The storms have hit…

Most of the leaves are down and waiting to be swept up, the Harbour area is flooded, as usual, and I, also as usual, settled down indoors with hot chocolate and carried on tidying up and setting up my new things, including my new footstool.

Oh, sorry, I may have got the possessive pronoun wrong, because, as you can see, it’s not MY footstool. It’s Willow’s footstool, thank you very much, and he’s very comfy there. Catling often sleeps on the other one, but she scarpered when I was setting up the shot.

Seriously, after a week’s hard work, the kitchen is almost there, which means that since April I have cleared the kitchen, living room, utility room, bathroom, hall and our room. The children have done their own rooms, and the garden is as tidy as it can be in autumn.

Am I pleased with myself? Yes! Am I thinking about the fun part to come, which is cooking and sewing and reading without feeling guilty about all the things I ‘should’ be doing? Am I feeling smug that the house reflects the person I am now, rather than he one I was when I last had time to breathe, almost twenty years ago? Very definitely. Am I sitting with all the candles lit in the sitting room while my husband sleeps peacefully upstairs? Again, yes. Have I got pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast? Again, yes. Have we got Storm Boelo on its way in and more bad weather on Monday? Sadly, yes. Does it feel as if autumn didn’t bother to turn up and it’s now winter? Yup.

On Tuesday will I go for a walk along the harbour? Yes. On Sunday will I try out some of my new bread formers? Very definitely yes. Is life good despite the weather? Again, yes.

So I hope you’re all doing okay despite the weekend, and that you’ll get on with at least one job that you don’t want to do. See you on Tuesday, when I hope that the storms have passed.