I’ve just had a text from a friend, checking that everything’s OK, as she hasn’t seen a blog for a while; sorry Terrie! Yes, everything’s fine; we’ve just been run off our feet.

Two of Joel’s lads arrived before 8am on Friday and worked till 6.30pm to finish all the downstairs brick-laying, ready for the hourdis this week. Joel came round mid-morning to check their work and deliver an estimate for replacing the roof; he reckons Nick and Kieran have saved us €10 000 so far, by working with him; well worth doing, then!

There’s a terrible draught comes in under the front door, so I decided to make a curtain, but as it will only be used for a couple of months this winter and probably next winter, it didn’t seem worth spending a lot on it. I found an old throw, left on the settee when we bought the house, an ultra thin bed quilt that came free with a catalogue order and  a second, similar quilt, bought for €1 in Emmaus (a charity shop), stitched them all together, remembered that I’d sold all my curtain header tape before we moved here, so sewed bits of ribbon to the top and used these to tie the curtain on to the rings on the (reclaimed) pole. Result? We’re toasty warm 🙂

By the end of last week, we were all ready for a rest; the lads had worked hard in the house and I’d taught four language classes; but the cycle club dinner on Friday night, aperos on Saturday, then dinner at friends’ on Saturday night, walking/cycling this morning, followed by lunch to which we’d invited Adrian, has meant that the last couple of days haven’t felt much like a break. Maybe we’ll watch (or fall asleep in front of) a film tonight, well, once I’ve finished my next lesson plan………..