And so the long hot summer wears on

Mid-January, or nearly, and it's been blisteringly hot. Wonderful weather for swimming and lazing about, but getting pretty dry in local gardens and farms. However, everything and everyone continues to thrive at The Old Forgery and in spite of the heat, we now have the beginnings of sleeper steps and general entrance area at the front door, and a beautiful brick herb garden outside the kitchen windows, thanks to Keith's diligence and know-how.

And while we're continuing to think and plan, and changing our minds every couple of days about what to put where, when and how, we're mostly taking a slowly slowly attitude to things and just enjoying the place, riding our bikes, ducking out for a swim now and then, and getting really grounded in our new life. It's been nearly three months since the big move, but our old Christchurch life seems far, far away, much further back than October. We're enjoying our new front paddock neighbours, too, as the pictures testify. Although we miss the December deer, these new beasts are quite curious about us, and the cats, and come for a look-see every evening, snacking on the boundary trees as they eye us up. Hope they stay around for a while.

PS: We're now eating our own courgettes, lettuces and herbs, with tomatoes coming along fast, and sometimes actually picking our own roses. Yay!

Happy New Year - it's 2009 at last!

So here we are, on Sunday January 4 of the new year, and it's almost a year since work started on The Old Forgery. (In fact, the builders started in the third week of January 2008.) The place suits our needs perfectly, the house only needs a few finishing touches to make it complete, and everything in the garden is growing like crazy. No official holiday for us, as we're happy pottering around here finishing things around house, garden, garage and workshop, and the weather is lovely. Whenever we feel like a break, we schmooze into Geraldine for a bit of a shop and a stroll, with lots of holiday-makers, I might add, or hive off to the river for a swim and a laze.

Christmas Day went with a swing, with 24 for lunch and afters, and the house coped well with those numbers - plenty of room, and a quiet village road for street cricket in the evening. New Year was also fun, with a barbeque and bubbles (and an endless parade of dogs) in the local domain, followed by a party just up the road. A beautiful evening, both weather- and people-wise.

And now ... here we are, really enjoying life and with lots on the go for 2009. Very best wishes to everyone for a happy, healthy year ahead.