"Well, the big freeze goes on but, fortunately, there seems to be some easing here. It’s +3C here today, sunny and windy and that’s the five day forecast, so hopefully the thaw will be gradual and dried by the wind, and we won’t be left with a sea of mud.

The sheep are off grazing rather than hanging around the hayrack, so that’s good. Hay supplies are getting short and I must get more next week. It would be good to get the ewes back – I kind of miss them.

My beekeeping course starts on 26th January for six weeks or so. I’m looking forward to it but am a wee bit apprehensive.

The “new house notebook” has been well used this week. We hope to get up to see the place soon – I’m sure we’ll look at it with different eyes now it’s ours (or nearly). I have a love-hate relationship with the Internet and have been looking at kitchens and bathrooms this week. I THINK we’ve found a kitchen that we both like and that is within our price range. We might buy a bathroom suite in the sales and store it until May. It’s only 16 weeks until our entry date – you may get bored by the countdown but please bear with me!

We’ve all spent hours looking at the various photos we have of the property, discussing where we’re going to put the vegetable garden and the hens – not close to each other, either. It will be good to have the soil in the beds instead of on the paths! But until we see it “live” again, it’s impossible to make any final decisions.
We’ll certainly go for raised beds again in the vegetable garden. There will be some topsoil from the waterhole and the gravel areas I plan to put in the paddock, which will help.

We’ve been filling the bird feeders twice a day and putting out extra food on the fence posts. I’ve also made some fat cakes as a special boost for the wee birds. I feel so sorry for them in this weather. I hope our tenants feed them too, when we’re gone. Maybe we should make it a condition of let!

The kittens are well. I’ve noticed that when we bring the dogs back from their walk, the kittens greet them as they do us, by rubbing around the dogs’ faces and legs. Kind of freaks the girls out, but it’s very sweet!"