I kept telling myself we were allowed to travel for business purposes. I might even have stretched it with Hannah’s work in mind. Either way we had a slightly furtive trip to the Lakes.
Following last year’s success on the south coast, Hannah’s employer (alongside Hannah in the photo) is setting up a new water sports enterprise in the Lake District and is keen to engage Hannah once again. Over the weekend we had a recce of the site in what was absolutely perfect weather. We stayed in a hotel locally, which is currently allowed for work purposes, and then spent the day by Lake Windermere.
While Hannah and her boss were checking out the facilities and having a little fun on the water, Rachel and I explored the area by foot, wallowing in the glorious surroundings.
Just as we were about to leave, for the long drive home, a dog came over to us, clearly wanting some attention. It had a little bit of a limp, enjoyed some fuss and then jumped in the car! Rachel was wanting to say “it must be a sign!” but knew I’d be putting my foot down. So I asked other people in the car park if they’d lost a dog. Nobody had. I found the National Trust site office and the staff walked back to the car with me to collect the dog. I asked when they clocked off. When they said it was about 5:00pm, I looked at my watch – it was exactly 4:59pm! I am definitely NOT going soft, but I do wonder what happened to that dog.
Some progress at the Quirky Museum
Our friend Jeff has now been to fit a carpet in “my” small sitting room. We have sacrificed those lovely Victorian floorboards (which were far too drafty) for a nice light grey fitted carpet.
Our lady gardener’s partner has been to install some new gates at the side of the garden, along with some trellis. Helps us to feel a little more secure and finishes an obvious gap. He’s done a jolly good job.
The plot thickens on the windows. We have now had two people come to see them who have both advised us to keep the windows and not buy new windows from them. This is something we are feeling relieved to hear. So the current thinking is to restore the existing windows and, some how, make them a little more energy efficient. This could be achieved either through secondary double glazing or perhaps replacing the existing paper-thin glass with some specialist glass. It doesn’t look as if we are going to make a decision by the end of the month but at least we are making progress.
The boiler. The time switch as stopped working and now this really does mean business! We have already more-or-less decided to replace the 40 year old floor standing boiler with a more modern system. The normal boiler man was dragging his feet and I had asked our old neighbour if he’s be interested in looking at the job. Both are now interested and soon we hope to have some options to weigh up. This is on the basis of using gas as the fuel and before we rush into this too fast, I just wonder about any alternatives but it’s hard to know where to start on this!