autumnal

i've had a cold for the last almost two weeks so haven't been running. tonight i went for a walk instead (still sniffling). it was beautifully misty and atmospheric - the nights are drawing in and the air was damp-ish but not actually wet. it smelled of chimney smoke and the sea. the beauty of autumn comes in many guises...

n has started 12 hour shifts at work so i have evenings more or less to myself for awhile. i miss him dreadfully but i am finding the new kitchen *quite* consoling! tonight is brass band practice so that will keep me occupied. aptly, we're doing a version of eric carmen's 'all by myself' (a song i have hated ever since i had a roommate who played it on endless repeat whilst bemoaning the loss of her knuckle-headed hockey-playing boyfriend. i always think - no wonder - going on like that.) however i think tonight the dreaded christmas music will come out. the whole band will groan but secretly i love it. beats the hell out of 'all my myself' at any rate.

bring it on!

roasties

the house smells of roast potatoes. roast potatoes roasting, my friends, in our new kitchen. even though there are still plumbing issues, and the house looks pretty much as you would expect from 5 weeks of builders, and i have a dreadful cold, and there is so much to sort out and clean and put away that it feels like we've just moved house - i can truly say it is well with my soul.

space

ah my poppets - do you know what this is?

this, my darlings, is our living room with no kitchen cabinets leaving only the narrowest of corridors to squeeze through. this, after almost four weeks (4 WEEKS!) feels like insane luxury. this means that eventually, someday, maybe even before i grow old and frail, we will have a kitchen again.

things have been delayed. of course they have. this is britain. the electrician who was supposed to come on monday postponed until wednesday. on wednesday he did come but said he couldn't do the work till the next monday as we needed a whole new set of circuit breakers or something electric-y like that. the next monday he postponed until tuesday and didn't finish until wednesday. just like that - 6 working days lost. 6 no-kitchen-washing-dishes-in-the-bathtub-banging-head-on-stairs-trying-to-avoid-fridge-in-the-entryway-oh-my-god-this-house-has-gone-feral days.

he left this:

which when we came home last night after work was magically transformed into this:

there is much to do but we now live not only in hope but in an actual living room.