Still here

A momentous post this: first blog post done from our cottage.  We have broadband now, thanks to a community DIY broadband project (none of the big companies had any interest in cabling our out of the way little village, it seems) and that means laptops at the weekends.  In some ways I am sad about this as I kind of liked the freedom from technology but there is no getting away from the fact that it is handy.  Being able to check the tide tables for Holy Island before you set out for the causeway is useful, for example.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that anyone out there was still aware of my existence so, in the spirit of public service, your questions are answered as follows:

Cassi:  I don't drive that car much in Edinburgh.  We tend to save it for the long drive down to the Borders at weekends, stacked full of people and stuff.  I am terrified that I might scratch it if I have to drive in traffic!  As far as your remodelling project goes, can you tell me your scary story next year?  Around February/March maybe when it will be less likely to make me crawl trembling into a cupboard to hide?

Jen:  Yes, the late tree was indeed a culinary bay (didn't know those were called bay laurel - see what you learn on the internet?).  It is now in the bottom of a skip under most of the rest of our garden.  Which now looks, after days 2 and 3, like this:

 And this:

Bellus is not impressed.  There used to be foliage here where he could hide before leaping out to terrorise the local wildlife.  He is expressing his displeasure by tracking mud all over the kitchen cupboards.  And the top of the washing machine.  And the fridge.

To cheer you up after the photo of sulking cat, I give you a sample of the kind of e-mail my husband gets all the time.  Today's best example:   

Am Engr william philip.I hail from lancaster UK,I attended oxford university,where i studied marine engineering,Am 47 years old single and work as a marine engineer in the submarine section. Am elegant,vibrant,vigorous and full of life I was opporturned to glance through your page and personnality profle.You seem to be the woman of my choice.You scarlet lips,ebong hair,well biult physique charming face,sedycing eyes are of great intersest to me.In fact,your entirety commands my variety of interest

Funny, he comments on Husband's scarlet lips and ebong hair and entirely fails to mention the beard.  

I am probably the only one reading this

Well, I sort of lost the habit of posting for a while there.  Gentle and not-so-gentle hints from the family did little to prompt me back to Blogger (which has been changed again since I last looked, dammit).  However, here I am, back recording the scintillating goings-on at Schloss Loth and I have been prodded into doing so by the latest development here.  More of that shortly.

For the sake of completeness, I should note that there has been a fair amount going on here over the summer.  We bought a new car for the express purpose of trogging up and down to the Borders.  This is it.  It is red and shiny and we love it a lot.  The cat loves it too:  when it is parked outside our house, he can sit upright underneath it and survey his domain in the dry.

 We went on holiday to France (I will show you some pictures some time if you like and if I can be bothered to upload them).  This was quite a success too as we ate a lot of very nice French food and Second Born got to speak French "in the wild".  We had dinner out one evening in a lovely restaurant where the staff did not speak English and SB sufficiently charmed Madame running the place that she gave him "20/20" for his French and kept telling him how wonderful he was.  SB coped with the adulation admirably.

But the main thing that has prompted me to recall my password for Blogger is The Great Chateau Loth Project 2012.  We have decided to extend our little house a bit to make room for (a) visitors to stay overnight if they wish, particularly my Mum and Dad, and (2) FB and SB to watch endless episodes of The Big Bang Theory without Husband's head exploding.  We are also, for we are gluttons for punishment, going to knock through the wall between our kitchen and dining room and re-do the whole room. 

I quite fancied having some sort of record of what the house was like before and after all this work and the blog here seemed to be a good place to do it.  So with that in mind, here are the Before Pictures of the back garden before the builders get their hands on it:

That tree in the middle is my very overgrown bay tree.  I shall be sorry to see it go but it has got a bit out of control.

Note the cat trying to escape before I snatch a photo of him. The new room is going right where Bellus is standing - it will be accessed from that door beside our wheely bins.

My clothes dryer (or whirlyjig as we call them here) seemed to sense its days were numbered and committed suicide a few days ago.  All 3 of its arms now point in the same direction, which makes it pretty useless as a clothes-drying apparatus.  It looks a bit like a dead daddy-long-legs.

 And now, we come to today, which is the first day on site for the builders.  Our garden path has shrunk somewhat and our doorstep has gone.  Bellus is not terribly impressed so far.  Much further for him to go in order to clamber elegantly through the catflap

It's like we are deliberately trying to piss off the cat.

I plan to document the progress of the works (perhaps not on a daily basis, for I am not that diligent, as you know) and I may even recruit anyone reading this to give their opinion on decisions still to be made.  For example, we have already bought the new kitchen units but will need to decide on flooring for the new kitchen/diner.  We are thinking tiled floor.  What do you reckon?

If I can summon up the courage, I will photograph the inside of the kitchen before work starts.  It's not pretty.