They played while I slogged shifting yet more leaves down to the end and onto the bonfire. It was hard work and I could hardly walk today. I am getting so old. Mind you the task was made harder by that bad little sheltie. We have a huge Jewson crane bag which we fill with leaves and then drag down to the bonfire. I wondered why it was harder work than normal and soon discovered why ..... a pesky little sheltie was riding on the back and digging through the leaves. She insists on 'helping' in whatever task you're trying to complete!

It was dark by the time Al finished and I was clearing the last of the leaves in the front yard. Still, I slept well that night.

Tonight I am really tired, Andy has gone out to badminton and now I have to clear up, load the dishwasher, take the dogs out and do everything .... it's just so unfair. I have to wake the sheltie up too, she is very sleepy as she had a long walk; we didn't get back until 4.30 pm and then she has rampaged all evening. Now that I want to go to bed this is what I find:

Lazy sheltie

That's about it for now!