Well, the nights are certainly drawing in already and there’s a definite nip in the wind blowing down Liddesdale this week… that said, despite the rain being torrential at times, we also had an unexpected afternoon sitting in the sunshine last weekend too – so a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise this past fortnight…
Decorating of the small bedroom has now been completed and a new carpet laid so at least that’s all the flooring in the house done now.
For a first-time attempt, I think Pete did a great job with putting the lining paper up so we could paint… after a lot of hours checking things out on YouTube, he also did a bit of plastering to fill some of the holes we found when we took the old paper off. The room looks perfect now – bright, white & clean!
Not only are the walls papered & painted our signature white, we have gone from having three different types of carpet (left) to just the one (right)! Hurrah!
I think the end result is great.
Although we still have some “dressing” to do, this is what it looks like now…
…definitely better than it was when the wall cupboards made you feel like you were in a caravan (which is ok if, indeed, you find yourself in a caravan… but not in a house!) 🤣
There’s still a few decorating jobs to be done in time, including the biggest job of all, having the main bathroom ripped out and re-configured – a much bigger job than we can handle! For this job, we are currently waiting for a quote from a local plumber one of the neighbours put us in touch with so, hopefully, we will be able to get this done before the year is out as the bathroom really is in need of a bit of modernising!🤞
After that, taking advantage of Pete’s new found wall-papering skills (🤣), the final job will be to remove the textured wallpaper in our bedroom… but that’s a job that can wait til the winter months after Christmas – then that will be more or less it until the next time we want to have a change around – hurrah!
One question… why is it that throughout the time Pete took to wallpaper the bedroom, I had an ear worm of When Father papered the Parlour playing on loop in my head??? 😂 Whilst I have fond memories of having picnic teas at my Great Nanny Lowe’s house in Chiswick & learning all the old songs from her, my Nanny Brindley & Mum, it’s a bit annoying! 🤣🤣🤣
…When Father papered the parlour, You couldn’t see him for paste.
Dabbing it here! dabbing it there!
Paste and paper everywhere!
Mother was stuck to the ceiling,
The children stuck to the floor.
I never knew a blooming family
So stuck up before!
What else has been happening..?
I’ve been to see my Mum which was nice and had a long FaceTime call with brother Chris whilst I was there… all good!
It was our Louise’s birthday on the 14th September and, thankfully, she loved the blanket it took me the best part of the year to make for her!
Our Aedan has moved to his halls of residence in preparation for starting his university experience – a nerve wracking time for all concerned as it’ll be the first time he’s lived independently even if the Halls are only a short way from home – at least it’ll be easy for him to get his washing done and a bit of scran when his student loan runs low! 😂😂 Good luck Aedan!
We’ve booked a few holidays – one to the Outer Hebrides (Lewis & Harris) for Pete’s birthday and the other to Reeth, North Yorkshire for the fireworks & my birthday in November… hurray!
I’ve had my annual trip to the Dentist (no problems – phew!) and my 10-weekly visit to the hairdressers where the only thing that has changed is the locks getting a touch greyer!
Work is going ok and there always seems to be plenty of hours available if you want them… although that said, I’ve only been offered 5 hours next week which is absolutely fine by me!
Maybe it’s because it’s a small team, but you really notice when people are off sick as there’s lots of requests that come in for people to cover extra hours… Some contracted staff don’t seem that enamoured with bank staff thinking we should be available whenever a request for extra cover goes out – as if we are sitting at home just waiting to be called… some are not shy in sharing their thoughts that’s for sure even if it’s often, inappropriately in my opinion, in front of the people we are supporting (& that’s when I’m in the room! God knows what they say when I’m not there 😂)! I try not to overthink it or let it bother me… I’m not the only bank staff worker after all and, at the end of the day, I don’t need to do the work. If it doesn’t work for the company, then I’m happy to dip out – but managers have said they are happy with how things are working & if they are happy, then so am I – after all, I enjoy it and it’s pretty easy for the most part!
We’ve had a few nice walks round the village…
Walks around the village and watching the geese fly south!
… and, like the bugs & butterflies, made the most of the weather when the sun came out…
And finally, having driven past it several times on our way to and from the Borders General Hospital, we finally made a trip to see Jedburgh Abbey & Mary Queen of Scots House…
Mary Queen of Scots House and the
Unicorn in Jedburgh town – Scotland’s national animal seen as a symbol of purity, power & untameable freedom!
I think that’s it… roll on the future! 😆 We are looking forward to seeing our friends D & J next week – safe journey you guys! Xxx
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