April 2026
What a fabulous start to spring! We've been busy tidying the garden a bit (don't expect too much..). The fine weather prompted me to think about the barbecue and after asking a couple of regular visitors whether it was worth upgrading to a gas one the answer was a resounding "yes". The rusty old barbecue has gone to the tip and this wonderful thing has taken its place. Roll on summer!
October 2025
Well, we didn't survive storm Amy with its very strong winds from the West. The wind came straight over the fields towards the house and took down one of the old oak trees along the wall, which just touched the little conservatory that we use as a store room. Thanks to help from Gary the tree was swiftly cut up and the branches removed, lots of wood for the fire! You will see the stump, still tilted over, with my ingeneous washing line support attached.
February 25
Well, we survived storm Eowyn with its 77mph gusts, just one tree at the back of the "garden" has tipped over. The worst part was the power being off for 51/2 days! We ran the generator for an hour at a time just to keep the heating on and we could cook on the camping hob. The novelty soon wore off though. It did give us a chance to clear out the fridge of all the random bags of chips etc. so there's be plenty of room in there now. Power is restored again and I guess the likelihood of such a long power outage must now be reduced with all the work they have done to the lines? It's been quite a while since the last time we had a proper power cut so let's hope it's a long time before the next one!
September 24
Not quite so exciting as last month but we have a new addition to the kitchen gadgets; an electric coffee grinder. For those of you who like to grind your own beans this is a marked improvement on the manual ones we had before, just pour the beans in the top, press the button for about 10 seconds and you've enough for an espesso or two. Marvellous!
August 24
After a long long wait - I think I ordered the broadband in March - we now finally have "Fibre to the premises" (FTTP) and a broadband speed approaching the promised 300Mb/s. There's a new router so regular visitors will need to update their WiFi login, it's all labelled.
July 24
Sometimes serendipity works. A friend pointed out a few loose slates on the roof and I was just wondering who I should contact to come and have a look when there was a ring at the door and a roofer stood there asking if I needed anything doing. I said have a look and give us a quote and he came back later with a big ladder and his two lads went up on the roof like squirrels running around all over it. Needless to say they found loads to do but completed the work in a few days and didn't bankrupt me. No need to worry about the roof for another few months!
May 24
We now have a water-meter, oh joy.. Due to Hollins recently being designated as a business premises we are now subject to business rates instead of domestic rates. In Scotland domestic rates include the water rates but business rates don't, so we had to have a meter fitted. It doesn't really concern visitors, it lives under an inspection cover in the drive, but it was another little excitement for us!
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