What a difference a week makes!

Well - what a difference a week makes! On Easter Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden - in the snow!! Our very own 'Easter bunny' hid around 160 chocolate eggs in the garden and we had a crowd of friends from locally and from church who had a great time. We realised that the ponds were full of frogspawn which was also of great interest!

It was amazing that just a week later the snow had gone and we were having a cream tea in the garden with temperatures of up to 23oC

It has been a busy week with trying to pack up ready to move out on Monday and we had a three hour meeting with the builders to discuss the proposed schedule of works. We were a little concerned to learn that the builders who are stripping out the damaged parts will not necessarily be the same ones who re-instate them. In fact, there isn't anyone in place to do the work and because this is a listed building listed building consent has to be given for much of the work before it can be started. Where plaster and lathe walls and ceilings have to be taken down they have to be replaced with the same. Lime plaster apparently has to be applied in three stages with a considerable drying out time between coats so it is clear that the work is going to take longer than we thought. We had hoped that some of the work might be able to be done while the walls and floors were drying out but it would seem not!

Richard has been having fun with his birthday present, a new lens for his camera, which allows him to take more close up shots. We have loads of birds on the many feeders around the grounds and we were delighted to see our red squirrel back close to the house. The great excitement though was spotting the osprey which nest near here this afternoon. All jobs were abandoned as we headed for the loch where we saw at least three and possibly four meaning that there are possibly two nesting pairs. The female appeared to be sitting on the nest with the male keeping guard, as is the normal pattern so I expect we will be keeping a close eye on them over the summer.

We are adding to the wildlife in the family as well having finally decided that we need to find a friend for Rhema. We have seen her become far less sociable with other dogs since we moved up here. She always enjoyed playing with other dogs but now she shows little interest and when we are out for a walk she will just 'greet' another dog and then walk off without stopping to play. We have contacted a breeder recommended by the breeder that we got Rhema from and she has a litter due this week. We are hoping to go and see the puppies at the end of May and all being well we will pick her up at the beginning of June!! We are very excited at having a puppy again and as I am expecting to come over here most days to work in the garden it is an ideal opportunity to train the puppy over the summer.

I have also bought a chicken coop and run on e-bay which are being delivered to friends in N Cheam (it costs twice as much to have them sent up here!!) We will pick them up in the next couple of weeks as we have to return down South unexpectedly due to a family funeral. Once they are assembled we will move in the new residents. We are hoping that they will bepretty much free range but will use the run for the times when we can't be there all the time. We are looking forward to fresh eggs this summer. It is likely that I will stay down here in the tent for some of the time until they are well settled in and have got used to being shut in at night. We are in for an interesting time I expect training chickens and a puppy. Fortunately I don't have any work booked in Sutton so will be able to devote lots of time to them.