Rhubarb to Jam

With fresh rhubarb growing in the garden - and only one jar of rhubarb and ginger jam in store - time to use up last year's rhubarb from the freezer.








Cue jam making . . .

. . . and jam!

Not the Full Wheel

Another trip across country to visit family, stopping off in Stratford along the way to break the journey.


Walked round by the river, where they were busily putting together the ferris wheel (presumably for the summer season) . . .





. . . had a few pints, and polished off a curry!

Moved on the next morning for a couple of days with the folks - more sorting through cupboards, clearing out things from the garage, enjoying time with family - before heading back to Wales again.

Power-less

Our electricity supply has been interrupted a few times recently - after an actual power cut back in January, we were officially switched off for a day in February while the electricity people did some major replacement of the local infrastructure.

Now today we're off again as they rewire us to the pole . . .

We're reliably informed (by an electricity man) that they aren't actually allowed to switch us off again now for another 12 months - although hopefully they've done all they need to do now.

For today's 'outage' we had also invested in a small leisure battery and inverter - which kept the freezers running, and will in due course be used to power things in the garage using the solar.

One Tree Up

The solar has been in almost six months now, and I'm pleased to report that we've made our first tree . . .

On the Roof

An unseasonably warm February day with no breeze, so Martin decided to tackle the missing tile we spotted on the main roof.









Access was possible via the flat roof, with the scaffolding box we've had in the garage for years. 

It took a while to find where we'd stored all the bits to put it together mind you (a garage tidy may be in order!)


Anyway, the job was soon done - and the views from the top were some consolation for the hassle of putting the scaffolding together:

A Shoe of Her Own

Visiting with family for a couple of days - time for a catch-up, to enjoy some early Spring sunshine, and help out with a few domestic tasks.

Went shopping, turned out the cupboard under stairs, did a bit of gardening, etc., etc.

Dad had a day out with his cronies, and the 'granddog' Marci came to spend the day with us (although without her Granddad she had to nab one of his shoes for company!).

Managed to separate her from the shoe long enough to go for a walk, although she was very insistent on the route to be followed!

All in all a nice and productive visit - until next time . . .

Oil's (Not) Well . . .

It appears that time may be up for our oil tank - it's been looking a tad on the faded side, and while checking the oil level recently I noticed some small surface cracks beginning to show on one end.

Having taken professional advice, a new oil tank is in order - we were about to replenish the oil, so it's just a case now of waiting for the levels to go down further.  Watch this space!