Before and after

We had another nice weekend down at the Corbies - much easier to decamp down there now that we have beds and furniture and such like. Sister-in-law donated some pots and pans she was getting rid of (due to having purchased a groovy new induction hob for her house that doesn't work with some of her old pans) and some plates she had found in a charity shop. Slowly but surely we are completing our kitchen.....

We went down on Friday night so on Saturday morning we were able to make a quick trip over the border to England for provisions. There is a wonderful butcher in the nearest village over the border so we had their fabulous bacon and home-made wild boar sausages for breakfast. With rolls from the local bakery. Yummmm! Our neighbours at the cottage tell us that the game pies from that butcher are so good that when they go to visit relatives in Edinburgh, they aren't allowed in unless they are also bearing one of said pies.

They also make amazing steak and kidney pies and that is what we bought for dinner on Saturday night. I actually cooked dinner (well, heated up the pies, cooked the peas and mashed the tatties) in the cottage kitchen. Woo hoo! Feeling like a home from home at last.

We also have headboards on the beds now, so you don't spend half the night fishing your pillows up off the floor. And Husband and kind neighbour spent an hour or so and much MUCH sweat disposing of a large pile of debris left behind in our garden by the damp proof contractors. We didn't realise they had done this for some time due to the snow - the garden and drive were covered in huge piles of snow, and the pile of bags of broken plaster was masquerading as a snowdrift. Only realised what it was after the thaw!

And although I forgot to take the camera with me (again), I did have my phone AND I have figured out how to get photos off my phone and onto the Interweb. So here you go - The Corbies: Before and After. First the before.....

This is the alcove in our sitting room

And this is the other side of the sitting room, nicely set off by the icy chill of winter daylight.


And the kitchen. Note the feature "radiators left piled against the wall instead of actually installed and heating the house during the coldest winter since records began". Not every house has that, you know.And now the nice bit! The sitting room, decorated by our own fair hands! (Note the laptop. We don't even have broadband yet, but laptops follow us wherever we go.)

That there is the couch that we had to bend the laws of physics to get through the cottage door. I swear there was witchcraft of some sort involved in that process. And finally the kitchen, with the world's most tasteless dishwasher lovingly installed.

And the flagstone floor which I love, but which I will accept is rather cold on the toes when I stop every morning to look out of the kitchen window after visiting the bathroom. But it is worth it when the sort of thing you can see out of the window is this: