.. the builders started work on the remodelling and extension of Yew Tree Cottage. Now I cannot say that we are actually finished, but for the most part the builders have left us and we are living in and enjoying our new space.
We have been asked now that we have been through all the stages of a large project whether, knowing what we know now, we would have undertaken such work. The answer from all of us is a big 'yes'!
We expected lots of dust and we got it, though much later on in the schuedule than I anticipated. There was copious amounts of mud and the loss of the use of the garden but it was during winter so that didn't seem so bad.
There were some positives too - always someone on hand to take in parcels, always someone competent available to undertake those little diy tasks that seem to crop up.
It is hard to remember now how we lived for 18 months before work started. Then how we squished together for 6 months with one folly sleeping downstairs and another in our bedroom. A good thing we have the photos to remind us.
I have the task of taking the dog on her first outing of the day and at this time of year we hear the sounds of geese coming our way. I love to watch their v-shaped formation and the way they continually re-shape behind a new leader. The goosey honking heralding the coming of winter.
There's a definite chill in the air once the sun has set and tonight for the first time since the summer we lit a fire. We didn't end up with the cosy evening I anticipated as local friends came over and enticed the girls outside to play in the last of the days light. I enjoyed my evening keeping the home fires burning!
... or that is how it is supposed to feel as the new academic year begins and the 4 Follies and I start the autumn term.
Yet this year I struggle to get into a routine.
Perhaps that is because patterns have not yet been set neither in work nor at home -
- the eldest folly has begun her time at 6th form and is enjoying the more relaxed structure and inclusion of 'free's' into her timetable.
- the youngest folly has just returned from a school residential spent at Little Canada. so home routines have been a little different.
Perhaps it is the warm and often sunny weather we have experienced here in the south (until today that is), making me reluctant to give up the freedom of the summer holidays.
Perhaps simply my reluctance to accept the passing of time, the moving through the seasons, as I prepare to apply to secondary school for my baby.
Or perhaps it simply is that I fool myself we are ever in any kind of routine here at yewtreefollies!
We expected lots of dust and we got it, though much later on in the schuedule than I anticipated. There was copious amounts of mud and the loss of the use of the garden but it was during winter so that didn't seem so bad.
